Towards Flexible Production Facilities

1. Present-day industry, in particular engineering, is defined by the fact that its products – machine-tools, devices, instruments, etc.- are normally produced for a very short period of time and replaced by other more advanced products. The range of products is growing and the size of batches is decreasing. The new production environment has brought about new requirements. Thus, for example, earlier functionally "rigid" automatic production lines require considerable changes to be introduced or the line to be fully dismantled when the factory switches to a new product. Unlike the above lines, flexible production lines can be switched over to a new product virtually instantaneously. When operated on a 24-hour basis, these lines need only a minimal team of operators to attend the production.

2. A set of modules can be combined by a transport-and-storage system and a control system into a production line (or a production area). In Russia such lines from the basis for automated workshops capable of producing 100-250 parts of similar shape, sizes and requiring similar machining operations (milling, cutting, drilling, etc.).

3. The highest level of a flexible production facility, an automatic factory, incorporates several flexible production workshops. Such a factory has both automated equipment and automated services, including computer-aided design of products and processes, and software development for its control systems. Such automated factories are being designed and are expected to become fully operational in the near future. Russia and other industrialized countries are currently making use of flexible modules and workshops.

Four Industrial Revolutions

The history of mechanical engineering goes back to the time when the man first tried to make machines. We can call the earlier rollers, levers and pulleys, for example, the work of mechanical engineering.

Mechanical engineering, as we understand it today, starts from the first Industrial Revolution.

People have labeled as "revolutions" three episodes in the industrial history of the world and now we are entering the fourth.

The first industrial revolution took place in England between 1760 an 1840. Metal became the main material of the engineer instead of wood, and steam gave man great reserves of power. This power could drive not only railway engines and ships but also the machines which built them.

In the second revolution, from 1880 to 1920, electricity was the technical driving force. It provided power for factories that was easier and cheaper to control than steam. It was marked also by the growing importance of science-based industries such as chemicals and electrical goods, and the use of scientifically-designed production methods such as semi-automatic assembly lines.

The third industrial revolution coincided with the advent of automation – in its inflexible form. In this revolution, the main features were advances in the control of manufacturing processes so that things could be made more cheaply, with greater precision and (often) with fewer people. And this change which occurred around the middle of this century, also featured a new machine that was to greatly influence the world, the electronic computer.

What is the fourth industrial revolution?

The fourth industrial revolution will be characterized by automated machines that are versatile and programmable and can make different things according to different sets of computer instructions. It will be characterized by flexible, automated machinery, the most interesting example of which are robots.