Production control: Current developments and future trends

Manufacturing industry is going through a period of unprecedented change as a result of the developments in micro-electronic technology. This is bringing about a transformation not only in hardware, in the form of computer-aided manufacturing, but in the manner in which production is organised and controlled.It is in the latter connection that the present paper sets out to review current developments and future trends. In particular the machine readable bar-code is seen as a key element in extending computerised control to cover not only the machines, but tools, materials and parts and their movement in the development of fully integrated manufacturing systems.As the move towards automation gathers pace it is forecast that manufacturing industry will become more process industry like in form, with consequences for the way in which production is organised and controlled.Finally consideration is given to the manner in which these current developments in the field of production are giving rise to a structural alteration in industrial labour requirements in which, in the future, fewer people will be required but on highly enriched work tasks.