This essay considers the impact that computers have had on the manufacturing sector. It explores the major changes to the manufacturing process and how these have effected conventional working practices. It also examines the advantages and disadvantages of these changes and offers a view of where the future of manufacturing might lie.

Work in the manufacturing industry is generally divided into five main sections, Management, Administration, Sales and Marketing, Production and Assembly and Design and Testing. This essay will primarily investigate the latter two sections, which are

Computer-assisted Manufacturing technologies (CAM), an extension of CAD design which determine the quantities of materials needed and instructions required to produce an item, have further changed the engineers role. Traditionally, engineers had to interpret their plans into working instructions for use on the production line and estimate quantities of raw material required.

The manufacturing industry is moving toward the adoption of a new technology, Computer-integrated Management (CIM), which combines the design and manufacturing processes with maintenance and repair schedules, quality and stock control, administration, management and business planning. Using CIM, the entire manufacturing process, from the input of raw materials, power and orders to the output of the finished product, will be controlled by computers on LANs, making extensive use of shared databases.

There is a widely held belief that the automation of the production line has resulted in both unemployment and a deskilling of the workforce. A research paper by Haskel and Heden, found that demand for unskilled labour in the UK manufacturing industry had considerably decreased as a direct result of computerisation and that even skilled labour was gradually being supplanted by machines. Other writers, such as Morton, writing for the "Economist" suggest that jobs are not disappearing, just changing, and that the workforce, in meeting the new needs of manufacturing, will learn new skills to replace the old ones. However, what is not disputed is that jobs, particularly on the production line have changed and that some skills and trades have become redundant.

Some topics in this essay:
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