Database considerations in manufacturing systems integration

This paper deals with ideas that could form a basis for manufacturing integration. In recent times more attention is being paid to the idea of applying artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to manufacturing. However, very little attention is being paid to the proper use of these techniques. This research work explores three basic ideas: 1. 1. Applications of the entity-relationship approach to knowledge representation. 2. 2. The basic philosophy of expert database systems and 3. 3. Integration of manufacturing systems from the above two concepts. The approaches for 1 and 2 are explained with actual implementation experiences, while a framework for integration is proposed from a more philosophical perspective.