Present status and future of computer-aided technologies from vehicle design to manufacturing

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://www.inderscience.com/search/index.php?action=record&rec_id=62661 Byline: Toshiaki Takaki, Masahiro Hirao Computer-aided technologies are being actively developed and introduced in the car industry, and are expected to have an increasingly wide range of applications. Among the technologies, this paper focuses on CAD/CAM, CAE, CAT and FA, describing their current status and discussing the direction the technologies will take in response to the progress of the technologies relating to database, network, artificial intelligence and computers. In this paper, computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) is depicted as a future image of computer-aided technologies. To make CIM a reality, reorganisation of work processes will take on increased importance in addition to improvements in computer systems.