This is a two-part paper exploring the use of multimedia and hypermedia in computer integrated manufacturing (CIM). Encouraging results in applying the technologies are reported from various fields of the scientific community. Manufacturing, however, is not as active to respond, By surveying the current research and applications of multimedia/hypermedia, the paper attempts to explain the unique issues of deploying these technologies in solving manufacturing problems. It has become widely accepted that the future of manufacturing organizations will be information-oriented, knowledge-driven and much of the daily operations will be automated around a global information network that connects everyone together. Clearly, we need tools for information retrieval and knowledge organization in such an information environment, Integrating the hypermedia concept with the vision on the future of manufacturing, the paper also discusses the implications for manufacturing research. In Part I, we cover the general introduction to multimedia and hypermedia, and this is followed by a review on the state-of-the-art applications in manufacturing, In Part II, the potentials of hypermedia for manufacturing are identified, and the corresponding issues discussed. Finally, our proposed concept on the use of hypermedia for total quality management (TQM) is introduced.
