The FMS

Henry C. Co
Technology and Operations Management,
California Polytechnic and State University
Competitive Priorities
 Since W.W.II, U.S. manufacturing has dominated the
world … until the middle of the 1960s, when market
competition became more intense.
 During 1960 to 1970 cost was the primary concern.
 Later quality became a priority.
 As the market became more and more complex, speed
of delivery became something customer also needed.
 A new strategy was formulated: Customizability.
 The companies have to adapt to the environment in
which they operate, to be more flexible in their
operations and to satisfy different market segments
(customizability).
 Thus the innovation of FMS became related to the
effort of gaining competitive advantage.

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What is an FMS?
 A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is
a manufacturing system in which there is
some amount of flexibility that allows the
system to react in the case of changes,
whether predicted or unpredicted.
 Two categories of flexibility
 Machine flexibility, covers the system's ability
to be changed to produce new product types, and
ability to change the order of operations executed
on a part.
 Routing flexibility, which consists of the ability
to use multiple machines to perform the same
operation on a part, as well as the system's ability
to absorb large-scale changes, such as in volume,
capacity, or capability.

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FMS and FMC
 Early FMSs were large and very complex, consisting
of dozens of CNCs and sophisticated material
handling systems. They were very automated, very
expensive and controlled by incredibly complex
software. There were only a limited number of
industries that could afford investing in a traditional
FMS as described above.
 Currently, the trend in FMS is toward small versions
of the traditional FMS, called flexible
manufacturing cells (FMC).
 Today two or more CNC machines are considered a
flexible cell and two more more cells are considered a
flexible manufacturing system.
 Thus, a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)
consists of several machine tools along with part and
tool handling devices such as robots, arranged so that it
can handle any family of parts for which it has been
designed and developed.

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The Manufacturing Cell
 A flexible manufacturing cell (FMC)
consists of two or more CNC
machines, a cell computer and a
robot.
 The cell computer (typically a
programmable logic controller) is
interfaced with the microprocessors of
the robot and the CNCs.

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The Cell Controller
 The functions of the cell controller
include work load balancing, part
scheduling, and material flow control.
 The supervision and coordination
among the various operations in a
manufacturing cell is also performed by
the cell computer.
 The software includes features
permitting the handling of machine
breakdown, tool breakage and other
special situations.

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The Cell Robot
 In many applications, the cell robot
also performs tool changing and
housekeeping functions such as chip
removal, staging of tools in the tool
changer, and inspection of tools for
breakage or expressive wear. When
necessary, the robot can also initiate
emergency procedures such as system
shut-down.
 Parker-Hannifin Corporation, Forrest
City, NC.

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The FMS
FMS Components
 Most FMS systems comprise of three
main systems
 Work machines (typically automated CNC
machines) that perform a series of
operations;
 An integrated material transport system
and a computer that controls the flow of
materials, tools, and information (e.g.
machining data and machine
malfunctions) throughout the system;
 Auxiliary work stations for loading and
unloading, cleaning, inspection, etc.

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FMS Goals
 Reduction in manufacturing cost by lowering
direct labor cost and minimizing scrap, re-
work, and material wastage.
 Less skilled labor required.
 Reduction in work-in-process inventory by
eliminating the need for batch processing.
 Reduction in production lead time permitting
manufacturers to respond more quickly to
the variability of market demand.
 Better process control resulting in consistent
quality.

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Advantages of FMS
 Faster, lower- cost changes from one part to
another which will improve capital utilization
 Lower direct labor cost, due to the reduction
in number of workers
 Reduced inventory, due to the planning and
programming precision
 Consistent and better quality, due to the
automated control
 Lower cost/unit of output, due to the greater
productivity using the same number of
workers
 Savings from the indirect labor, from
reduced errors, rework, repairs and rejects

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Disadvantages of FMS
 Limited ability to adapt to changes in
product or product mix (e.g., machines are
of limited capacity and the tooling necessary
for products, even of the same family, is not
always feasible in a given FMS)
 Substantial pre-planning activity
 Expensive, costing millions of dollars
 Technological problems of exact component
positioning and precise timing necessary to
process a component
 Sophisticated manufacturing systems

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