In the latter half of the 20th century, forces have conspired to make the human community, at last, global. The easing of tensions between major nations, the expansion of trade to worldwide markets, widespread travel and cultural exchange, pervasive high-speed communications and automation, the explosion of knowledge, the streamlining of business, and the adoption of flexible methods have changed the face of manufacturing itself, and of research and education in manufacturing. The acceptance of the continuous improvement process as a means for organizations to respond quickly and effectively to swings in the global market has led to the demand for individuals educated in a broad range of cultural, organizational, and technical fields and capable of absorbing and adapting required knowledge and training throughout their careers. No longer will manufacturing research and education focus on an industrial sector or follow a national trend, but rather will aim at enabling international teams of companies to cooperate in rapidly designing, prototyping, and manufacturing products. The successful enterprise of the 21st century will be characterized by an organizational structure that efficiently responds to customer demands and changing global circumstances, a corporate culture that empowers employees at all levels and encourages constant communication among related groups, and a technological infrastructure that fully supports process improvement and integration. In changing itself to keep abreast of the broader transformation in manufacturing, the enterprise must look first at its organization and culture, and thereafter at supporting technologies.

The second of a seven-volume series, The Literature of the Agricultural Sciences, this book analyzes the trends in published literature of agricultural engineering during the past century with emphasis on the last forty years. It uses citation analysis and other bibliometric techniques to identify the most important journals, report series, and monographs for the developed countries as well as those in the Third World.

In 1985 IFIP celebrated its silver jubilee and a quarter century of IFIP publications. This IFIP Bibliography lists and categorizes all of the published papers presented at IFIP conferences and congresses as well as further papers published in the name of IFIP in the first 25 years of existence. The Bibliography describes a comprehensive family of papers in the field of computer sciences, or informatics; it can be seen as an abstract monument for the volunteers who organized the events, composed the programmes, gave the papers and discussed and finally submitted the manuscripts; and it provides an overview of a quarter century of development, not only of a science and a profession, but also of a vocabulary and a language. The indexes list papers according to several different categories, enabling the reader to readily locate his source of interest. These indexes include listing by subject, by editor, according to the date of the event at which they were presented, under the name of the city in which the event was held and according to their TC/WG categorisation. Informatics is still a science of the future: much has been achieved, much more remains to be done, not only for the purely technical advance, but also for its humanistic and societal dimensions. This bibliography, therefore, does not close the subject - it is merely a milestone on a long way to go.