LEAN MANUFACTURING VS. FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING(A NEW CONCEPT)

Just another thought !

If I were an automobile manufacturer , I would want my ancillaries ( my component suppliers ) to have flexible manufacturing systems , but whether they were lean or not would not be my concern , but their own ! So being lean is an internal requirement , but being flexible is an external requirement.

I think the question is somewhat questionable. Flexible manufacturing refers to a manufacturing system , whereas Lean manufacturing is a philosophy which can be implemented in several different ways , Kaizen and Six Sigma being two such approaches to Lean manufacturing.

In the automobile industry , manufacturing in the 1970s was quite rigid , which is why we had the Ambassador in its original avatar for 3 decades. Today new models , from the same manufacturer , keep coming out with monotonous regularity , to the extent we have as many models of cars as we have of soaps and shampoos ! This is only possible through flexible manufacturing , which Isha has written about.

Lean manufacturing cuts out the waste from your manufacturing processes and systems , whereas flexible manufacturing makes your manufacturing nimble and responsive. If you consider a human body , lean means one is muscular and tough , while flexible means one is athletic and has quick reflexes. A person can be one without the other.

hi Isha, thanks for referring this question.i feel basic essence in lean manufacturing is flexibility itself.if we are looking at both of them in a different way, then, we have categorize each unit/step in any process starting from man to machine in a very simple means and lot of QCO's has to be designed for frequent changes.the most difficult part in any flexibility is the human being and still there is no defined system to make human more flexible to changes and adoptability measures.

Lean Manufacturing is a good one,provided you train as per the concept people from the shop floor to top management,Actually the practice is on a reverse.Only the Top core people get training and they try to pressurize the middle management for implementation of lean system without actually taking confidence of shop floor associates.
The simple thing required for acheiving the desired production/efficiency is that we have to plan SOP and abide by that.This takes care about all the requirements in present business scenerio

Dear Manish you should understand what is lean. Lean provides very flexible manufacturing system. Kanban.

Earlier cost was the primary concern. Later quality became a priority. As the market became more and more complex, speed of delivery became something customer also needed. A new strategy was formulated: Customizability. The companies have to adapt to the environment in which they operate, to be more flexible in their operations and to satisfy different market segments (customizability). Thus the innovation of FMS became related to the effort of gaining competitive advantage. 
First of all, FMS is a manufacturing technology. 
Secondly, FMS is a philosophy. "System" is the key word. Philosophically, FMS incorporates a system view of manufacturing. The buzz word for today’s manufacturer is "agility". An agile manufacturer is one who is the fastest to the market, operates with the lowest total cost and has the greatest ability to "delight" its customers. FMS is simply one way that manufacturers are able to achieve this agility. 

Advantage of FMS:
•Faster, lower- cost changes from one part to another which will improve capital utilization. 
•Lower direct labor cost, due to the reduction in number of workers 
•Reduced inventory, due to the planning and programming precision 
•Consistent and better quality, due to the automated control 
•Lower cost/unit of output, due to the greater productivity using the same number of workers 
•Savings from the indirect labor, from reduced errors, rework, repairs and rejects 
  

Yes this Flexible manufacturing system the FMS is what most of the production companies should go for flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a manufacturing system in which there is some amount of flexibility that allows the system to react in the case of changes, whether predicted or unpredicted. This flexibility is generally considered to fall into two categories,  The first category, MACHINE FLEXIBILITY, covers the system's ability to be changed to produce new product types, and ability to change the order of operations executed on a part. The second category is called ROUTING FLEXIBILITY, which consists of the ability to use multiple machines to perform the same operation on a part, as well as the system's ability to absorb large-scale changes, such as in volume, capacity, or capability. SO FMS surely helps.....