DEANS CHIMHUNDU H1210375B

MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS 3
ASSIGNMENT 2
Question: Zimbabwean manufacturing industry is operating at high costs but the flexible
manufacturing concept is the answer to these challenges. Discus.
The Zimbabwean industry has failed mainly to adjust to rapidly changing demand of customers
product design changes due to the fact that their conventional manufacturing systems are
inflexible in terms of types of products e.g. transfer lines. And difficult to upgrade into those
which employ technologies such as flexible manufacturing systems with automated material
handling (automated guided vehicles, conveyors, AS& RS) and storage systems interconnected
to a main computer control system. These technologies have gained enough adoption in several
industries across the globe because of the benefits they come with them to a company that used
to have conventional systems. These benefits include improved production efficiency and gain in
market share as a variety of products can be produced in large quantities thus making this
concept ideal for batch production and mass production industries. Many of the local industries
have failed to adjust to these changes arguing that employing such as flexible manufacturing
systems require as lot capital to invest in rather than upgrading. This has resulted in most local
manufacturing firms losing market share to more competing international industries that employ
such technologies. Their worry is also based on the notion that such systems require skilled
labour thus more time has to be spent training employees and this means more costs.
Despite these disadvantages the FMS brings benefits to industries such as reduced floor space
with the use of automated material handling and storage systems. This means that a mass variety
of parts can be machined in a short time through computer control of a single or a few CNC
machines with integrated automated material handling equipment and storage to cater for both
work in progress and finished parts. This means less inventory to the manufacturing firm thus
lowering inventory costs. The integration of material handling and storage systems increase
machine utilization as bottlenecks are greatly reduced and less machines will be required thus
lowering operating costs. Work in progress parts are in easy reach of the machine ad finished
parts are quickly retrieved from the CNC machine in a short time thus reducing idle times and

travel times since the systems are integrated. In contrast to this most local industries incurred
high costs in terms of labour costs and high scrap and rework costs as product quality is greatly
improved. FMS is capable of producing a variety of parts without major retooling thus increasing
tool life as a few tools are used to produce many output finished parts hence operating costs will
be reduced. With the use of flexible manufacturing systems changing of a production schedule is
possible as well as modifications to a part through the use of computer control. Many of the
advanced technologies such as CNC machines and flexible automation, distributed computer
control and automated material handling and storage are integrated into the Flexible
manufacturing concept. The FMS concept bases on cellular manufacturing and group technology
in which similar parts are identified and grouped together taking advantage of these similarities
in the design and production phases.
Less working (labour) hours are required by FMS in producing the same number of machine
hours as in other cell configurations. Reducing this ratio ensures lowers the labour content of all
parts processed which again lowers the cost per part. This shows the effectiveness of flexible
manufacturing system in lowering operating costs and hence is a solution to Zimbabwes
industries. From my view, the lower the cost per part means lower prices in the market thus
providing a mass variety of goods that are affordable, that can meet changing demands thus
showing a competitive edge over other industries which incur high cost per part during
production and will again raise the prices of their products so as to recover such costs. An
example can be of Unilever Zimbabwe which had to stop producing soap locally due to these
costs and the retail prices of their products were high resulting in an increased influx of imported
Unilever South Africa products that were cheaper than those produced locally. This resulted in
the company moving from producing such products to prepacking south African products that
come in powder form or granules to save on production costs and maintenance costs.
The FMS is capable of operating during non -working hours, periods between shift changes or
even on weekends because of the automated material handling and storage system thereby
providing non synchronisation of the machine hours to labour hours though this does not reduce
the labour content. This provides high utilisation of labour due to the reasons that machine hours
are independent of labour hours in some instances.

Despite all the benefits above associated with the FMS concept, limitations such as the fact that
the concept requires a longer planning and development time because of its complexity and cost
as compared to traditional manufacturing equipment hamper its use.
References
i.

Anderson, David M. Agile Product Development for Mass Customization. New York:

ii.

McGraw-Hill, 1997.
Jha, Nand, K., ed. Handbook of Flexible Manufacturing Systems. San Diego: Academic

iii.

Press, 1991.
Tidd, Joseph. Flexible Manufacturing Technologies and International Competitiveness.

iv.

London: Pinter Publishers, 1991.

"Ford Furthers Flexible Manufacturing Effort." Manufacturing Engineering 133, no. 1
(2004): 27