Introduction
Everyday, manufacturers are investing in computer aided design (CAD), just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing, computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and a dozen other technologies. Although the above technologies are diverse, one thing common to all hard and soft technologies (Swamidass, 1998) is that they add flexibility to manufacturing operations. Hard technologies such as CAD, CAM, robots, and CIM are hardware and software intensive, whereas, soft technologies such as JIT, SQC and TQM are driven by knowhow and techniques.
It is notable that over 70 percent of U.S. manufacturers reported that they experienced cycle time reduction due to the use of 17 different technologies (Swamidass, 1998). Reduced cycle time means improved flexibility. Figure 1 shows the use of 17 different manufacturing technologies and their use in the United States (Swamidass, 1998). The data in Figure 1were gathered from 1025 U.S. manufacturing plants from the following industries: SIC 34: metal...
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Swamidass, P.M. (2000). MANUFACTURING FLEXIBILITY . In: Swamidass, P.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Production and Manufacturing Management. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-0612-8_550
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-0612-8_550
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