The local engineering school that once trained people for watchmaking now has a research center for flexible manufacturing.

Mark was a co-founder of the company Savoir, which developed software tools for flexible manufacturing.

In theory, flexible manufacturing will let them build any combination of vehicles in one factory, regardless of size, design or body style.

But flexible manufacturing not only makes the employer more profitable and workers more productive, it takes away power from the union.

Humber introduced flexible manufacturing and was a pioneer in introducing computer applications in technology programs.

Another Lean approach is to aim to have flexible manufacturing through small production lot sizes since this smoothes production.

It also is a reflection of modern, so-called flexible manufacturing.

That means inventory performance measures are crucial to determining the impact of information technology and flexible manufacturing.

This flexible manufacturing makes it possible, at least in theory, to produce models in small volumes but realize the cost advantages of mass production.

They are also useful in - flexible manufacturing systems'- robots that can be programmed to do a variety of jobs.