Manufacturing system flexibility: the “capability and capacity” approach

Cheng, James M.J.; Simmons, John E.; Ritchie, ames M.

doi:10.1108/09576069710181965

Cited by 22 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…amper [12] investigates outsoursing/ insourcing of production as well as equipment as factors affecting flexibility. Cheng et al [13] investigate the structure of organization as the aggregate flexibility of the overall system is dependent on how the member entities are organized. The organization have also been studied, in terms of flexibility, by among others, Sethi and Sethi [14].…”

Section: Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexibility analysis of two assembly lines

Kurtoğlu¹

2004

Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing

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Section: Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Flexibility analysis of two assembly lines

Kurtoğlu¹

2004

Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing

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“…Cheng et al [6] described such an evaluation of operating windows for flanged shafts. Cheng et al [6] described such an evaluation of operating windows for flanged shafts.…”

Section: Volume Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The individual operating windows of each apparatus can be combined to get the operating envelope of the overall plant as it was presented by Cheng et al [6]. However, the number of produced pieces has to be translated into a production output in mass per time as the measure for the feasible capacity range.…”

Section: Volume Flexibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Capacity Flexibility of Chemical Plants

et al. 2014

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In the light of market uncertainties and globalization, the capacity of fast and flexible adaption of a chemical plant to changing market conditions becomes a major necessity in future production scenarios. The capacity flexibility of a plant can be influenced by oversizing and numbering up of unit operations. The additional costs for these measures have to be compensated for by the financial benefit arising from the option to adapt to uncertain market demands. Therefore, the additional costs have to be balanced against the gain in flexibility. In this work, methods for the evaluation of capacity flexibility are adapted from the manufacturing industries to enable a cost-effective design of a modular plant. The evaluation methods are used to select modular plant setups allowing the best compromise between costs and flexibility in different market scenarios.

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“…In this chapter the literature related to the dependent variable Performance and independent variables, Flexibility, Motivation, Knowledge, Information and Trust were critically reviewed First, the variable Flexibility was reviewed in various dimensions. The importance of understanding the Flexibility, different views of different scholars (Shewchuk, 1999, Ramasesh and Jayakurnar, 1991, Gerwin, 1993, Upton, 1994, Cheng et al, 1997Correa 1994) on Flexibility, reasons (factors) for Flexibility and relationship to the Performance of the same was critically investigated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Driving Forces of Execution Competence of Corrugated Fiberboard Boxes Manufacturing Industry in Sri Lanka

Kulasinghe¹

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process and labor, as well as suppliers. A different categorization, focusing on the origin of change, is given by Palaniswami (1994) defining five factors: products, manufacturing processes, planning and control, human resources, and the relations with the suppliers (De Toni and Tonchia, 1998). Correa (1994) similarly defines seven main sources of unplanned change called stimuli, which are comparable to Palaniswarni's five factors. There is an obvious difference between the approaches that are being focused on, the first case, the nature of change, and the second case, the origin of change. Although most authors that attempt to describe the changes an organization experience using their own terms and categories, there are no particular agreements or standardization, which exists. 2.5 UNCERTAINTY Manufacturing organizations have often been indicated to be open systems faced with uncertainty and ambiguity, yet requiring certainty and clarity to operate in a rational manner (Slack, 1997). In the case of uncertainty, flexibility can be seen as coinciding with the ability to deal with the unexpected, both within the manufacturing system and outside (De Toni and Tonchia, 1998). Uncertainty is a complex concept, which has received different approaches in literature. The most controversial point appears to be a discussion on whether the measurement of uncertainty is the adequacy of either perceived or objective approaches (Swamidass and Newell, 1987). The objective measures of uncertainty are indexes for uncertainty based on attributes of the environment. At the same time the value of these attributes are dependent on the previous knowledge and cognitive process of uncertainty for the estimator. Environmental uncertainty has been argued to be one of the main reasons for a firm to seek flexibility (Gerwin, 1987; Slack, 1989), and some researchers provide certain empirical support for such theories (Swamidass and Newell, 1987). It should, however, be noted that other researchers have failed in showing a significant relationship between environmental uncertainty and actual manufacturing flexibility in the attempt to validate empirically the relationships between them (Pagell and Krause, 1999). Newman et at (1993) suggest that the relationship between flexibility and environmental uncertainty is complicated by the use of buffers in the form of time or stock, and that the relationship thereby could be difficult to measure. 2.6 VARIABILITY Variability can be seen as the flexibility of offering a variety of products and carrying out different manufacturing processes (De Toni and Tonchia, 1998). Like uncertainty, variability has been considered as another main reason for manufacturing companies to seek flexibility

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Manufacturing system flexibility: the “capability and capacity” approach

Cited by 22 publications

References 6 publications

Flexibility analysis of two assembly lines

Flexibility analysis of two assembly lines

Capacity Flexibility of Chemical Plants

The Driving Forces of Execution Competence of Corrugated Fiberboard Boxes Manufacturing Industry in Sri Lanka

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