The impact of using flexible manufacturing systems on quality management practices

Current literature on flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) shows that FMS can facilitate the progress toward enterprise integration. It has been reported in many studies that FMS makes the transition to agility faster and easier. In addition, FMS can impact almost every process at the operational level. In this paper, we examine how the intensity of FMS affects some aspects of quality management, an issue that has not been fully addressed in the literature. The data used for this study were collected from five industries in the USA. These are: aerospace; electronics; industrial and farm equipment; metal product; and motor vehicle and parts. The findings of this study indicate that FMS users differ in most of their quality management practices from the non-users. The implications of this study are useful for both academics and practitioners.