Human-Centred Flexible Manufacturing Systems in Machining and Assembly

Abstract

As soon as NC machine tools, industrial robots and automatically guided vehicles had proved themselves to be productive and reliable as separate units, the manufacturing industry started to combine them and various other equipment into systems aiming at flexible transfer line production. This happened in the late 1970s, although some efforts had already started ten years before, e.g. Sundstrand Machine Tool Company in the USA or Molins Machine Co. in the UK with the famous “System 24”. In 1980 a German study [1] estimated the world-wide number of Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) at about 80. Five years later a report from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe reported the number to be 350 [2]. A fair estimate is that the world-wide number by 1992 ought to be between 1000 and 1500. Since there is no distinct definition of FMS, it is difficult to derive any accurate estimate. The figures, however, may indicate the volume of enterprises, machines and people involved.