Valuing the flexibility of flexible manufacturing systems

Valuing Operational Flexibility in Manufacturing Systems Using Real Options

In this paper, we look across the manufacturing enterprise to consider opportunities to improve value by switching among suppliers, plants, and markets. We extend this model to address the reality that these switches may often take a period of transition time, rather than occur instantaneously. We value the real options associated with this flexible approach using both a lattice and Monte Carlo...

A More Flexible Approach to Valuing Flexibility

The DOD routinely demonstrates its capability to develop phenomenal systems; however, these accomplishments are often tarnished by substantial cost and schedule overruns. While defense policies are continually being revised to address these problems, many believe that a more fundamental source of these overruns is the lack of flexibility in the systems being developed. But providing justificati...

Flexible Manufacturing Systems and Quantitative Anlysis of Flexible Manufacturing Systems

A flexible manufacturing system is a high automated GT machine cell, consisting of a group of processing workstations (usually CNC machine tools), interconnected by an automated material handling and storage system, and controlled by a distributed computer system. The reason the FMS is called flexible is that it is capable of processing a variety of diffrent part styles simultaneously at the va...

Flexible Manufacturing Systems [F.M.S]

One of the most revolutionary concepts of Machining Processes to emerge in the last two decades has been the concept of Flexible Manufacturing System (F.M.S.). It is a concept of machining where a set of machine tools can be used to perform a wide range of machining operations to produce a variety of products. This dynamic nature of the machine tools can be achieved by developing a beautiful am...

Neural Networks, Stochastic Dynamic Programming and a Heuristic for Valuing Flexible Manufacturing Systems