The objective of this paper is to report some of the findings of three years research work carried out within a number of manufacturing engineering companies both in England and in Brazil. All the companies belong to the automotive industry. The objective of the overall research was to analyze the relationships between the variables uncertainty variability of outputs and flexibility in manufacturing systems. The findings which are discussed here are a co-product of the overall research and are related to the flexibility of the structural (human and technological) manufacturing resources. A new way of looking at the stocks and its role in the manufacturing system's flexibility is derived from this alternative approach.
Flexiblity; flexible manufacturing systems; strategic inventory