This paper covers the typical ills of American manufacturing companies and provides steps to selecting a flexible manufacturing cell(s) or system as a remedy. For that reason various definition of different types of flexibilities in manufacturing and the interrelationships between the several types have been examined. In addition, their purposes, means of obtaining them and some measurement and evaluations has been discussed. This was done to cover the basic but necessary requirements for understanding and selecting a flexible manufacturing system. Finally, the design process of a flexible system and its intuitive justification were discussed.