The automation of decision-making supports for various manufacturing businesses in material flows have been introduced in previous chapters. An automation to specific manufacturing business used to be called an island of automation. The concept of islands of automation was coined in the 1980s to describe the situations where different automation solutions are isolated from each other without an integration or even communications. Since the network becomes so prevalent today, communication is no longer an issue. However, the concept of islands of automation is still used for cases where companies or organizations use automation solutions in a limited fashion without an...