Computer-Assisted Design/Computer-Assisted Manufacturing
Translating design into practice is the very definition of industry, and management thought they could use computers and automation to handle a lot of the steps, especially those that required expensive and sometimes quarrelsome workers. CAD/CAM has proven an intense impetus for computer development, pushing hard for faster processing, better imaging, and better, more complicated data storage. It's corporate, and they have the money. A lot of this has filtered back to less intensive uses, giving new toys to masses who hadn't yet realized they wanted them.
This file created with Hypertype 2.2 by Simon St.Laurent