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Flexible Manufacturing Systems and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing
Many manufacturers have changed their basic manufacturing philosophy in the past few decades. Causes of change include: (1) automated equipment and a cellularplant layout, (2) computer hardware and software technology, and (3) new manufacturing systems and philosophies such as JIT and activity-based management.
Traditionally, most manufacturing firms employed long production runs to make thousands of identical models of the same products; this process was encouragedby the idea of economies of scale. After each run, the machines would be stoppedand a slow and expensive setup would be made for the next massive production run to begin. Now, an entirely new generation of manufacturing known as flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) is being developed.
An FMS involves a network of robots and material conveyance devices monitored and controlled by computers that allows for rapid production and responsiveness to changes in production needs. Two or more FMSs connected via a host computer and an information networking system are generally referred to as computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM). The dimensions of a traditional manufacturing system with an FMS. Although an FMS is typically associated with short-volume production runs, many companies have also begun to use CIM for high-volume lines.
