FMS Implementation Management: Promise and Performance

At the present time, industry is confronted with ever-increasing customer demand for a wider diversity of products, faster product innovation, shorter delivery times and higher delivery reliability. Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) are widely regarded as a major technological response to this need for increased flexibility. Since the development of the first FMS in 1962, a few hundred FMS have been installed worldwide. The number of companies that have experience in operating an FMS over a long period is very much smaller, so it is hardly known whether, and under what circumstances, the promises of FMS can be achieved. In this article a tentative answer to this question is provided, based on seven case studies of FMS implementation, for which operational experience varied between three and six years.