FACTORY COMMUNICATION: MAP PROMISES TO PULL THE PIECES TOGETHER.

A set of factory networking guidelines set forth by General Motors Corp. (Detroit, Mich. ), MAP aims to let intelligent factory entities like robots, computers, machine tools, and programmable controllers communicate painlessly and with true plug-in compatibility - regardless of what company made which piece. MAP is GM's answer to moving from fixed to flexible automation, a move necessary to keep it - and many other companies - competitive. The momentum behind MAP reaches beyond the factory floor and into engineering labs and management offices. In fact, MAP has spawned the Technical Office Protocol, or TOP, which Boeing Computer Services Co. (Seattle) developed to interconnect engineering workstations, computers, and peripherals.