Flexibility of manufacturing systems: Concepts and measurements

Abstract The issue of flexibility is assuming increasing importance in manufacturing decision making. Flexibility is important to accommodate changes in the operating environment. Manufacturing systems that are flexible can utilize the flexibility as an adaptive response to unpredictable situations. Many researchers have defined various types of manufacturing flexibility and provided methods for measuring them. In this paper we have classified the literature based on the ways researchers have defined flexibility and the approaches used in measuring it.

[1]  John A. Buzacott,et al.  Flexibility and decision making , 1990 .

[2]  Robert Valette,et al.  PSI: A Petri net based simulator for flexible manufacturing systems , 1984, European Workshop on Applications and Theory in Petri Nets.

[3]  M. Mandelbaum,et al.  Examples of Measurement of Flexibility and Adaptivity in Manufacturing Systems , 1989 .

[4]  J. D. Couger.  E pluribus computum , 1986 .

[5]  David D. Yao,et al.  Material and information flows in flexible manufacturing systems , 1985 .

[6]  S. Wheelwright,et al.  Restoring Our Competitive Edge: Competing Through Manufacturing , 1984 .

[7]  Wickham Skinner,et al.  Manufacturing: The Formidable Competitive Weapon , 1985 .

[8]  G. Hutchinson,et al.  A quantification of the value of flexibility , 1989 .

[9]  Asbjørn Rolstadås.  Flexible design of production planning systems , 1988 .

[10]  Miryam Barad,et al.  Flexibility in manufacturing systems: definitions and Petri net modelling , 1988 .

[11]  Stephen R. Rosenthal,et al.  Flexible manufacturing systems require flexible people , 1986 .

[12]  Didier Dubois,et al.  Using Petri nets to represent production processes , 1983, The 22nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[13]  Young K. Son,et al.  Economic measure of productivity, quality and flexibility in advanced manufacturing systems , 1987 .

[14]  James Lyle Peterson,et al.  Petri net theory and the modeling of systems , 1981 .

[15]  Vincent A. Mabert,et al.  Alternate Routing Strategies in Batch Manufacturing: An Evaluation , 1988 .

[16]  R. Kaplan.  Measuring manufacturing performance: a new challenge for managerial accounting research , 1983 .

[17]  Vinod Kumar,et al.  Entropic measures of manufacturing flexibility , 1987 .

[18]  Yadati Narahari,et al.  A Petri net approach to the modelling and analysis of flexible manufacturing systems , 1985 .

[19]  Joseph Sifakis,et al.  Use of Petri nets for performance evaluation , 1977, Acta Cybern..

[20]  Dragutin M. Zelenović,et al.  Flexibility—a condition for effective production systems , 1982 .

[21]  Paul M. Swamidass,et al.  Manufacturing strategy, environmental uncertainty and performance: a path analytic model , 1987 .

[22]  Mr.Briance Mascarenhas,et al.  Planning for flexibility , 1981 .

[23]  Kazuyoshi Ishii,et al.  Some ways to increase flexibility in manufacturing systems , 1985 .

[24]  Ramchandran Jaikumar,et al.  New technologies, obsolete organizations , 1988 .

[25]  R. Schonberger.  Japanese Manufacturing Techniques , 1982 .

[26]  T. Agerwala,et al.  Putting Petri nets to work , 1989 .

[27]  Jr. Mikell P. Groover.  Automation, production systems, and computer-aided manufacturing , 1980 .

[28]  Paul G. Ranky.  The design and operation of FMS , 1983 .

[29]  D. Eppink.  Planning for strategic flexibility , 1978 .

[30]  R. P. Davis,et al.  Flexible manufacturing systems: Characteristics and assessment , 1987 .

[31]  Donald Gerwin,et al.  Manufacturing flexibility in the CAM era , 1989 .

[32]  Sten-Olof Gustavsson,et al.  Flexibility and productivity in complex production processes , 1984 .

[33]  R. Jaikumar.  Postindustrial manufacturing , 1986 .

[34]  N. Slack.  Flexibility as a Manufacturing Objective , 1983 .

[35]  Percy H. Brill,et al.  On measures of flexibility in manufacturing systems , 1989 .

[36]  D. Gerwin,et al.  Do's and Dont's of Computerized Manufacturing , 1982 .

[37]  Jeffrey Miller,et al.  Flexibility: The Next Competitive Battle: The Manufacturing Futures Survey , 1989 .