Present and future of flexible automation:: Towards new paradigms

Automation has been one of the key drivers of the modern Manufacturing Industry and it has been present in various forms from the beginning of the industrial era until today passing through different evolutions responding to human's needs. Therefore automation and the manufacturing industry have undergone several paradigm changes in the last century. They were driven by the market conditions and society needs and were realized by timely developed engineering enabling technologies that fitted the paradigm requirements. This paper maps the different paradigms in terms of market and societal drivers and process technology enablers in order to show a consistent model of paradigm development, a model that links the product, and the process with the appropriate business model. The Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) have been especially analysed as the major enabler to the mass customization paradigm. Summing up, a mapping methodology, able to map all past, present and future production paradigms, is presented. An example on the footwear sector has also been mapped and presented. The analysis is based on a survey conducted in Europe and the USA mechanical industries during 2002. The analysis, carried out within the CIRP Working Group on "Flexible Automation - Assessment and Future" has shown that new paradigms are emerging beyond flexible automation, paradigms that require addressing new technological challenges. Developing these new enabling technologies requires the establishment of new national RTD programmes. Therefore, the role of past national RTD programmes in developing previous enabling technologies that eventually elevated human wealth and life quality is also briefly mentioned. Foresight scenario building and "roadmapping" activities -taking place in different relevant economic regions- are presented. They point to new paradigms and technologies to be developed and call for new RTD programmes to be launched.