Summary of lectures for students of specialty 50401 of all forms of education . - Tula: TULGU, 2009. - 89c. The fundamental transformations of production at the present stage are dictated by the high rates of scientific and technological progress in the world, the social requirements of society, the essential of which is not so much an increase in the quantity as in the range and quality of products. Thus, in modern mechanical engineering, the serial type of production will inevitably prevail, the flexibility and efficiency of which is based on the integrated automation of the product design process, technological preparation of production and the actual manufacture of this product. High-efficiency automation of the production process contributes to the high competitiveness of the enterprise in the conditions of market economic relations .