Flexibility is used as an attribute of various types of

systems A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and is exp ...

. In the field of

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

systems design, it refers to designs that can adapt when external changes occur. Flexibility has been defined differently in many fields of engineering,

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

, etc. In the context of engineering design one can define flexibility as the ability of a system to respond to potential internal or external changes affecting its value delivery, in a timely and cost-effective manner. Thus, flexibility for an engineering system is the ease with which the system can respond to

uncertainty Uncertainty or incertitude refers to situations involving imperfect or unknown information. It applies to predictions of future events, to physical measurements that are already made, or to the unknown, and is particularly relevant for decision ...

in a manner to sustain or increase its value delivery. Uncertainty is a key element in the definition of flexibility. Uncertainty can create both

risks In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environ ...

and opportunities in a system, and it is with the existence of uncertainty that flexibility becomes valuable.

Flexible Manufacturing System

Flexibility has been especially thoroughly studied for

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

systems. For manufacturing science eleven different classes of flexibility have been identified rowne, 1984 ethi and Sethi, 1990 * Machine flexibility - The different operation types that a machine can perform. * Material handling flexibility - The ability to move the products within a manufacturing facility. * Operation flexibility - The ability to produce a product in different ways. * Process flexibility - The set of products that the system can produce. * Product flexibility - The ability to add new products in the system. * Routing flexibility - The different routes (through machines and workshops) that can be used to produce a product in the system. * Volume flexibility - The ease to profitably increase or decrease the output of an existing system. At firm level, it is the ability of a firm to operate profitably at different output levels. Firms often use volume flexibility as a benchmark to assess their performance vis-à-vis their competitors.Srivastava, Samir K and Bansal, Sahil, "Measuring and Comparing Volume Flexibility across Indian Firms", ''International Journal of Business Performance Management'', 14(1), 2013, pp. 38-51. * Expansion flexibility - The ability to build out the capacity of a system. * Program flexibility - The ability to run a system automatically. * Production flexibility - The number of products a system currently can produce. * Market flexibility - The ability of the system to adapt to market demands. These definitions yield under current conditions of the system and that no major setups are conducted or investments are made (except ''expansion flexibility''). Many of the flexibility types are linked to each other; increasing one flexibility type also increases another. But in some cases tradeoffs between two flexibility types are needed.

Bibliography

* Browne, J. ''et al.'' "Classification of flexible manufacturing systems", ''The FMS Magazine'' 1984 ''April'', 114–117. * Sethi, A.K. and Sethi, S.P. "Flexibility in Manufacturing: A survey", ''The International Journal of Flexible Manufacturing Systems'' 1990 ''2'', 289–328.

References

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