Manufacturing enterprises are facing new qualitative challenges due to increasing market requirements related to growing competition, the individualization of meeting customer needs, and demand volatility. The response to these challenges has been the development and implementation of flexible manufacturing systems in industrial practice.
This is undoubtedly a forward-looking form of production organization. Its implementation is linked to the necessity of introducing new, diversified products to the market that are tailored to the individual needs, tastes, and preferences of customers, while simultaneously maintaining high quality, modernity, and productivity. This process is difficult because it requires production in small quantities (batches), a short production cycle, and the minimization of work-in-progress inventory levels [3]. The introduction of flexible manufacturing systems into industrial enterprises involves, in addition to the development of manufacturing systems, the necessity of adapting auxiliary processes to the needs of these systems, such as transport, storage, and handling processes. The increasing role of these processes results from changes observed in production organization over recent years.
The article comes from the journal “Logistyka” 2002/3.