ABSTRACT
FMS has, to most companies involved, resulted in significant improvements in competitiveness through lower manufacturing and operating costs, increased responsiveness and better quality products Ngum(1989). Until recently, the application of concepts associated with FMS, showed an expected upward trend, indicating the desire by companies to consolidate their competitive positions. Unfortunately, the beginning of the 1990s saw, in the UK and most industrialised countries, a slump in imports and exports of manufactured goods. In the UK, this
manifested itself in reductions in manpower and factory closures. The difficulties in a recession, is the reduction in a company’s skill-base, capital reserves and effects in the event of a recovery. FMS and related forms of automation could, for some of these companies, be the step forward as they struggle to regain their competitive positions.
