Implementation Issues in FMS: A Literature Review

In today’s very competitive, dynamic and unpredictable manufacturing environments it is critical to improve manufacturing performance in order to be able to compete. Flexibility becomes an important characteristic of manufacturing systems and organizations; thus the flexible manufacturing systems (FMS’s) are becoming popular in today’s scenario. A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) incorporates numerically-controlled machine tools, robots, automated material handling systems, and automated inspection and self diagnostic facilities into a single production system whose integration is under the control of a hierarchical information system network. On one hand, the benefits of implementing FMS result in production maximization and prevent stations from being idle. FMS offers lower carryover effects when stations interrupt, and also lowers the cost of maintaining spare part inventories due to the fact that similar equipment can share components. The goal of this paper is to present the comprehensive review of various issues involved in FMS environment. The study helps the practioners in providing the guidelines of whether it is futile investment in adopting the FMS environment and helps in bridging the gaps between the various crucial aspects required for its implementation.