This volume aims at giving an updated account of the most relevant issues in the area of Flexible Manufacturing Systems with special emphasis to the problems of Simulation, Modelling, Planning, Scheduling, Economical Evaluation. A tutorial description of these topics is provided from the perspective of Operations Research. Both stochastic and deterministic models are taken into consideration and real world applications are considered. An annotated bibliography is provided at the end of the volume. Contributions: Akella: Real time part dispatch in flexible assembly, test and manufacturing...