The Applications of Flexible Manufacturing Technologies in Business Process Reengineering

Through radical redesign of business processes and systems, policies, and organizational structures, the business process reengineering (BPR) effort was initiated in the manufacturing industry to seek performance breakthroughs. This paper describes a novel approach to the BPR, which applies flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs) design and analysis technologies, such as simulation, multicriteria decision support, and artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies are integrated to design and analyze specific FMS models related to the proposed technical and managerial changes in an industrial case. First, the literature is reviewed to obtain an understanding of the BPR concept and the role of FMS design and analysis in BPR. Second, a decision-making support system is developed to illustrate how the FMS design and analysis would affect BPR. Finally, a summary of the integrated approach practice in industry and conclusions are presented. The paper shows that the key to a successful BPR approach is the identification and analysis of specific proposed models. It also demonstrates that the integrated approach enables engineers to improve the efficiency of BPR.