Flexibility evaluation: A toolbox approach

Abstract

Flexibility is an important aspect of modern manufacturing systems. Although a system's capability to monitor, predict and improve flexibility has long been considered as a major competitive advantage, the development of methods and algorithms for the measurement of manufacturing flexibility remains an open issue both from an academic and an industrial point of view. The purpose of this work is to propose a holistic approach for short, mid- and long-term flexibility performance measuring and monitoring in industrial practice. In the core of the suggested approach stands a flexibility evaluation toolbox, which can be utilised for real-life industrial cases.