一、翻译（共4小题,每题25.0分，共100.0分）翻译
第1 题：
China is in the midst of a developmen tal stage where advanced management
knowledge and techniques and advanced industrial auto mation technology and
solutions are fundamental and necessary el ements for China’s sustained growth and
global competitiveness.
There is no one good definition of what i ndustrial automation is. Perhaps the best
definition is a simple one: industrial automation is the use of electronics to control and
monitor a process or machinery. While ther e are many steps that China must take to
ensure the appropriate development of its industrial base and supporting infrastructure,
the utilization of advanced industrial automation is a critical step. Increases in
productivity and efficiency are not possi ble without a high le vel of industrial
automation.
If we were to look at the growth in productivity of U.S. industry from the
mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, two pivotal factors stand out. The first is a revolution in
management techniques and consequent restructuring of the American corporation.
Management became results-focused, flatter and more distributed, with great
participation by the work force.
The second pivotal factor was the infusion of advanced industrial automation into
manufacturing and other automated processes. Together these two elements led to
significant increases in produc tivity and efficiency. These increases led the way to
sustained growth in the U.S. economy, so that by the late 1980s and the early 1990s
the U.S. economy was growing faster than that of Japan for the first time in several
decades.
China, which is now at its own critic al industrial and management systems
crossroads, can borrow from some of thes e experiences. China has an unparalleled
opportunity to adopt advanced industrial automation as th is technology moves into the
new millennium and into the information era.
The future of industrial automation will be a networked future with a great reliance
on wireless connectivity. Utilization of effective and open networks such as
DeviceNet, ControlNet and Ethernet/IP, with their ability to connect to the Internet,
allows for continuous control and feedback from the factory floor to the management
office and beyond.
The factory floor and the management office can be linked continuously and in
real time with suppliers, sales force and cu stomers. Every part of this chain will be
able to monitor, input to and adjust the manufacturing process and supporting
activities.
The future of industrial automation will also very much be linked to software that
is an open platform and is multifunctional. The right software package provides
tremendous flexibility and agility in the manufacturing process.
Industrial software provides the operator interface and gateway from the factory
floor to the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and even to the Internet to
provide seamless flow of data and information so that the “Information Enabled
Enterprise” can be managed in a more flexible, integrated, and efficient manner.
（责任编辑:秩名）
