Automating it all: By automating the transfers and transforms of data, as well as of parts and materials, an enterprise can satisfy conflicting objectives

If industry produced only 36-inch buggy whips or black model-Z cars with 70-horsepower engines, there would be little need for data-driven automation. Cams, control systems, and fixed-sequence conveyors would have “data” permanently embedded in them, as would the unchanging dies used for traditional high-volume, hard-tooled automation.