Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)

1. INTRODUCTION
I.1. Introduction:
FMS is actually an automated set of numerically controlled machine tools and
material handling systems, capable of performing a wide range manufacturing operations
with quick tooling and instruction changeovers. FMS differs from the conventional
systems in terms of flexibility in the flow of materials from one tool to another and
performing the operations as per the required sequence. Each part can follow a variable
route through the system. In a nut shell, flexibility in material handling, in combination
with multipurpose tools, makes it possible for a flexible manufacturing system to process.

A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is essentially a computer-controlled

production system, which brings together different standalone machines and control
equipment capable of processing a variety of part types or jobs. FMS ensures quality
product at lowest cost while maintaining small lead-time. So, firms adopt FMS as a
means of meeting burgeoning requirements of customized production. Main purpose of
FMS is to achieve efficiency of well-balanced transfer line while retaining the flexibility
of the job shop (Stecke, 1983, 1985). A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) has four or
more processing workstations connected mechanically by a common part handling
system and electronically by a distributed computer system. It covers a wide spectrum of
manufacturing activities such as machining, sheet metal working, welding, fabricating,
scheduling and assembly. There are some scenarios in scheduling of parts in FMS where
adequate slack is provided in the system to negate the undesirable impact of interruptions
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and need not requires any rescheduling. The slack time is defined as the difference
between the cycle time and the elapsed/processing time. However, there are a number of
situations where the slack in the system affects the performance of the system and require
corrective measures. In this regard, the authors have developed extrapolative schedules,
which efficiently take care of the disruptions on the shop floor and retain the high
performance value of the system.

The Significance of FMS in the 1990s

The installed worldwide FMS base in 1989 was estimated to be around 500 to
1200 systems, the higher figure arising when a system is defined as having 2 or more
CNC machine tools connected by a materials handling system, and controlled by a central
computer. Ranta and Tchijov suggest that this number will rise to around 25003500 by
the year 2000. This led them to suggest that the strategic majority of production of the
metal-working industries in the industrialized countries will be produced by FMS or
similar systems [by the year 2000]. Kelleys empirical research in 1987 strongly
contradicts this. In a large (>1000 firms) survey of
US metal working firms, she found that less than 5 per cent of those plants with
computerized
automation have an FMS and that FMS constituted only 1.5 per cent of the total number
of installations of computerized automation.

Why are there still so few FMS in the world given that small-batch engineering
production is a significant proportion of manufacturing output? There are significant
practical reasons for the disparity between the promise of FMS in the 1980s and its
narrowness and scarcity of application in the early 1990s.

Objectives of an FMS

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 Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)

A study, carried out with West Germany manufacturing has shown the major aims
of installing an FMS to be:-
Decreased Lead Times.
Increased Through put.
Increased machine utilization.
Improved Due Date Reliability.
Decreased Store Inventors Levels.
Decreased Work in Progress.
Increased Quality.
Aims of FMS
To reduce costs.
Better utilization of the production equipment reduction of stocks (ex: Work in
progress capital shorter through put times).
Reduction of piece part unit costs.
To increase Technical Performance.
Increased production levels.
Integration of the production system into the factorys logistical system.
Smaller batch sizes.
Shorter or zero change over or reset of times.
To improve Order Development.
Shorter lead times/delivery times.
Determination of production capacities.
To assist future Corporate Security.
Increased Competitiveness.
Increased Quality.
Improved Company Image.

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Fig. 1 Flexible manufacturing system.

Globalization, fickling market requirements and modern lifestyle trends have

put up tremendous challenge to manufacturing industries. In the current business
scenario the competitiveness of any manufacturing industry is determined by its
ability to respond quickly to the rapidly changing market and to produce high quality
products at low costs. However, the product cost is no longer the predominant factor
affecting the manufacturers perception.
Other competitive factors such as flexibility, quality, efficient delivery and
customer satisfaction are drawing the equal attention. Manufacturing industries are
striving to achieve these capabilities through automation, robotics and other
innovative concepts such as just-in-time (JIT), Production planning and control
(PPC), enterprise resource planning (ERP) etc. Flexible manufacturing is a concept
that allows manufacturing systems to be built under high customized production
requirements. The issues such as reduction of inventories and market-response time to
meet customer demands, flexibility to adapt to changes in the market, reducing the
cost of products and services to grab more market shares, etc have made it almost
obligatory to many firms to switch over to flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) as
a viable means to accomplish the above requirements while producing consistently
good quality and cost effective products.

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 Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. History of FMS

In the middle of 1960s, market competition became more intense. During 1960 to
1970 cost was the primary concern. Later quality became the 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 market segments. Thus the innovation of FMS became
related to the effort of gaining competitive advantage.
First of all, FMS is a manufacturing technology. Secondly, FMS is a philosophy.
System is the key word. Philosophically, FMS incorporates a system view of
manufacturing. The buzzword for todays manufacturer is agility. An agile
manufacturer is one who is the fastest to the market, operates with the lowest total
cost and has the greatest ability to delight its customers. FMS is simply one way
that manufacturers are able to achieve this agility.
The framework of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) combines high
productivity, quality and flexibility needed for the fast response to changing market
demands (Womack, Jones & Roos, 1990). The term flexible manufacturing system
(FMS) is generally used to represent a wide variety of automated manufacturing
systems. Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) can be defined as an integrated
system composed of automated workstations such as computer numerically controlled
(CNC) machines with tool changing capability, a hardware handling and storage
system and a computer control system which controls the operations of the whole
system (Mac Carthy, 1993). Tempelemeier & Kuhn (1993) define FMS as a
production system consisting of a set of identical and/or complementary numerically
controlled machines, which are connected through an automated

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Fig 2.1. The relationship volume and product variety

transportation system. Each process in an FMS is controlled by a dedicated computer

(FMS cell computer). As per Parrish (1990), a flexible manufacturing system is a
collection of production equipment logically organized under a host computer and
physically connected by a central support system. The main impetus to switch from a
traditional system to an FMS is to introduce flexibility in manufacturing operations so
that a firm can compete more efficiently in the marketplace. Suresh and Sridharan
(2007) described FMS as a growing technology mainly suitable for mid-volume, mid-
variety production, they also defined FMS as an integrated production facility
consisting of multifunctional numerically controlled machining centers connected
with an automated material handling system, all controlled by a centralized computer
system. An FMS is designed to have capability of concurrently handling a range of
product types in batches (small to medium sized) and at a high efficiency as
compared to that of traditional production systems which are designed to deal with
low-variety parts in high volume. This system is able to process any part that belongs
to specific families within the prescribed capacity according to a predetermined
schedule. Generally, the system is designed in such a way that manual interference

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and change over time are minimized (Chan & Chan, 2004). One of the objectives of
an FMS is to achieve the flexibility of small volume production while maintaining the
effectiveness of large-volume mass production. The flexibility of a flexible
manufacturing system (FMS) has enabled it to become one of the most suitable
manufacturing systems in the current manufacturing scenario of customized and
varied products with shorter life cycles.

Fig 2.2 Illustration of FMS

These are several flexibilities ability which can be shown from the FMS:
Machine Flexibility, reflecting the ability of the machine to make the necessary
changes in producing a number of types of components available.
Sequence Flexibility, the ability to handle the production or assembly through an
alternate route, and the ability to handle or stopping an activity, for example:
machine breakdown or replacement tool, and resume production.
Process Flexibility, the ability to produce the variety mixture of similar products
which are using machine center.
Product Flexibility, ability to change/exchange into new products economically
and quickly (the product changes includes design, fixture, etc., and changes can
be done quickly and only can be done by utilizing the principles of group tech.).

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 Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)

Production Flexibility, ability to carry out the production of a number of pallet

types without additional investment for major equipment.
Development flexibility, the ability to develop/expand an existing FMS, as
needed, easily and in a modular form.
The description of relationship between the volume of products and product
variations that mustbe completed in a manufacturing process is shown in the figure-1
above, where the FMS has the following characteristics:
Used in the production system which product quantity low to moderate volume.
Can be used with a variety of products in a batch production
The manufacturing process is done without a central computer, and
More flexible than the manufacturing cell.

Layout and flow diagram of proposed FMS

Fig: The layout configuration and flow diagram for loop layout are given in
figure

The material handling system generally is a key factor in determining the type of
layout to be used in any FMS. In literature, number of popular layout types have been

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highlighted, some of them are in-line layout, loop layout, ladder layout, open field layout
etc. After the detailed study about the plant including space availability, number of
operators working etc, the loop layout was considered for the implementation for the new
FMS. The key rationales are given below:

a. Loop layout is suitable for mid variety and mid volume range of the case company.

b. Loop layout consists of secondary handling system which is required to provide

desirable flexibility of routing.

c. It has reduced material transfer time.

d. In the case company, the manpower will be greatly reduced as workers are required
only at load/unload station.

e. Traffic control is easy to implement in loop layout.

3. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

Existing FMS implementations have already highlighted numerous bene_ts in

terms of cost reduction, increased exploitation, etc. However, FMSs face some problems
during their lifecycle. These problems are classified into design, planning, scheduling and
control problems. This work is primarily concerned with process planning optimization in
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FMS. More precisely, we aim to optimize the process time considering the various
operation parameters induced by flexibility. These parameters consist in determining the
best combination of routing and resource allocation in terms of machines, storage zones
and transport equipments. Such sequence must done the set of machines and transport
devices that handle each part from the row material to the finished product. Due to
flexibility of the FMS, a given task can usually be performed by several machines. Thus,
many alternative operation sequences allow to satisfy the ordered task. Thus, it is
important to select the best available machines and transport devices, among these
multiple sequences. All possible operation sequences must be considered and the optimal
one, from the makespan point of view, must be selected.
Any operation sequence may be viewed as a repetitive generic action made up of the
following steps:
determining the target machine that will achieve the given operation on the
part,
determining the transport device allowing to reach the target destination
position from the source position,
transport of the part,
achievement of the operation by the selected machine.

The time aspects must be considered in the different steps of this generic action
by dealing with the duration associated with each step. The adopted methodology aims at
providing a practical tool dedicated to FMS designers. Such tool holders a user-oriented
interface for the specification of FMS as well as the function of computing the optimal
manufacturing sequence.
FMS In India
Narain et al, 2004 carried out two case studies in large Indian organizations which
use flexible manufacturing systems/cells. These organizations deal in the manufacture of
shoes and railway coaches respectively. The concept of FMS, which was initially meant
for machining processes, has now been extended to other application areas such as sheet-
metal, welding, forging, laser machining, injection moulding etc. (Narain et al, 2004)

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Case 1: FMS in Shoe manufacturing

The benefits to the company from the installation of the flexible integrated system
are:
1. A state-of-the-art flexible assembly line has been introduced.
2. Improvement in quality with output to international standards has been achieved. (Rate
of rejections reduced from 2.5 percent to 1 percent.)
3. There is faster response to the needs of retailers of such footwear.
4. There has been a reduction in labour from 34 to 16 (for the same level of daily output).
5. The overall increase in productivity is 113 per cent.
6. The total labour cost per pair of shoes has reduced by 50 per cent.
7. There is less work-in-process.
8. The staff have been re- and multi-skilled and are working as a team.
9. The floor area required has reduced by more than 50 per cent.
10. The requirement for lasts went down from 450 pairs to 100 pairs for the same volume
of production.
11. Inspection has considerably reduced. Supervisors now have a new role in the
production process.

Economic Analysis:
From the cost data of the company it was found that the introduction of the
flexible system would give a net saving of Rs. 210.99 lakhs every year.

Case 2: FMS in producing Railway Coaches

1. Some of the main benefits that the company derived from the system are as follows:
2. Better quality in the production of components requiring a high degree of precision,
e.g. fabrication of
3. interlocking parts with notch size less than 4mm.
4. High accuracy (positioning accuracy 1.3mm) and high speed of cutting (up to
6.0m/min).
5. Reduced scrap owing to the use of nesting software for optimization of sheets.
Wastage of material reduced to 3 per cent.
6. Flexibility to cut a range of materials such as metallic, wooden, ply, and paper etc. on
the laser-cutting machine.
7. Greater output owing to automatic loading and unloading of the pallets containing
sheets on the loading table via AS/RS and on the positioning table with the help of an
automatic vacuum lift plate feeder.
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8. Proper accounting of material owing to computerized handling through AS/RS.

9. Overhead on stores reduced from 1.2 percent of material cost to 0.85 per cent.

Economic Analysis:
The company has gained numerous advantages in terms of maintaining quality,
productivity, and flexibility in manufacturing. This case study strengthens the belief that a
long payback period should not necessarily be used to discourage investment in such
capital-intensive technology.

Case Study
Method to increase energy efficiency in transport
equipment
As an example, this method was applied to the conveyor of different flexible
manufacturing systems. The conveyor transports a piece from one operation to another in
a discrete
manufacturing system. However, the design of the conveyor does not provide energy
efficiency. Normally, these systems remain on even without a piece to transport during
production
breaks or inactive periods. Each PLC controls two to five electrical motors. The
measurement was performed at the entrance of the PLC. The systematic method reduced
power during inactivity by approximately 1000 W. This PLC controlled two conveyors,
and the method was initially applied to one conveyor. The initial consumption was
measured, and the executed functions were identified. Then, the selected function was
checked to verify whether or not it

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can be programmed to automatically turn on and off (e.g. when there is no piece entering
or no manual request for the part). Finally, the electrical energy consumption of the
conveyor with the programming changes was measured, as
shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Method applied to conveyor in manufacturing system.

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ADVANTAGES

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

Limited ability to adapt to changes in product or product mix (ex. 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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CONCLUSION

Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) is a capital-investment intensive and

complex system. In the present market scenario, the customer demand and specification
of any product changes very rapidly so it is very important for a manufacturing system to
accommodate these changes as quickly as possible to be able to compete in the market.
This evolution induces often a conflict for a manufacturing system because as the variety
is increased the productivity decreases, hence FMS is a good combination between
variety and productivity.
The calculation of data processing can be concluded for FMS method compare to
conventional method:
More than 22 time faster for producing 200 pairs of POLMAN T-100 vice casting
product.
Material handling time is 5.14 times faster within 1-cycle of production.
Reduced contact with the operator, even after the material are ready, the FMS can
run automatically

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FUTURE SCOPE

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REFERENCES
Method for increasing energy efficiency in flexible
manufacturing systems:A case study
1. Production Policy Optimization in Flexible
Manufacturing-Remanufacturing Systems
2.

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