Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability

The paper highlights events of manufacturing’s evolution and metamorphosis over a period of 60 years (as noted by the first author) and offers some observations on key developments and activities. It includes the reflections of professional activities of the first author and discussions of how manufacturing is evolving to accommodate the current and expected trends in manufacturing technology. Three specific software environments relative to developments in the design-to-manufacturing cycle are described. These lead into a perspective of what may now lie ahead, relative to enterprise issues, human system interactions, and the fully integrated “digital factory.”