Assignment number two EIM 414

Josphat Muchatuta
H1312170C
Question: Zimbabwean manufacturing industry is operating at high production costs
but the adoption of the Flexible Manufacturing concept is an answer to these challenges.
Discuss. [50]

The Zimbabwe manufacturing sector has to lower its production cost so as to improve its
export competitiveness (CZI, 2016). This is due to many factors which include the use of old
technology despite the fact that the country has a lot of skilled manpower and its citizens are
amongst the top users of technology in Africa. The result is a production of many defective
products. Technology can be adopted in the form of group technology (GT) and flexible
manufacturing system (FMS) is the most automated and technologically sophisticated of the
group technology cells. Flexible manufacturing system is a manufacturing technology that
can be adopted and somehow help in the lowering of the production cost. However manually
operated machine cells (also GT) can be argued to produce the same results.
As the name implies, FMS is a manufacturing system or method where there is some level of
flexibility that allows the system to react to predictable/unpredictable changes. The
flexibility in this case is referring primarily on machinery, production, mix, volume,
expansion, product and routing. A manufacturer who practise FMS is faster to market,
operates at low production cost and delights its customers. It also means the ability to make
many different products with little change over time through the use systems like SMED.
Also the ability to modify a part, change a schedule and the ability to handle multiple parts at
the same time.
Operation at high production costs is a challenge, but not the only one challenge faced by the
countrys manufacturing industry. The Zimbabwe manufacturing industry needs to export
more goods and services, of better quality at a faster production rate because of improved
machine efficiency and machine reliability so as to raise its GDP. These are some of the

benefits of FMS which also include lower cost per unit produced, greater labour productivity,
reduced parts inventories, adaptability to CAD/CAM and shorter lead times.
An FMS is a manufacturing system comprising of a set of similar or identical numerically
controlled (NC) machines that are connected by an automated transport system. Processes in
FMS are controlled by computers (Groover M.P, 2002).
Taking a look at the history of FMS, it can be seen that many successfully developed
countries been using FMS in their manufacturing industries for quite some time now. FMS
was originally started in the united kingdom in 1965 (the year when the first patent was
filed), by 1985, 20-25% of FM system installations had been installed in USA which is the
worlds biggest economy. The country should start looking at possible applications of FMS in
its manufacturing sector and the benefits associated it. There is no doubt that most of the
countrys manufacturing companies meets the requirements of installation of FMS which are:

It can be installed at a plant that either produces parts in batches or uses manually
operated GT cells and the management is deciding to automate. The high production
cost is the existing factories problem and it should be addressed first before building

new plants.
It can be installed at a plant where it is possible to group a percentage of the
products/parts family, whose similarities permit them to be processed on the machines
in a family/cell of the FMS. In other words the processing requirements of the parts
must be similar to allow them to be made on the FMS. Again this would not be a
problem to the countrys manufacturing sector, since Zimbabwe is a small developing
country where most countries a producing a few variety of products and therefore

parts would be similar and they can be manufactured using FMS.

FMS is best suited for manufacturing companies with low production volume range.
Most Zimbabwean manufacturing companies are operating way below full capacity,
mostly in the mid-volume, mid-variety production range that is below the normal of
5000-75000 parts/products per year. A FMS is therefore the best alternative though it
would be expensive.

However it can be argued that most companies do not have sufficient funds to install a
flexible manufacturing system and a manually operated machine cell would be the best
solution to the problem since it only requires re-arrangement of existing equipment. Also
opposed by the fact that FMS is technologically sophisticated and would require skilled

labour to operate it. This may be true but Zimbabwe have a lot of skilled manpower and it is
most likely that many companies have already tried the implementation of manually operated
machine cells with little success. The following are some of the benefits associated with the
installation of FMS:
Increased machine utilization: In FMS, one machine would be able to carry out different
tasks and operations to produce different products thus achieving a higher average machine
utilization than a machine in a conventional batch production manufacturing company. FMS
technology is associated with reaching 80-90% machine utilisation (Groover M.P). The
reason behind this is because:

It can be operated 24 hours of the day.

Tools and pallets can be automatically changed at machine tools and workstations

respectively.
Queues of parts at stations
Use of dynamic scheduling of production that takes into account irregularities from
normal operations.

Less machines required: one machine would be able to carry out different tasks and
operations to produce different products, therefore there is no need of having a lot of
machinery. Machines would have greater efficiency.
Reduction in plant floor space required: it also means greater floor space utilization. It has
been found out that FMS reduces floor space to about 40-50% when comparing with the
equivalents of conventional methods currently being used in Zimbabwe. This means that
small medium enterprises can also be easily be set up using FMS. The existing companies
can use less space.
Greater responsiveness to change: this benefit is very import since the objective of making
a product in the manufacturing industry is for it to be sellable. Flexible manufacturing system
improves the ability to adjust to changes be it changes in design, introduction of new
machinery and parts, changes in scheduling, production breakdown and machine failures.
There is need to respond quickly to customer request and also special orders by adjusting or
changing the production schedule. All other factors would not really matter if the product can
be bought based on the capability of the company to respond quickly to the customer.

Reduced inventory requirements: The reason behind this is because different products/parts
are processed together not separately in batches therefore work-in-progress is less compared
to the batch system. Inventory of raw materials and of the final manufactured product is
reduced too. Estimated inventory reductions are said to be between 60 to 80%.
Shorter lead times: lead time is the time taken to process inputs into a product. It is directly
linked with work in progress which was discussed earlier and was said to be lowered as a
result of FMS. This means that lead time will also be reduced leading to faster rates of
delivery to customers or sorter time to market.
Greater labour productivity and lower direct labour: There is an increase in production
rates and the plant will rely less on direct labour resulting in greater productivity/labour-hour
with an FM system as compared to conventional production methods. Estimated labour
savings falls between 30 to 50 percent (Ohno T, 1988)
increased system reliability: this creates the opportunity for the production process to carry
on unattended without fear of breakdowns. FMS are highly automated and therefore will be
able to work for long hours without human interventions. Workers can work 8 hours a day (1
shift) and the machines can be left working the remaining 16 hours of the day, so that the next
day, employees will be handling finished products while machines continue with production.

Conclusion
Indeed the adoption of a flexible manufacturing concept can be the answer to the
Zimbabwean manufacturing companies who are operating at high production cost. However
it is a complicated cost that requires high initial set up costs. It also requires a lot of skilled
labour and pre-planning which the country is extremely capable. Besides implementing FMS
the manufacturing companies can also implement lean manufacturing/6 Sigma principles, use
of research and development, tackling first problems first and implementing product-lifecycle management. (Goriwondo, William M. 2013)

REFERENCES:
1. Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI). (2015). Manufacturing sector survey.
Retrieved October 2, 2016, from http://www. czi.co.zw/CZI_2015.pdf
2. Goriwondo, William M. (2013). Agility for Sustainability in Zimbabwe: A Case Study for
Manufacturing

Companies

in

Bulawayo.

Retrieved

October

2,

2016,

from

http://ir.nust.ac.zw/xmlui/handle/123456789/277
3. Groover, M.P, 2008, Automation, Production Systems and Computer Integrated
Manufacturing
4. Ohno T. 1988, The Toyata production system: beyond large scale production, production
press, Portland, Oregon.
5. Robert H, Hayes and Gary P, Pisano, 1994, Beyond World-Class: The New
Manufacturing Strategy, Havard business review, USA,
6. Gran Roos, 2016, Design-Based Innovation for Manufacturing Firm Success in High
Cost Operating Environments, University of Adelaide, Australia.