Production Systems of Biological Cell

Abstract

Biological cells are complex, sophisticated and very efficient production systems. They have survived and managed to evolve due to their abilities to adapt and to react promptly to environmental changes. The need to respond on changes on time, has resulted in a specific production system that uses small set of common building blocks that circulate in local recycling loops, and is able to add, remove or renew the needed “equipment” in a very short, critical time. The paper proposes a framework for studying autonomous manufacturing systems, and under such a framework it develops a unified view toward unicellular organisms and autonomous manufacturing systems. It also proposes a conceptual model of autonomous manufacturing that covers both biological systems and human made FMSs, and restates the central dogma of genetics as central dogma of flexible manufacturing. The knowledge that we have about these biological manufacturing systems could be used in building of the new generation of manufacturing systems. This paper is pointing out the analogies and some differences between the Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs) and the production systems of the biological cell.