METAPHORS FOR MANUFACTURING - WHAT COULD IT BE LIKE TO BE A MANUFACTURING SYSTEM

In the world of modern manufacturing, considerable emphasisis placed upon properties of manufacturing systems described by the terms 'flexibility,' 'complexity,' self-repairing,' and so forth. To understand and deal with such properties, one needs a theoretical framework allowing one to pose and analyze various questions surrounding the meaning and interrelations of these terms. This paper addresses the questions of what sort of system-theoretic frameworks would be likely candidates to form the basis for such a theory of manufacturing. The author's approach to the modeling problem is to examine several different paradigms that have proven useful in other fields - engineering, biology, linguistics, computer science, chemistry - and to explore the degree to which these 'metaphors' can be used to characterize manufacturing systems. The paper concludes with an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each metaphor and a suggestion for a program devoted to further development of the most promising approaches.