The invention of reconfigurable manufacturing systems – A survey of RMS early patents

This paper discusses the rationale and history of inventing the Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) in the last decade of the 20th Century. The RMS enables creating “live factories” that can be rapidly changed to respond to new market conditions. This paper is focused on the pioneering RMS patents (1997 to 2006) that legally defined the RMS invention discipline. By quantifying the impact of each RMS-related patent, we identify the three prominent patents that legally define the RMS invention: 1. The reconfigurable manufacturing system patent. 2. The reconfigurable manufacturing machine patent. 3. The reconfigurable inspection machine patent.