The Flexibility of Manufacturing Systems
International Journal of Operations & Production Management
ISSN: 0144-3577
Article publication date: 1 April 1987
Abstract
Many of the new pressures from today's manufacturing environment are turning manufacturing managers' attention to the virtues of developing a flexible manufacturing function. Flexibility, however, has different meanings for different managers and several perfectly legitimate alternative paths exist towards flexible manufacturing. How managers in ten companies view manufacturing flexibility in terms of how they see the contribution of manufacturing flexibility to overall company performance; what types of flexibility they regard as important; and what their desired degree of flexibility is. The results of the investigations in these ten companies are summarised in the form of ten empirical “observations”. Based on these “observations” a check‐list of prescriptions is presented and a hierarchical framework developed into which the various issues raised by the “observations” can be incorporated.
Keywords
Citation
Slack, N. (1987), "The Flexibility of Manufacturing Systems", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 7 No. 4, pp. 35-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb054798
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 1987, MCB UP Limited