Page 26 - Sensors and Control Systems in Manufacturing

Foreword

he ongoing revolution in manufacturing, well into its third
decade, has now (albeit somewhat belatedly) become recog-
Tnized and joined by government, industry, and academe in
this country. It is based on a number of concepts which have made
their way into the professional jargon and have been brought to the
public’s awareness by technical and business writers: concurrent
engineering, flexible manufacturing, just-in-time inventory, agile
manufacturing, automation, and quality engineering. Each of these
are ingredients that contribute to the ultimate goal, which, simply
stated, is to achieve the highest quality products at the lowest possi-
ble cost, and to do so in a timely fashion. A tall order, but one on
which depends the welfare of a host of individual companies and,
even more importantly, the economic health of entire countries, with
political and social implications beyond overstatement.
A principal ingredient in the process, perhaps the most important
one, is the achievement and implementation of error-free production,
and at the same time, a guarantor of quality and a minimizer of waste
of materials and labor. At first impression, the term “error-free” will
sound like a pious ideal, to be striven for but impossible to attain. A
moment of reflection will persuade, however, that the aim need not
be a philosophical abstraction. In the final analysis, it is the end prod-
uct alone that must fall within the range of prescribed tolerances, not
each of the many steps in the production process. That is to say, given
within the context of computer-integrated manufacturing a sufficient
array of monitors distributed throughout the workspace—i.e., sen-
sors (and appropriate means to feed back and respond to, in real time,
the information gathered by them) and control systems which can
identify, rectify, or remove defects in the course of production—every
item that reaches the end of the production line will be, ipso facto,
acceptable.
Professor and Chairman Sabrie Soloman labored hard to bring
forth the book before the reader, which contains not only an exposi-
tion of sensors and controls, but a host of invaluable asides, comments,
and extended discourses on key topics of modern manufacturing.

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