Coordinated Development of System and Environment - A New CAD/CAM Strategy

Abstract

The challange of the world market forces all firms to raise the technical economic level of their products. A key to prompt reactions is the flexibility of the technological and human resources. Developing these resources two fundamental requirements should be satisfied: flexibility to react to the current market and to support the medium-tern development plans of the management. In machine-tool industry the adaptation of FMS gives a good solution only by taking into consideration both aspects. FMS can be considered as an expensive, medium-term investment. In the practice the introduction of complex systems often caused disappointment: on the one hand delays and defects were experienced in the course of implementation, and the performing capacity of the system did not attain the prescribed level on the other. The system did not meet in every aspect the environment's requirements. This paper demonstrates, that the return on financial and intellectual investments in an FMS can considerably be accelerated. The first step should be a system analysis of both the FMS system and its environment, including the technical and economic aspects as well. In the second step the gradual implementation strategy should be elaborated for both the system and its environment. The methodology will be illustrated with the R&D strategy of an unmanned manufacturing cell.