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The Role of Sensors and Contr ol Technology in CIM

FIGURE 5.2 Marketing relationships. 235

Customer order servicing involves entering and tracking cus-
tomer orders. This can be for standard products or custom-designed
products. Other customer order servicing activities include provid-
ing product quotations, checking customer credit, pricing product,
allocating order quantities, and selecting shipments from distribution
centers.
Input to this area includes order and forecast data from market-
ing or directly from customers as well as available-to-promise data
from production planning. Output can include allocation of all orders,
quotations for custom products, communication with production
engineering regarding custom products, order consideration, and
shipping releases. Customer service will significantly improve
through electronic data interchange (EDI).

5.3.2 Engineering and Research
The engineering and research areas of an enterprise can be broken
down into separate activities (Fig. 5.3). Each of these has its own spe-
cial needs, tools, and relationships to other areas.
The research activities include investigating and developing new
materials, products, and process technology. Information processing
needs include complex analyses, extensive texts, imaging, graphics,
and videos.
Research input comes from such outside research sources as uni-
versities, trade journals, and laboratory reports. Then, research must