Integrated Computer-Aided Manufacturing

Integrated Computer-Aided Manufacturing (ICAM) was an initiative managed by the United States Air Force at the Wright-Patterson AFB Materials Laboratory, as a part of their Technology Modernization efforts, specifically the Computers in Manufacturing (CIM) initiative.

History

Dennis E. Wisnosky and Dan L. Shunk are recognized as co-founders of the ICAM program. Wisnosky is now the Chief Technical Officer of the United States Department of Defense Business Mission Area within the office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Business Transformation.

quote|Dan Shunk and I founded the USAF ICAM program in 1976. At a critical point in the programs, I was asked, "Exactly how are you going to get from the factory to process and integrate all functions in between?"The factory, center, cell, station process concept was born. We published it as an upside-down pyramid-a wedge-- and focused all the factory on process.|Dennis Wisnosky|Naperville, IL.

Joseph Harrington's second book "Understanding the Manufacturing Process" (ISBN 978-0824771706) broadened the concept of CIM to include the entire manufacturing company. Harrington considered manufacturing a "monolithic function". This book discussed how the functions could interact as a seamless whole. Harrington was helpful to Wisnosky and Shunk in designing the USAF's ICAM program in the mid-70's, and their work, in turn, influenced Harrington's second book.

The ICAM program was visionary in showing that a new approach was necessary to achieve integration in manufacturing firms. Wisnosky and Shunk developed a "wheel" to illustrate the architecture of their ICAM project and to show the various elements that had to work together. Wisnosky and Shunk were among the first to understand the web of interdependencies needed for integration. Their work represents the first major step in shifting the focus of manufacturing from a series of sequential operations to parallel processing.

The ICAM program has spent over $100 million to develop tools, techniques, and processes to support manufacturing integration and has influenced the CIM project efforts of many companies. The Air Force's ICAM program recognizes the role of data as central to any integration effort. "Data is to be common and shareable across functions." The concept still remains ahead of its time, because most major companies will not seriously begin to attack the data architecture challenge until well into the 90s. The ICAM program also recognizes the need for ways to analyze and document the major activities performed within the manufacturing establishment. Thus, from ICAM came the IDEFs, the standard for modeling and analysis in management and business improvement efforts. IDEF means ICAM DEFinition.

References

* Charles Savage, 1996, "Fifth Generation Management, Dynamic Teaming, Virtual Enterprising and Knowledge Networking", page 184, , ISBN 0750697016, Butterworth-Heinemann.