Ensuring Flexibility in the CIM Environment

ABSTRACT

Implementation and design of computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) systems are complex and detailed processes. They require meticulous planning and prior analysis to ensure that a viable and profitable system is developed. One of the most fundamental factors to be considered for a CIM system is the flexibility of the proposed system. Many authors have addressed the issue of system level flexibility and in a variety of ways. Two new categories of flexibility, programming and communications flexibility, are presented along with illustrations of the relative importance of the different categories of flexibility in various situations. A comparison and summary of the relationships between the work of previous authors and this paper is included.