Automation is used now-a-days in many industries. A flexible manufacturing system is a part of programmable automation. Here the machine tools are being linked with the material handling systems and all these aspects are being controlled by the central computer. The disadvantages of the programmable automation can be solved by the use of flexible automation. The main disadvantages of programmable automation are the time required for reprogramming and changing the production equipment for new production. The change in the production equipment leads to the expensive production cost and the change over of the equipment is done easily as the product varieties are very limited.
Flexible automation improves the quality of the products and also improves the productivity. Large corporations are using this flexible automation with the help of robots. And the usage of robots is being increased from welding techniques to fiber optic manufacturing components. The fixed automation has some of the advantages over the flexible automation like speed, and even the quality and quantity of production but the flexibility cannot be achieved by using the fixed automation. The robot is defined as reprogrammable, multifunctional device and also performs variety of programs by using variable programmed motions. Robots offer flexibility and even versatility.
Flexible automation is the type of manufacturing automation which offers flexibility. Flexibility is the ability of making products in a very short time interval. In some cases even the flexible automation system also uses the computer numerically controlled methods which are used for making productivity of any manufacturing system more.
Thus the Flexible Automation is the global diffusion of new technology in the engineering industries.