Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)

What Is a Flexible Manufacturing System?

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a production method that is designed to handily adjust to changes in the type and quantity of the product being manufactured. Machines and computerized systems can be designed to fabricate various parts and handle changing levels of production.

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) can further develop productivity and in this way lower an organization's production cost. Flexible manufacturing likewise can be a key part of a specially make strategy that permits customers to customize the products they need.

Such flexibility can accompany higher upfront costs. Purchasing and introducing the particular equipment that takes into account such customization might be costly contrasted and more traditional systems.

How Flexible Manufacturing Systems Work

The concept of flexible manufacturing was developed by Jerome H. Lemelson (1923-97), an American industrial engineer and inventor who documented a number of related licenses in the mid 1950s. His original design was a robot-based system that could weld, bolt, convey, and examine manufactured goods.

Systems in light of Lemelson's FMS developments appeared on factory floors in the U.S. furthermore, Europe in the late 1960s and multiplied during the 1970s.

A flexible manufacturing system might incorporate a setup of interconnected processing workstations with computer terminals that cycle the end-to-end creation of a product, from stacking/dumping capabilities to machining and assembly to storing to quality testing and data processing. The system can be modified to run a cluster of one set of products in a specific quantity and afterward automatically switch over to one more set of products in another quantity.

A [make-to-order](/specially make) production process that permits customers to customize their products would likewise be an illustration of flexible manufacturing.

Upsides and downsides of a Flexible Manufacturing System

The primary benefit is the enhancement of production productivity. Downtime is diminished on the grounds that the production line doesn't need to be closed down to set up for an alternate product.

Flexible manufacturing can be a key part of a specially make strategy that permits customers to customize the products they need.

Burdens of FMS incorporate its higher upfront costs and the greater time required to design the system determinations for different future necessities.

There likewise is a cost associated with the requirement for particular specialists to run, monitor, and keep up with the FMS. Promoters of FMS keep up with that the increase in automation normally brings about a net reduction in labor costs.

Features

• A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is designed front and center to be promptly adjusted to changes in the type and quantity of goods being created.
• Production is generally automated, diminishing overall labor costs.
• A FMS system is, notwithstanding, more costly to design and put in place and requires skilled professionals to keep it running.