Introduction
Business are witnessing unprecedented changes today. New Products, new processes, new technologies, new markets, and even new competitors are appearing and disappearing within short periods of time. Historically, mass production has evolved into lean production. Now lean production is evolving into agile manufacturing. Until the 1950s companies focused on productivity improvement and in the 60s and 70s they concentrated on quality enhancement. In the eighties, while companies worked hard to achieve flexibility, in the 90s they are challenged by the need to increase agility. To review current issues in agility, this article describes the market forces that demand agility, the elements that constitute agility, agility enablers, and agility implementation.
Elements of Agility
The central idea in agile manufacturing is that an enterprise should be built on the competitive foundations of continuous improvement, rapid response, quality improvement, social responsibility, and...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
DeVor, R., Graves, R. and Mills, J. J. (1997). “Agile Manufacturing Research: Accomplishments and Opportunities,” IIE Transactions, 29, 813–823.
Dove, R. (1996). Tools for Analyzing and Constructing Agile Capabilities, Agility Forum, Bethlehem,PA.
Dove, R., Hartman, S. and Benson, S. (1996). An Agile Enterprise Reference Model with a Case Study of Remmele Engineering, Agile Forum, Bethlehem, PA.
Goldman, S. L., Nagel, R. N.. and Presiss, K. (1995). Agile Competitors and Virtual Organizations, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, NY.
Herrin, G. E. (1996). “Industry thrust areas of TEAM,” Modern Machine Shop, 69, 146–147.
Kaplan, G. (1993). “Manufacturing S La Carte — Agile Assembly Lines, Faster Development Cycles,” IEEE Spectrum, 30, 24–34.
Kidd, P. T. (1994). Agile Manufacturing-Forging New Frontiers, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Wokingham, England.
Lau, R. S.M. (1995). “Mass Customization: The Next Industrial Revolution,” Industrial Management, 37, 18–19.
Pine II, J. B. (1993). Mass Customization — The New Frontier in Business Competition, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
Preiss, K. (1995a). Mass, Lean, and Agile as Static and Dynamic Systems, Agility Forum, Bethlehem, PA.
Preiss, K. (1995b). Models of the Agile Competitive Environment, Agility Forum, Bethlehem, PA.
Richards, C. W. (1996). “Agile Manufacturing: Beyond Lean?,” Production and Inventory Management Journal, 37, 60–64.
Roos, D. (1995). Agile/Lean: A Common Strategy for Success, Agility Forum, Bethlehem, PA.
Sheridan, J. H. (1993). “Agile Manufacturing: Beyond Lean Production,” Industry Week, 242, 34–36.
Stipp, D. (1996). “The Birth of Digital Commerce,” Fortune, 134, 159–164.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this entry
Cite this entry
Chinnaiah, P.S.S., Kamarthi, S.V. (2000). AGILE MANUFACTURING . In: Swamidass, P.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Production and Manufacturing Management. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-0612-8_32
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-0612-8_32
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-8630-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-0612-8
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive