ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS FOR EFFICIENT SMALL-SCALE PRODUCTION.

The paper presents a review of the literature and summarizes recent developments in flexible manufacturing systems, looks at some of their underlying principles, and considers the introduction of these into local manufacturing industry. It is concluded that increasing emphasis should initially be placed on the development and acceptance of N/C machining, low-cost automation, group technology and terotechnology, and, most importantly, on an expanded manufacturing engineering education program, including the (re-) training of practicing manufacturing engineers.