A literature review on technologies in future small-scale intelligent manufacturing systems

Emergence of global markets forces businesses to become more flexible and adaptive to constantly changing demands and environments. In order to do so, enterprises turn towards application of newest technologies in manufacturing in order to make them intelligent. Since Small and Medium Enterprises play the central role in the domain of European manufacturing, the question arises - based on their limitations, how will SMEs succeed in adapting themselves to the change? This paper introduces and defines the term Small-scale Intelligent Manufacturing System (SIMS) and investigates the technologies that would enable such system to, not only survive, but compete on the future global scale.