Changes and disturbances in manufacturing systems: A comparison of emerging concepts

Changes and disturbances are of major concerns in manufacturing shopfloors as they would result in daily operation disruptions, and cause difficulties for companies to forecast and realise production plans. The capability of a company to rapidly respond to such issues is important to gain competitive advantage in the market. This review paper compares the response of emerging manufacturing systems to changes and disturbances. A review of various studies is presented on changes and disturbances in manufacturing, with particular attention to four known concepts namely holonic, biological, reconfigurable, and agile manufacturing systems. A number of criteria are then used to compare the performance of these manufacturing systems.