Further Aspects of Fractal Manufacturing

As already stated, the performance of a manufacturing system is not only given by the degree of automation but primarily by the manufacturing mode, i.e. how the equipment is operated (modus operandi). However, the cost of a manufacturing system is heavily influenced primarily by the degree of automation as well as equipment and not by the modus operandi. The overall performance lies in the intelligence of how the manufacturing system is designed to operate, and which controls are implemented to maintain a high throughput, i.e. exit rate (ER). Apart from the rational beauty of a perfect theory, such as JIT systems represent, an additional important aspect which must be considered is the practical aspect of implementation and operating cost.