THE MEASUREMENT OF FLEXIBILITY IN MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

This article provides a theoretical basis for measuring the flexibilit y of manufacturing systems. The concept of multiple levels of measures (necessary, capability, actual, inflexibility, and optimality) for ea ch flexibility type is introduced. Capability and actual measures are then developed for machine, muting, process, product, and volume flexi bilities. For each of these flexibility types, a state defining variab le is identified. A measure of flexibility is then derived by computin g either, (i) the change effort expended in moving between states, (ii ) the drop in system performance in moving between states, (iii) a gen eral or physical scale of difference between two successive states, or (iv) a measure combining all three. The use of the developed measures is illustrated via a two-facility example.