1. General

Figure 1 shows a flexible workshop that was built (except for the assembly part) at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. Looking at this diagram, it's easy to see what a manufacturing system should be, even if cost considerations have led to elements being linked that should have been separated.

We see machines (CT turning centers and CU machining centers) capable of flexibly machining a priori undefined parts belonging to two families (this grouping would probably not have been made in industry): casings or housings, with their sub-assembly (in geometric and informational terms), the covers; and shafts, comprising all the basic parts of revolution and their sub-assembly, the short basic parts of revolution (i.e. still able to be machined in the air) or disks....