This book provides the most advanced, comprehensive, and balanced coverage on the market of the technical and engineering aspects of automated production systems. It covers all the major cutting-edge technologies of production automation and material handling, and how these technologies are used to construct modern manufacturing systems.Manufacturing Operations; Industrial Control Systems; Sensors, Actuators, and Other Control System Components; Numerical Control; Industrial Robotics; Discrete Control Using Programmable Logic Controllers and Personal Computers; Material Transport Systems; Storage Systems; Automatic Data Capture; Single Station Manufacturing Cells; Group Technology and Cellular Manufacturing; Flexible Manufacturing Systems; Manual Assembly Lines; Transfer Lines and Similar Automated Manufacturing Systems; Automated Assembly Systems; Statistical Process Control; Inspection Principles and Practices; Inspection Technologies; Product Design and CAD/CAM in the Production System; Process Planning and Concurrent Engineering; Production Planning and Control Systems; and Lean Production and Agile Manufacturing.For anyone interested in Automation, Production Systems, and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing.

MIKELL P. GROOVER is Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at Lehigh University, where he also serves as Director of the Manufacturing Technology Laboratory. He holds the following degrees all from Lehigh: B.A. (1961) in Arts and Science, B.S. (1962) in Mechanical Engineering, M.S. (1966) and Ph.D. (1969) in Industrial Engineering. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Pennsylvania (since 1972). His industrial experience includes full-time employment at Eastman Kodak Company as a Manufacturing Engineer. Since joining Lehigh, he has done consulting, research, and project work for a number of industrial companies including Ingersoll-Rand, Air Products & Chemicals, Bethlehem Steel, and Hershey Foods.

His teaching and research areas include manufacturing processes, metal cutting theory, automation and robotics, production systems, material handling, facilities planning, and work systems. He has received a number of teaching awards, including the Albert Holzman Outstanding Educator Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). His publications include over 75 technical articles and papers which have appeared in Industrial Engineering, IIE Transactions, NAMRC Proceedings, ASME Transactions, IEEE Spectrum, International Journal of Production Systems, Encyclopaedia Britannica, SME Technical Papers, and others. Professor Groover's avocation is writing textbooks on topics in manufacturing and automation. His previous books are used throughout the world and have been translated into French, German, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. His book Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing received the 1996 IIE Joint Publishers Award and the 1996 M. Eugene Merchant Manufacturing Textbook Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

Dr. Groover is a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and North American Manufacturing Research Institute (NAMRI). He is a Fellow of IIE and SME.