Measuring machine and product mix flexibilities of a manufacturing system

This paper provides a brief discussion on flexibility concepts in manufacturing. It emphasizes that flexibility measurements in a manufacturing system should be studied under dynamically changing environments rather than static ones. The approaches for assessing two major flexibility types, machine flexibility and product mix flexibility response, are presented. The machine flexibility model is based on machine-operation efficiency. The product mix flexibility response model is based on the difference between products in terms of tooling requirements, the number of operations that a machine can perform and the efficiency of different machines.