Guest Editors' Introduction: Intelligent Control in the Manufacturing Supply Chain

years, with many major enhancements and extensions being announced as we go to publication. For the manufacturer, this places enormous pressures in terms of limitations on capital investment, requirements for changed machine and factory configurations, and the need to minimize stock levels. So who would be a manufacturer? Well, on a positive side, the world economy each year consumes a greater amount of manufactured goods than it did the previous year. So, despite what the newspapers say, manufacturing hasn’t declined on a global level. What this means for manufacturers is that to be successful, they must “turn their business on a dime,” adapting swiftly to product design changes, absorbing disruptions as though they were part of business as usual—all at a decreasing cost per item. For manufacturers who maintain their operations in developed economies, cost reduction generally means labor reduction, which leads to increased factory automation. But the pressure to manage continual change can also be a challenge for industrial automation and control systems. Dealing with these pressures has placed a huge strain on the computer control systems that manage the automated decision and information processes required to run a manufacturing business. Traditionally, these systems conform to a strictly specified, fixed hierarchy of decisions (for example, planning, scheduling, shop floor execution, and machine control). They originated in an era of long-steady production runs, infrequent changes to product specifications, and more understanding customers. Algorithms for planning, scheduling, and so on were designed for monthly or weekly updating at best, product processing instructions were rarely altered, and control and equipment configurations were set in place for the life of the factory. As the pace of change increased into the 1990s, it was inevitable that researchers would seek ways to develop more adaptable, responsive manufacturing-control environments. Today’s consumer is the most demanding in history. He or she requires frequent product improvements, immediate delivery, guaranteed reliability, and ever-