Stages of Development in Flexible Manufacturing

Abstract

For decades, in industrial-scale manufacture and mass manufacture the so-called rigid forms of automation prevailed, such as automated lines and transfer lines in the automobile and consumer goods industries, cam-controlled automatic machines in the mass production of standard components (screws, nuts, bolts), special machines or single-purpose machines for special manufacturing problems. All these types of automation are characterized by the fact that, due to the high cost of setting up the manufacturing process the revision of production of a certain part or an entire product is profitable only after some weeks, or even after some years for special machines.