*Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems

Integration has become a self-evident goal in today’s manufacturing enterprises. Since the late 1970’s, numerous major efforts have been launched worldwide to develop, employ, and deploy information technology for integration as a strategic weapon to compete in the global marketplace. This paper discusses a unique approach to the integration problem regarding metadata management, global query and concurrent systems administration. This approach has been shown to be effective in a prototype system, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Metadatabase System. The metadatabase model incorporates both data and knowledge in order to accomplish information integration across manufacturing functions. The system’s primary components and major functionalities are discussed and illustrated in detail through the use of an extended example of a pilot manufacturing system. 1