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Management Notes On – Flexible Systems Management – For W.B.C.S. Examination.
Flexibility is a type of characteristics in management that facilitates a mixed model manufacturing system to cope up with a certain level of variations in part or product style, without having any interruption in production due to changeovers between models.Continue Reading Management Notes On – Flexible Systems Management – For W.B.C.S. Examination.
Flexibility measures the capacity to adjust to range of possible environment. In order to become flexible, a manufacturing system must possess some capabilities that include Identification of the different production units to perform the correct operation and quick changeover of operating instructions to the computer controlled production machines. Flexible manufacturing system is developed in order to gain competitive advantage in tough business environment.
A flexible manufacturing system is a manufacturing system in which there is some extent of flexibility that permits the system to react when there are changes in environment, whether predicted or unpredicted. The notion of Flexible manufacturing systems is explained as the most automated and technologically sophisticated of the machine cell types used to implement cellular manufacturing. This system has multiple automated stations and is capable of variable routings among stations, while its flexibility allows it to operate as a mixed model system. The term flexible manufacturing systems emerged in the decade of 1960s when robots, programmable controllers, and computerized numerical controls brought a controlled setting to the factory floor in the form of numerically-controlled and direct-numerically-controlled machines. In many part, flexible manufacturing system is restricted to firms involved in batch production or job shop environments, such as lathes, milling machines, or drill, presses, are all costly and may not reach to full capacity. Flexible manufacturing systems offer the batch manufacturer with another option that can make batch manufacturing just as competent and productive as mass production.
This flexibility has two categories. The first category, machine flexibility include the system’s capacity to be changed to produce new product types, and ability to change the order of operations executed on a part. The second category is termed as routing flexibility, which comprises of the ability to use multiple machines to perform the same operation on a part, as well as the system’s ability to absorb large-scale changes, such as in volume, capacity, or capability. Routing flexibility can be vital to deal with different kinds of volume demands for different part variants and to maintain through-put capabilities in terms of machine breakdowns. The FMS concept integrates many of the advanced technologies including flexible automation.
Most flexible manufacturing system consist of three main systems. The work machines which are often automated CNC machines are connected by a material handling system to optimize parts flow and the central control computer which controls material movements and machine flow. Flexible manufacturing system is a group of manufacturing cells linked by an automatic material handling system and a central computer. It manufactures a mix of piece-part types while being flexible enough to consecutively manufacture different piece-part type mixes without costly, time-consuming, changeover requirement. It is a medium size batch production system.
Basic components of Flexible manufacturing system as follows:
Workstations: These are basically CNC tools that performs machining process on various parts.
Automated material handling and storage system: They are used to transport work parts between the processing stations, sometimes integrating storage into function.
Computer control system: It is used to synchronize the processing stations and material handling in Flexible manufacturing system.
Flexible manufacturing system can be differentiated by the manner they perform, as either processing operations or assembly operations. Flexible manufacturing system are custom-built so that company can find a comprehensive range of system that have been implemented to differing projects. Each Flexible manufacturing system is customized and exclusive. Flexible manufacturing system is basically, the number of machines it contains; or whether it is a dedicated or random-order FMS, in terms of the parts it processes.
There are different types of flexibility that are showed by manufacturing systems:
- Machine Flexibility. It is the ability to adjust a given machine in the system to a wide range of production operations and part styles. The greater the range of operations and part styles of the machine, greater will be the machine flexibility. The various factors on which machine flexibility depends are setup or changeover time, ease with which part-programs can be downloaded to machines, tool storage capacity of machines, and skill and versatility of workers in the systems.
- Production Flexibility. It is the range of part styles that can be produced on the systems. The range of part styles that can be produced by a manufacturing system at reasonable cost and time is determined by the process envelope. It depends on many factors that include machine flexibility of individual stations, range of machine flexibilities of all stations in the system.
- Mix Flexibility. It is explained as the facility to change the product mix while maintaining the same total production quantity that is, producing the same parts only in different proportions. It is also known as process flexibility. Mix flexibility gives protection against market changeability by accommodating changes in product mix due to the use of shared resources. However, high mix variations may result in requirements for a greater number of tools, fixtures, and other resources. Mixed flexibility depends on factors such as similarity of parts in the mix, machine flexibility, and relative work content times of parts produced.
- Product Flexibility. It is an ability to change over to a new set of products economically and rapidly in response to the varying market requirements. The change over time includes the time for designing, planning, tooling, and fixturing of new products introduced in the manufacturing line-up. Product Flexibility depends upon factors like relatedness of new part design with the existing part family. Off-line part program preparation and machine flexibility
- Routing Flexibility. It is described as ability to produce parts on alternative workstation in case of equipment breakdowns, tool failure, and other disruptions at any particular station. It helps in increasing output, in the presence of exterior changes such as product mix, engineering changes, or new product introductions. Factors which decides routing flexibility include similarity of parts in the mix, similarity of workstations, and common tooling.
- Volume Flexibility. It is the capacity of the system to vary the production volumes of different products to accommodate changes in demand while remaining lucrative. It can also be referred as capacity flexibility. Factors that impact the volume flexibility are level of manual labor performing production, amount invested in capital equipment,
- Expansion Flexibility. It is described as the ease with which the system can be expanded to raise total production volume. Expansion flexibility depends on several factors that include cost incurred in adding new workstations and trained workers, easiness in expansion of layout, type of part handling system used.
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