  A mechanism to generate realistic fermion mass hierarchies based on
supersymmetric gauged $U(1)_F$ symmetry in flat five-dimensional (5D) spacetime
is proposed. The fifth dimension is compactified on $S^1/Z_2$ orbifold. The
standard model fermions charged under the extra abelian symmetry along with
their superpartners live in the 5D bulk. Bulk masses of fermions are generated
by the vacuum expectation value of $N=2$ superpartner of $U(1)_F$ gauge field,
and they are proportional to $U(1)_F$ charges of respective fermions. This
decides localization of fermions in the extra dimension, which in turn gives
rise to exponentially suppressed Yukawa couplings in the effective 4D theory.
Anomaly cancellation puts stringent constraints on the allowed $U(1)_F$ charges
which leads to correlations between the masses of quarks and leptons. We
perform an extensive numerical scan and obtain several solutions for
anomaly-free $U(1)_F$, which describe the observed pattern of fermion masses
and mixing with all the fundamental parameters of order unity. It is found that
the possible existence of SM singlet neutrinos substantially improves the
spectrum of solutions by offering more freedom in choosing $U(1)_F$ charges.
The model predicts $Z^\prime$ boson mediating flavour violating interactions in
both the quark and lepton sectors with the couplings which can be explicitly
determined from the Yukawa couplings.
