A History Of Flexible Manufacturing Systems

A History Of Flexible Manufacturing Systems Now once you have a Flexible Manufacturing System in place, it cannot function in isolation. The department has to make its other processes and work conditions conducive enough to take full advantage of FMS. There are a lot of other design variables involved in the decision making process. It is very important for every manager in charge of FMS to address the question â€Å"What are the activities an FMS adopter has to carry out in order not only to implement an FMS but also to realize the requisite organizational conditions; and what are the possibilities for the adopter to organize this manufacturing innovation process effectively?† Stating a few examples of the extraneous factors: Maintenance Department Process planning, Production planning, and quality control processes The people carrying out these processes and production resources used to make these processes feasible The organizational arrangements used to divide and coordinate the processes Introduction A Flexible Ma nufacturing System (FMS) is a manufacturing system in which there is a certain degree of flexibility that allows the system to react in the case of changes, whether predicted or unpredicted. According to Maleki   [ 1 ]   , flexibility is the speed at which a system can react to and accommodate change. To be considered flexible, the flexibility must exist during the entire life cycle of a product, from design to manufacturing to distribution. Flexible Manufacturing System is a computer-controlled system that can produce a variety of parts or products in any order, without the time-consuming task of changing machine setups. The flexibility being talked about is generally considered to fall into two categories, which both contain numerous subcategories   [ 2 ]   . The first category, Machine Flexibility, covers the system’s ability to be changed to produce new product types, and ability to change the order of operations executed on a part. The second category is called R outing Flexibility, which consists of the ability to use multiple machines to perform the same operation on a part, as well as the system’s ability to absorb large-scale changes, such as in volume, capacity, or capability. The main advantage of an FMS is its high flexibility in managing manufacturing resources like time and effort in order to manufacture a new product. The best application of an FMS is found in the production of small sets of products like those from a mass production. FM systems are supposed to provide the manufacturer with efficient flexible machines that increase productivity and produce quality parts. However, FM systems are not the answer to all manufacturers’ problems. The level of flexibility is limited to the technological abilities of the FM systems. FM systems are being used all over the manufacturing world and though out industries. A basic knowledge of this kind of technology is very important because FM systems are involved in almost every thing that you come in contact with in today’s world. From the coffee maker to your remote control FM systems are used all over. History of Flexible Manufacturing Systems At the turn of the twentieth century, FMS did not exist. There was no pressing need for efficiency because the markets were national and there was no foreign competition. Manufacturers could tell the consumers what to buy. During that period, Henry Ford had been quoted as saying â€Å"People can order any colour of car as long as it is black.† All the power remained in the hands of the manufacturer and the consumers hardly had any choices.

Do The Right Thing Review Movie Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Do The Right Thing - Movie Review Example Lee could have named the owners without having mentioned their race as white, but the sole purpose behind doing so was to build the audience’s understanding of the plot as racism oriented. Where Sal and his sons have been presented as owners because they are white, Mookie has been presented as the delivery boy, fundamentally for the reason that he is an African American. This tells that this film particularly differentiates between people and decides their status on the basis of their race. White owners and black delivery boy are the signals that have been used by Lee to construct the racist mood. In the beginning, the movie maintains a low profile with light entertainment and jolly mood. Characters in the start are quite amusing. But as some time passes, the film suddenly gains an upsurge until the tension between individual characters reaches its apogee. The conflict between races and ethnic identities overtly shows up in the form of hatred among characters belonging to diff erent races. The tension in the film’s climax is unbearable. A deep analysis of the film suggests that Lee has, for the most part of the movie, not discussed characters, as much has he done the relationships between them and their interpersonal conflicts.

Based upon your reading in The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L Essay

Based upon your reading in The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Helibroner, as well as CREDIBLE outside sources, outline the di - Essay Example Both Joseph Schumpeter and John Maynard Keynes were subjected to the same economic period, suffering from economic recession and aimed at developing theories aimed at economic development. However both analyzed the situation differently and thus observed different economic problems which made them to come with different definitions of the economics, which are very important in understanding the modern economic trends and situations. In an effort to solve the economic crisis, Keynes called for government intervention. Holding to the fact that money was not an just a means of exchange as was stipulated by the likes of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, but the supply of money, and to be specific money velocity had an adverse effect on the demand of goods, Keynes put it across that regulation of money supply would improve economic conditions during recession (Heilbroner 267). To come up to this conclusion, Keynes held lack of control of money supply in the capitalist system had caused the re cession. Schumpeter agreed to Keynes idea that the failure of capitalist system resulted to the economic recession but attributed the failure to poor relation between capitalist investors and the actual managers of the investment projects who happened to be employees. According to Schumpeter, the managers salaries are not correlated to the company’s profit and thus don’t strive to maintain or improve future returns. Although Schumpeter did not reject interventions, he held that capitalism could be maintained and its success accelerated ‘creative destruction’ that is replacement of old worn-out business models by new entrepreneurs’ innovations. What determines real price of commodities is a question that most economics have had in their minds. Keynes was not an exception, although his answers portrayed a view completely different from his predecessors. To develop his theories, Keynes held that money and credit were real, and greatly influenced commod ity prices (Heilbroner 270). Disregarding that firms and individuals had any impact the economy as demand which was only affected by money velocity influenced capital formation, productivity and employment. However Keynes held the assumption that his theory was only effective if the velocity of money was held constant. Schumpeter embedded on this assumption and criticized the whole theory on the fact that velocity of money can only be constant in primitive societies and not in the modern complex economic conditions. It was Keynes ideas, of fiscal and monetary policies that were used to solve the recession problem. However, equilibrium conditions were only obtained in the short run just as they were proposed by Keynes. Schumpeter criticized Keynes short run solutions as not caring about the future. Schumpeter identifies that the central economic problem was not equilibrium as stipulated by Keynes, and suggested that structural change was more realistic. In attempt to solve the proble m, he maintained that capitalist, not discarding intervention can still thrive given his theorem of the innovator. Schumpeter emphasized that equilibrium solutions were only short run that could not prevail in the long run due to structural changes. Contrary to their predecessors, Keynes and Schumpeter replaced the argument demand or supply of