FlexibleFactory

The Flexible Factory

There is a widespread belief that software engineering is an immature field that has yet to catch up with more mature engineering disciplines, since there remains such a deep reliance on handcrafting as a means of production. In light of the nature of software, this belief is exaggerated at best. Other engineering disciplines are similarly struggling when aiming at methods to systematically create new factories, especially flexible ones. Amusingly, other engineering disciplines, when faced with the problem of creating factories, sometimes look to software engineering for insights. It’s an inherently difficult problem, one unlikely to yield to simple solutions.

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by Clemens Szyperski and David G. Messerschmitt

Reproduced from answers.com:

Objective of a flexible factory is to provide a wide range of services across many product lines in a timely manner. An example is a fabrication plant with several integrated manufacturing cells that can perform many functions for unrelated product lines with relatively short lead times.