Functional advantage of a flexible manufacturing system over a traditional manufacturing system A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a method used when producing goods. It is very efficient in production because it is fast, flexible, automatic and adaptable to changes in the product being manufactured.

A flexible manufacturing system can handle varying levels of production in a very short period of time, unlike the traditional manufacturing system.

Another fact is that the system can still continue to manufacture goods even after breaking down, or when undergoing repair and maintenance. This is not possible in a traditional manufacturing system which needs to be 100% functional in order to produce goods. Many manufacturers shifted from the traditional manufacturing system to the flexible manufacturing system despite of its high cost of production.

The system is also very expensive to develop and maintain but it gets the job done and fast tracks manufacturing and delivery of goods on time. In a flexible manufacturing system, multiple machines can be used to perform the same task and still withstand changes in capacity, volume and capability.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrates important business processes in real with aid of software and technology. Some of the business activities that the enterprise resource planning integrates include manufacturing, marketing and shipping of products. Enterprise resource planning makes the flexible manufacturing system fast as it saves a great deal of time wasted on management. It handles sales records, tracks orders and manages the entire database.

This provides information for decision making. It also provides data security by use of the latest technology for data encryption.

We can conclude that a flexible manufacturing system reduces manufacturing costs, lowers cost per unit produced, increases labor productivity, increases machine efficiency, improves the quality of products, increases system reliability and does all this in a short time. Use of enterprise resource planning in a flexible manufacturing system makes production fast, cheap and reliable.