9525745 Abdel-Malek In adopting flexible manufacturing technologies, companies must design new machines, processes, and systems that can produce different products in different volumes and mixes with shorter production leadtimes. This project aims to develop a process to manage the design, justification, and implementation of affordable technological solutions that will enable flexible manufacturing. Two industrial partners will collaborate in collecting organizational, technical, operational, and economic data; forming case studies of activity based costing in past technology projects; and validating the analytical approaches in the flexibility models that result from this research. While the results should be generally applicable in many industry sectors, the emphasis will be on traditional manufacturers of electro-mechanical assemblies and products such as pumps, motors, aeronautical sub-systems, and farm equipment. This project will result in a new process for designing effective and affordable flexible manufacturing solutions that individual firms can use to foster innovative design in their own factories. The framework will be tested and fine-tuned in collaboration with industry, and simple software for managers will be developed.
