Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) is adopted not only by large companies but also by medium and small companies. Personal computers diffuse mainly in the field of OA and are now indispensable to office business. FA personal computers, developed by adding FA specialty to OA personal computer functions, have brought a great change in business and application technology in the field of FA.
This paper describes the background of personal computer popularization and recent trends of FA personal computer technology.

Diversified market needs and a shortage of labor push the positive introduction of FA systems. The increasing use of FA personal computers is expected with the downsizing of computers and the diffusion of LAN.
To meet these social needs, Fuji Electric has carried out a full model change of FA personal computers and added a new model for built-in use. The company has further improved the environment to install full-scale, real-time systems with FA personal computers.
The paper gives an outline of these improvements.

As distributed-system technology was developed and computer downsizing was advanced, small-and medium-scale CIM (mini-CIM) with personal computers attracted attention and has rapidly diffused. Fuji Electric's 32-bit, high-performance, high-reliability FA personal computers are an essential system component to solve various problems to realize CIM.
This paper describes problems in building CIM, the concept of FA personal computer system installation (mini-CIM) to solve these problems, and an example of system configuration.

PROMIZ is a supporting tool for production-system simulation and scheduling for production engineers, which was developed on the basis of supporting tool ΦNET for installing general-purpose physical distribution systems. PROMIZ runs with a FA personal computer and is particularly improved in easiness to understand and use.
This paper describes the features of PROMIZ, simulation procedure for production systems, and an example of application to a printed-circuit board production line. This tool reduces time required for simulation to one third of the time with ΦNET.

The standardization of small warehouses is in progress with the diffusion of automated warehouses. This paper describes a management package software for standard small automated warehouses with Fuji Electric's FA personal computer. The features of this package are that users can easily select setting corresponding to the kind of a warehouse, the number of cranes, the number of racks, and working condition and that it is so designed that a fault can be restored quickly.

This system is a programmable, unmanned carrier control system using Fuji Electric's FA personal computer. Its feature are
(1) A user can a travel control program only by inputting a travel plan in a conversational mode, so he can easily make his own system when the system is introduced or shop layout is changed after it is introduced.
(2) The hardware and software (packaged) are reliable. We expect that the system will be widely used in various fields as a main component of Fuji Electric's FA systems.

In recent Japanese manufacturing industries, the change and diversification of consumers' senses have increasingly compelled multikind, small-lot, or variable-kind variable-quantity production.
Manufacturers have introduced or intend to introduce FA systems to rationalize production and reduce cost.
This paper gives an outline of digital numerical control system "NC Musubi No Kami" out of Fuji Electric's FA systems and an example of its introduction.

This paper introduces an outline of an inspection network system incorporating an FA personal computer, quality control supporting package JUSE-QCAS^*2 OS/2 that runs on Japanese MS^*1 OS/2, and examples of application.
The examples contain (1) Application to a shipment inspection process, (2) Application to an intermediate process in a production line, (3) Adding a function of process analysis to the existing system.
*1MS: a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation, USA
*2JUSE-QCAS: A product of The Institute of Japanese Union of Scientist & Engineers

Recent CIM mainly performs centralized data processing and distributed manufacturing. Distributed manufacturing makes it difficult for an individual manufacturer to complete a total system. Then, an FA personal computer that can meet general-purpose networks and can perform real-time multitask control is an essential component for distributed manufacturing to install a system.
This paper introduces a case of the first full-scale FA personal computer application to a manufacturing control system among the small and medium systems of machining and assembly industries.

Digital relays have been used for transmission line protective relays, transformer protective relays, and so on, and Fuji Electric has supplied a lot of those units. On the basis of these experiences, the company has developed a digital bus protective relay system that requires the highest reliability among substation devices.
This paper introduces the configuration of the bus protection system, new technology, and the result of verification tests. New technology against CT saturation is particularly detailed.