Metaphors for manufacturing: What could it be like to be a manufacturing system?

Casti, J.L. (1986). Metaphors for manufacturing: What could it be like to be a manufacturing system? Technological Forecasting and Social Change 29 (3) 241-270. 10.1016/S0040-1625(86)80002-6.

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Abstract

In the world of modern manufacturing, considerable emphasis is placed upon properties of manufacturing systems described by the terms “flexibility,” “complexity,” “reliability,” “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.
Our 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.

Item Type:	Article
Research Programs:	System and Decision Sciences - Core (SDS)
Depositing User:	Romeo Molina
Date Deposited:	07 Apr 2016 14:48
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2021 17:26
URI:	https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/12546

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