Since the advent of the punched card and tape of the 1900s by Hollerith and then IBM and others, , automated production has slowly progressed to include robotics and NCT technology.with IOT (Internet of Things). Punched cards and tape are now relics of the past. Newer technologies include optical character recognition and voice recognition, with possible transcription to keyboard characters.

Now, with Internet connectivity and remote linking of machines and factories, the scale up of operations has increased exponentially by leaps and bounds, following Moore's Law.

The new engineering curricula now include CIM and robotics as a subject at the UG level, but since machine level and NC programming are often required , the subjects are not compulsory. However it is more than requiring a superficial knowledge, since the field is necessary or essential in practice.