Affiliations: Institut für Werkzeugmaschinen und Fertigungstechnik, Technische Universität Carolo Wilhelmina, Langer Kamp 19B, 3300 Braunschweig, Germany
Abstract: Production is the foundation of value addition in industry. Technical developments in the economic centres of the world and above all within the Triad, the economic territories of Europe, the United States and Japan, have brought about prosperity and freedom of movement. On closer inspection of these economic territories, we state that there are considerable changes regarding their position in competition, the reasons for which are not to be found in the different cultural and basic conditions, but are due to the methods of industrial production and newer methods of organization. Far Eastern enterprises have clearly better positions in competition, particularly compared to European enterprises. Changes in production engineering due to new technologies also always effect our work. At the moment, electronics has a structure-changing influence. Never before have we been able to process information and accelerate production handling so fast as is possible today. The computer-controlled production releases new potentials and opens up new paths for the design of flexible and autonomous production concepts which in joint condition can be applied European-wide. If a linkage of these production concepts with the methodical approaches of an optimized production can be realized successfully, high efficiency reserves will be activated. Computer-controlled production also demands an adaptation to the different requirements of people. As it was possible in the past to achieve compatibility of labour and technology, there have to be possibilities in the future to harmonize production with environment.
