A Review on Flexibility in Manufacturing through Integration & Layout Optimization

The objective of this paper is to understand various types of flexibility in automobile industries to deal with various uncertain demands & products categories. The purpose of this study is to investigate various research questions related to manufacturing flexibility & Flexible manufacturing system (FMS). What are the components of manufacturing flexibility Is there a relationship between manufacturing flexibility and organizational performance Whether integrated strategies strengthen the relationship between manufacturing flexibility and organizational performance This study emphasizes on necessity for flexibility in Manufacturing for Cost savings, improving efficiency & productivity in mass production. Flexibility today means quickness in delivery and high quality at reasonable prices. The research attemts to develop a framework for flexibilty implementation in automobile industries in scenarios of fluctuation in market demands & manucturing capabilties within required times. It starts with examining the different efforts of manufacturing flexibilty improvement in various firms to understand the current focus and use of flexibilty and investgate the problems they are faced with. The study deals with variors scenarios of volume flexiblty and as well mix flexibilty. Manufaturing flexibilty in automobile industries where there are high variations in product categories enforces the need of capcity enhancements & intergrations through layout optimizations. The static version of facilitis layout problem (FLP) where given planer region is divided into departments assuming that material flows in between department & unit cost of transportation is given and will remian same during the planning horizon