The Computer and Automated Systems Association(CASA)of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers(SME)of the United States，also known as the organizer of the CIM-Fair and the Autofact Congress.
As early as 1980，the CASA / SME published a presentation of computer integrated manufacturing in order to provide a common set of terms for its members.In Germany，a similar step was taken five years later by the AWF.The graphical representation of CIM originally published by CASA/SME is shown in Fig. 10-2.The ring surrounding the wheel represents various influencing factors(man and his degree of expertise as the human factor，productivity as the economic factor and computer technology as the technological factor)for the development of CIM.The wheel itself contains four functions，namely engineering design，manufacturing planning，production control and factory automation.If the individual functions are connected with each other and operate with a common database，an integrated system architecture is created which is represented by the hub of the wheel.
The original CIM picture of the CASA / SME has undergone a number of changes in recent years(Fig. 10-3).This development has resulted in the realization that CIM，apart from factory automation and functions indirectly related to the operational performance such as design(product / process)and production planning and control，is also linked to common business administrative tasks such as manufacturing management，strategic planning，finance，marketing and human resource management[1].
A further innovation was the addition of information resource management and comunications between the different fundctions.A common database alone therefore is insufficient for achieving integration.The all-embracing nature of the CIM wheel reflects the idea promoted by CASA / SME that CIM has to be viewed as a concept embracing the company as a whole.
In the following sections，the CIM wheel is further discussed，taking into account the current state-of-the-art in data processing applications within the individual functions.
1.The outer ring
The common business administrative tasks related to CIM are located on the outer ring of the wheel.They mainly form the connection of the company to the outside world in general.Data processing applications can be found in the most diverse areas.Most software systems applied in these areas were originally self-styled developments，which are increasingly being replaced with commercial standard software packages.Currently this software is installed primarily on mainframes.Overlaps of its functionality exist mainly with the software of the production planning and control.
2.The inner ring
On the inner ring of the wheel，the functions closely related to the operational performance of the company are situated.Data processing applications of the development and design area are computer aided design(CAD)，simulations，analysis programs such as the finite element method(FEM)as well as drawing storage and management，for instance with the help of group technology(GT).
The types of data found in this area are diverse：drawings，technical specifications，and bills of material[2].In manufacturing companies，the data itself are often in considerable disorder.Frequently there are several types of part numbers，more than one group technology system，many kinds of bills of material，a number of different CAD systems each having its own sort of computer internal representation of geometric data，etc.The applied software rarely runs on the same hardware，resulting also in a large number of different hardware systems.
The second group of applications on the inner ring of the wheel is attributed to process planning and production planning and control.It comprises tasks such as routing generation，resource planning，material requirements planning，capacity planning，order distribution and supervision，but also the planning of quality assurance(quality process and resource planning).In the USA，software in the production planning and control area mostly runs on IBM mainframes although the software itself is more often than not supplied by sundry software houses and not by IBM itself[3].As in the common business administrative area，the software packages一which at least are integrated within themselves—have a modular structure and their single components can also be bought and applied.Therefore a company rarely has purchased and installed all modules of such a package，which in turn frequently results in functional overlaps and data redundancy(one example：material requirements planning and purchasing systems).
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