We already had important capabilities for serving the existing industrial markets of this country. For years, General Electric has led in the automation of major industries like steel and paper. We developed the ability to automate job shop operations with such innovations as numerical controls for machine tools and programmable controls for assembly operations, and our factories served as major laboratories for trying out a great variety of new manufacturing techniques and equipment. GE's Information Services Company offers a comprehensive package of software and consulting services that can coordinate the whole flow of events involved in running a business - from order entry to factory scheduling to customer billing. But galloping technology left some holes in our ability to be a leading supplier of advanced production systems.
Advanced production starts with a new way of designing products.
An engineer takes ideas right out of his head and sees them in full color on a screen. He can inspect his design from any angle, change it, stress it and then electronically command a variety of machines on the factory floor to produce it - all of this without generating a scrap of paper. That's where Calma comes in. Another missing link to the factory of the future was robotics. These are machines that can cut, paint, weld, or assemble components or total products.