The impact on mean flow time when operating a flexible manufacturing system as a programmable transfer line

Summary form only given. One central aspect of lean production is the employment of multi-skilled workers, as opposed to specialized workers. With multi-skilled workers, any work team can complete any job, from start to finish. A job shop is an eclectic collection of machines of different process capabilities. In contrast, most modern flexible manufacturing systems consist of only one or two types of variable-mission machines. In this paper, the authors contend that the variable-mission machines in FMS are analogous to the multi-skilled workers in lean production