This text explores the context for the manufacturing systems design process; and presents an innovative approach to manufacturing systems design (IMP).

Batch manufactcring is a dominant manufacturing activity in the world, generating a great deal of industrial output. In the coming years, we are going to witness an era of mass customization of products. The major problems in batch manufacturing are a high level of product variety and small manufacturing lot sizes. The product variations present design engineers with the problem of designing many different parts. The decisions made in the design stage significantly affect manufacturing cost, quality and delivery lead times. The impacts of these product variations in manufacturing are high investment in equipment, high tooling costs, complex scheduling and loading, lengthy setup time and costs, excessive scrap and high quality control costs. However, to compete in a global market, it is essential to improve the productivity in small batch manufacturing industries. For this purpose, some innovative methods are needed to reduce product cost, lead time and enhance product quality to help increase market share and profitability. What is also needed is a higher level of integration of the design and manufacturing activities in a company. Group technology provides such a link between design and manufacturing. The adoption of group technology concepts, which allow for small batch production to gain economic advantages similar to mass production while retaining the flexibility of job shop methods, will help address some of the problems.

The biggest challenge in any marketplace is uncertainty. The major changes taking place in world economies, politics, and demographics has raised market uncertainty to its highest level in the past 50 years. However, with new markets opening up in emerging and developing economies, the opportunities have never been better. To compete in this challe

This book presents a framework and specific methods and tools for the selection and configuration of the capacity of Advanced Manufacturing Systems (AMS). AMS include Flexible Manufacturing Systems, Dedicated Manufacturing Systems, and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems. Starting from the characteristic of the competitive environment, the directions given by the company strategy, data regarding the products, and information regarding the different system architectures, the decision support system described here aids the decision maker by means of a formalized methodology that follows the various steps required to define the type and timing of 'capacity' acquisition and to define the detailed configuration of AMS along its life cycle. The decision making framework and tools illustrated in this volume combine decision-making theory, optimization theory, discrete event simulation and queuing networks. It will be of interest to graduate students and researchers involved in manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering and operations research.

In order to compete in an increasingly demanding market, many manufacturing companies have to redesign or restructure their manufacturing systems so that a set of coherent manufacturing strategies can be supported. So this book aims to provide a comprehensive treatment of manufacturing strategy analysis (MSA) and manufacturing systems design (MSD). The strategic concerns of manufacturing are linked to subsequent manufacturing systems design activities through the use of an effective MSA/MSD interface. Topics include: A structured approach to formulating manufacturing strategies; A set of linking processes to translate MSA concerns into relevant MSD action plans; Case studies. This book is intended to help graduates and industry-based professionals to make more informed decisions when working on system-design or redesign projects.