This article is an attempt to survey the vast literature on flexibility in manufacturing that has accumulated over the last 10 to 20 years. The survey begins with a brief review of the classical literature on flexibility in economics and organization theory, which provides a background for manufacturing flexibility. Several kinds of flexibilities in manufacturing are then defined carefully along with their purposes, the means to obtain them, and some suggested measurements and valuations. Then we examine the interrelationships among the several flexibilities. Various empirical studies and analytical/optimization models dealing with these flexibilities are reported and discussed. The article concludes with suggestions for some possible future research directions.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=1080305

Flexibility in Manufacturing: A Survey

A visual interactive decision support framework designed to aid the decision-maker, typically top management, in selecting the most appropriate technology and design when planning a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is described. The framework can be used in the preinvestment stage of the planning process, after the decision in principle has been made to build an FMS. First, both qualitative and quantitative criteria are used to narrow the set of alternative system configurations under consideration down to a small number of most attractive candidates. After this prescreening phase, a multiobjective programming model is formulated for each remaining configuration, allowing the manager to explore and evaluate the costs and benefits of various different scenarios for each configuration separately by experimenting with different levels of batch sizes and production volumes. The system uses visual interaction with the decision-maker, graphically displaying the relevant trade-offs between such relevant perfo...

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Selecting a flexible manufacturing system using multiple criteria analysis

SUMMARY Evolving from cost, quality, and delivery (time), flexibility is becoming a key dimension of firms’ competitive priorities. The need to explicitly consider flexibility makes it necessary to develop measurements for various types of manufacturing flexibility and analyse their strategic and/or economic value in improving the performance of a manufacturing system. This paper takes a first step in investigating the relationship between flexibility measurements and system performance in the flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) environment. After a brief review of the flexibility concept, we suggest several alternative measures for the assessment of machine flexibility and routeing flexibility—two of the most important flexibility types discussed in the literature. Two examples are then given to illustrate the capability and applicability of the proposed measures. We further conduct an experiment to investigate FMS performance with various levels of flexibility. The results of this study indicate that: ...

An examination of flexibility measurements and performance of flexible manufacturing systems

Flexibility can be defined as the ability to respond effectively to the ever-changing and increasing needs of the customer. For this demand to be satisfied, flexibility should be built into the total chain of acquisition, processing, and distribution stages. As a result, there is an increasing interest in flexibility and flexibility enabling mechanisms/parameters to achieve the best strategy for obtaining the right and desired output. Although quite a number of flexibility definitions and mechanisms can be found in the literature, flexibility remains poorly understood and utilized in practice. That is due to the lack of standardization in the terminology about the flexibility definitions and mechanisms.



This article presents the finding of an extensive literature survey to determine the Intra flexibility mechanisms/parameters. These mechanisms/parameters are then classified, according to their contribution to the supply chain stages and their interaction with Inter Flexibility mechanisms (e.g., Organizational structure flexibility, Technology flexibility, Information system flexibility, and Human resource flexibility). In addition, the crucial role of human factors and its relationship with flexibility mechanisms are investigated, and related flexibility mechanisms are identified. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The role of human factors in flexibility management: A survey

The paper presents a cost-efficiency model of a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) in order to analyze and make a tradeoff between flexibility, capacity, and to select a proper system. The efficiency model is based on the time sharing concept, where manufacturing time (machine resources) is allocated to different parts (batches). The allocation is dependent on the complexity and other features of different parts. A simple cost model is included, taking into account different cost factors, such as machine, tool, software, planning costs, and systems features. The model is implemented into a multi-objective programming system to make tradeoffs and analyze different alternatives. The system can be used in an interactive way, so that the decision maker can compare different feasible solutions, or in order to optimize different multi-criteria value functions. Relative performance indicators and different value functions have been included. A numerical example demonstrates the system properties. The model and the interactive system form the basis for understanding decision making on FMS investments as well as for analyzing which techno-economic factors have an impact on the benefits of FMS and company-level decision making.

A.K. Alabyan

Papers

Interactive Analysis of FMS Productivity and Flexibility