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Manufacturing automation protocol explained
book reviews Manufacturing automation protocol explained The MAP Report by Jack Hollingum. Published by IFS Ltd. 155pp. £75.00. This book is aimed at managers in the manufacturing industry who have responsibility for deciding computer policy in their companies. It is intended to give an understanding of what manufacturing automation protocol (MAP) is and of how it relates to computer-integrated manufacturing. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part it gives a good overview of MAP in the context of CIM and includes a useful checklist for managers considering an integration or network strategy. An interesting table demonstrates the financial benefit of installing a MAP network compared with a conventional communications system. If publicized, this alone would convince managers that MAP is the way to go. However there is some doubt as to whether the necessary devices, applications interfaces and skilled staff are easily available so that these savings could be achieved.
More technical aspects of MAP are considered in the second part of the book. This includes the elements of networking and the relationship of MAP to the open systems interconnection model proposed by the International Standards Organization. This is clearly explained with good diagrams. The General Motors planned implementation of MAP into its factories is described with the steps taken to integrate from existing proprietary networks to MAP standard networks. Inevitably the reader is left wondering what has happened since 1986 in such a fast moving technology - one of the difficulties in producing a book in high technology. The MA P-TO P organization worldwide is explained and the book succeeds in showing the complexity of the organization and hence, perhaps unintentionally, the difficulty in achieving agreement on standards. On the whole technical language has been avoided except where absolutely necessary which will be a
boon to managers struggling to understand the technology and its implications. Few MAP implementations were in place in 1986 but the MAP demonstrations which had taken place are described. One of the poor features of the book is the diagrams of these implementations which are, in some cases, so detailed that they are difficult to read. The disadvantage of any book on MAP is that it is out of date almost before it is published. Inevitably the latest developments in MAP are not covered in this book which gives the reader a feeling of frustration. The reader is left with the feeling that industry is working faster than the MAP committees in integrating systems. However, this book would be useful reference material for managers contemplating CIM. The other major disadvantage of the book is the price which at £75.00 is expensive.
S P LOW Napier College, Edinburgh
Manufacturing problems are not just technical Factory Information Systems: Design and Implementation for CIM Management and Control by John Gaylord. Published by Marcel Dekker Inc. 243pp. US$69.75. The author is on the staff of Siemens Research and Technology Laboratories, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. His career includes research, product design and manufacturing and the preface indicates that he is familiar with various industrial establishments in the USA and elsewhere. Mr Gaylord has chosen to use factory information systems (FISs) as the theme and uses the terminology to suggest an information system which is computer based. His book explores many of the features of an information system and emphasizes the approach
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that one must make if an effective information system is to be provided. Unfortunately the reader is delayed until chapter eight, the last in the book, before this is done. Some of the earlier chapters, one or two seem to be out of place, may frustrate an impatient reader who may never discover the final chapter. Fortunately I read that first. Two things occur: when is an FIS CIM, and what is the difference between establishing an effective FIS and good management practice? Is not an effective information system fundamental to an efficient competitive manufacturing enterprise? Perhaps we have forgotten one of the most basic of all management tenets; thinking about the implications of
CIM may be helping us to remember. It is certainly focusing attention on the detail of manufacturing and reinforcing the ideas that manufacturing problems are not simply technical problems but that they include major socio-technical and psychological features. In this respect the book is beneficial and will increase the awareness of manufacturing management of some of the problems they must face. Such problems cannot be over-publicized. But for CIM, the book offers only generalizations that one has read many times elsewhere.
G W SMITH Brunel University
Computer-Integrated Manufacturing Systems
More technical aspects of MAP are considered in the second part of the book. This includes the elements of networking and the relationship of MAP to the open systems interconnection model proposed by the International Standards Organization. This is clearly explained with good diagrams. The General Motors planned implementation of MAP into its factories is described with the steps taken to integrate from existing proprietary networks to MAP standard networks. Inevitably the reader is left wondering what has happened since 1986 in such a fast moving technology - one of the difficulties in producing a book in high technology. The MA P-TO P organization worldwide is explained and the book succeeds in showing the complexity of the organization and hence, perhaps unintentionally, the difficulty in achieving agreement on standards. On the whole technical language has been avoided except where absolutely necessary which will be a
boon to managers struggling to understand the technology and its implications. Few MAP implementations were in place in 1986 but the MAP demonstrations which had taken place are described. One of the poor features of the book is the diagrams of these implementations which are, in some cases, so detailed that they are difficult to read. The disadvantage of any book on MAP is that it is out of date almost before it is published. Inevitably the latest developments in MAP are not covered in this book which gives the reader a feeling of frustration. The reader is left with the feeling that industry is working faster than the MAP committees in integrating systems. However, this book would be useful reference material for managers contemplating CIM. The other major disadvantage of the book is the price which at £75.00 is expensive.
S P LOW Napier College, Edinburgh
Manufacturing problems are not just technical Factory Information Systems: Design and Implementation for CIM Management and Control by John Gaylord. Published by Marcel Dekker Inc. 243pp. US$69.75. The author is on the staff of Siemens Research and Technology Laboratories, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. His career includes research, product design and manufacturing and the preface indicates that he is familiar with various industrial establishments in the USA and elsewhere. Mr Gaylord has chosen to use factory information systems (FISs) as the theme and uses the terminology to suggest an information system which is computer based. His book explores many of the features of an information system and emphasizes the approach
186
that one must make if an effective information system is to be provided. Unfortunately the reader is delayed until chapter eight, the last in the book, before this is done. Some of the earlier chapters, one or two seem to be out of place, may frustrate an impatient reader who may never discover the final chapter. Fortunately I read that first. Two things occur: when is an FIS CIM, and what is the difference between establishing an effective FIS and good management practice? Is not an effective information system fundamental to an efficient competitive manufacturing enterprise? Perhaps we have forgotten one of the most basic of all management tenets; thinking about the implications of
CIM may be helping us to remember. It is certainly focusing attention on the detail of manufacturing and reinforcing the ideas that manufacturing problems are not simply technical problems but that they include major socio-technical and psychological features. In this respect the book is beneficial and will increase the awareness of manufacturing management of some of the problems they must face. Such problems cannot be over-publicized. But for CIM, the book offers only generalizations that one has read many times elsewhere.
G W SMITH Brunel University
Computer-Integrated Manufacturing Systems