Abstract
Small/medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constantly face challenges as they react to changing environmental factors such as the emergence of worldwide markets and standards for better product quality, demands for faster delivery times and closer business partnerships. These companies must bring together people, resources and facilities to develop, manufacture and market products with an ongoing commitment to accept and react to changing market conditions. Recently, flexibility has been widely recognized as a distinctive competence leading to competitive advantage, and thus flexible manufacturing (FM) technologies serve as a strategic asset to accomplish operations strategy. The SMEs must develop a framework to protect and enhance this asset. Only with the proper organizational structure, culture and external alliances can an SME achieve the full potential of FM technologies. In this paper, we provide an overview of strategic, organizational and personnel implications of flexible manufacturing for SMEs. We also discuss the significance of alliances with external partners and performance measures for implementation of flexible and automated manufacturing technologies.
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