Flexible Manufacturing During Covid-19
Published on : Tuesday 09-06-2020
In the current market, the mass production industries such as automobiles, electrical and electronics, and aerospace are primarily focusing on the rigid and optimized production processes to gain efficiency. Companies in the industries are aims to rectified the supply chain to further redesign these production processes to cater to an unpredictable demand environment from the consumers.
There is a wide investment in the cost-effective supply chain and efficiency in production with the incorporation of fully automated technologies in the current COVID-19 experience. The change in the collective mindset is expected to create opportunities for the collaborative frameworks and more flexibility in order to change the designing, manufacturing, and distribution process. Considering the power of flexible manufacturing, it is important to understand the market behavior and bring a sudden change in manufacturing at the minimum cost and time.
“During COVID-19 and post COVID-19 are primarily transforming the manufacturing standards and process to make to flexible to adapt quick manufacturing change to minimize the fear among the workers and consumers” – Hella India Lighting
Flexible Manufacturing: definition and characteristics
Flexible Manufacturing is a system designed to adapt manufacturing changes in terms of change in the type and quantity of the product being manufactured. It is a combination of machines and computerized systems that are highly classified in manufacture a variety of parts and handle changing levels of production.
It is stated that flexible manufacturing contains three main systems to initiate the operation effectively. In the system, the work machines are primarily automated CNC machines that are mainly connected by a material handling system to optimize parts flow at the worksite and the central control computer which controls material movements and machine flow.
The Strategic Role of Flexible Manufacturing
The strategic role of flexible manufacturing is a collective arrangement of automated processing machines that are further connected to material handling systems and conveyors. It formulates the combination of workstations that are integrated with the automated technologies that are further inspected by an automatic inspection unit. This approach is less costly compared to the traditional manufacturing process and enables flexibility across the formulation zone to adapt changes as quickly as possible.
The flexible manufacturing is initially relying on five types of layouts –
Line layout type – The workstations are sequentially positioned and allow the only direct flow of materials, loaded and unload at separate, extreme points
Loop layout type – The workstations are positioned in cellular, U-shaped format, and allows only the circulation of the material, loaded and unloaded in the same point
Ladder layout type – The workstations are pairwise positioned and allow the material to circulate between and around, loaded and unloaded in the same point
Open field layout type – The automated guided vehicle (AGV) freely moves across the workstations, transferring the material loaded and unloaded at the same point
Robot-centered layout type – The working stations are positioned around one or more robots, which allows any kind of movement of the material
In conclusion, the manufacturing companies are aiming to modernizing tools, technologies, and processes in order to meet the next generation demand for advanced manufacturing and monitoring assistance to the workforce. It is estimated that most of the mass production companies across the automotive, aerospace, and other industries already adopted flexible manufacturing to minimize the effect of COVID-19 fear among the workers and consumer behavior. In addition, these companies are also focused on digital infrastructure that supports increased ability and business manufacturing efficiency. Flexible manufacturing enables companies to carry the most value out of their manufacturing process, so later they can come out easily from a situation of deadly virus spread in order to grow faster and stronger than before.