Int. J.
Production Economics 62 (1999) 1}6
Editorial
Design and implementation of agile manufacturing systems
A. Gunasekaran*
Department of Management, University of Massachusetts, North Dartmouth, MA 02747, USA
Agile manufacturing (AM) has been de"ned as the
capability of surviving and prospering in the com-
petitive environment of continuous and unpredict-
able change by reacting quickly and e!ectively to
changing markets, driven by customer-designed
products and services. Critical to successfully ac-
complishing agile manufacturing are a few enabling
technologies such as the standard for the exchange
of products (STEP), concurrent engineering, virtual
manufacturing, component-based hierarchical
shop #oor control system, and information and
communication infrastructure, etc. [1]. The AM
should lower manufacturing costs, increase market
share, satisfy the customer requirements, facilitate
rapid introduction of new products, eliminate non-
value added activities and increase manufacturing
competitiveness [2,3].
The prime objective of the special issue is to
present original works and interesting case studies
arising from research on the evolving technologies
and concepts of AM, and the design and implemen-
tation of agile manufacturing systems (AMSs). This
special issue will help to develop the ideas and
technologies of production for agile manufacturing
as company wide strategies to reduce the lead times
in all areas of manufacturing.
Papers appear in this special issue deal with the
design and implementation of AMSs and present
* Corresponding author. Tel.: #1 508 999-9187; fax: #1 508
999-8776; e-mail: agunasekaran@umassd.edu.
0925-5273/99/$ - see front matter  1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 5 - 5 2 7 3 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 2 1 6 - 3
strategic frameworks, conceptual and analytical
models (including object oriented business process
modelling and programming), and case studies fo-
cusing on the design, justi"cation, tools/enablers
and implementation of agile manufacturing sys-
tems. Also, some papers deal with rapid prototyp-
ing, supply chain management, quick response
manufacturing, concurrent engineering, rapid part-
nership formation, design for the life cycle function,
computer-integrated manufacturing, lean produc-
tion, reengineering, integrated product/produc-
tion/business information system, physically
distributed teams and manufacturing, and virtual
manufacturing. In addition, related topics such as
CAD/CAE, CAM, JIT and FMS with reference to
AM are discussed [3].
As we are approaching the 21st century, manu-
facturing success and survival are becoming in-
creasingly di$cult to ensure. This fact is rooted in
the emergence of a new business era that has
`changea of its major characteristics. This critical
situation has led to a major revision in the business
priorities, strategic vision, and viability of conven-
tional and even relatively contemporary models
and methods developed so far. The emphasis is now
on adaptability to change in the business environ-
ment and a proactive way of approaching market
and customer needs through newly evolved co-
operation methods such as virtual organization.
In the new and emerging AM paradigm, where
multiple "rms cooperate under #exible virtual
2 A. Gunasekaran/Int. J. Production Economics 62 (1999) 1}6
enterprise structures, there exists a great need for
a mechanism to manage and control information
#ow among collaborating partners [4]. This is
a step forward in generation of new means for
better performance and success of businesses, and
in practice is a strategic approach to manufactur-
ing, considering the new conditions of the business
environment. Responding to changes, and taking
advantage of them through strategic utilization of
managerial and manufacturing methods and tools,
are the pivotal concepts of agile manufacturing.
Shari" and Zhang in their paper `A methodology
for Achieving Agility in Manufacturing Organiza-
tions: An Introductiona discuss the concepts and the
development of methodology to achieve agility
based on them. They have given an introduction to
the subject followed by a detailed discussion of the
proposed methodology. Some preliminary results
of this study are reported as well.
The paper `Application of Information ¹echno-
logy to a <irtual Enterprise Broker: ¹he Case of Bill
Epsteina by Faisst, Kanet and Mertens examines
the potential role of information technology (IT) in
so-called virtual enterprises (VE). They do this by
providing a case study of the entrepreneur Bill
Epstein. They brie#y describe Epstein's activities,
who himself does not make heavy use of IT and
present a tool box of possible IT which would
support VE broker activities.
Agile manufacturing is seen as the winning
strategy to be adopted by manufacturers bracing
themselves for dramatic performance to become
national and international leaders in an increasing-
ly competitive market of fast changing customer
requirements. The paper `Agile Manufacturing: ¹he
Drivers, Concepts and Attributesa by Yusuf, Sarhadi
and Gunasekaran identi"es the drivers of agility
and discusses the portfolio of competitive advant-
ages that have emerged over time as a result of the
changing requirements of manufacturing. The need
to achieve the competitive advantage of manufac-
turing in synergy without trade-o! is fundamental
to the agile paradigm. To further understanding
of agility, this paper reviews the meaning of agility
from di!erent perspectives and suggests a compre-
hensive de"nition which can be adopted as a
working de"nition by practitioners. Four under-
lining concepts of agility have emerged from the
working de"nition and the paper presents a repres-
entation of these concepts and their interactions.
Finally, the paper highlights some of the key en-
ablers of agility and identi"es potential future re-
search directions.
Various classes of computerised manufacturing
control system (MCS) have emerged during recent
decades. Potentially, they have the capability to
help co-ordinate and control product realizing op-
erations, by imposing the use of suitable business
rules and organizational constraints. Therefore,
their use can improve the e$ciency and e!ec-
tiveness with which a company deploys its valuable
resources. The paper `MCSARCH: An Architec-
ture for the Development of Manufacturing Control
Systemsa by Aguirre, Weston, Martin and Ajuria
explains that this situation can, to a signi"cant
degree, be attributed to unsatisfactory character-
istic properties of contemporary classes of MCS,
where these properties are inherited directly from
the way in which such systems are designed and
implemented. Indeed contemporary approaches to
MCS design and construction are geared to produ-
cing essentially one-o! systems. As a result they
make limited use of modern system design methods
and concepts and do not promote the reuse of
standards and component building blocks. Invari-
able custom MCS design and build leads to very
high cost systems and long installation lead-times.
Furthermore, resultant systems are often character-
ized by their lack of robustness and lack of #exibil-
ity. Therefore, seldom will contemporary forms of
MCS readily enable change. This is a major im-
pediment to the successful application of MCS in
manufacturing environments which are dynamic in
nature. It follows that contemporary forms of MCS
have particularly limited application on the pro-
duction shop #oor in small and medium enterprises
(SMEs). Even in static environments it is di$cult to
justify a major investment in any type of IT system.
Hence, very seldom it will be possible to justify the
use of in#exible systems in environments character-
ised by near constant change } this being common-
place in SMEs.
An architecture for the development of manufac-
turing control systems, called MCSARCH, has
been developed to reduce the e!ort needed to pro-
duce shop #oor control systems. The approach is
 A. Gunasekaran/Int. J. Production Economics 62 (1999) 1}6
a natural extension of the use of Object}Oriented
(OO) software development techniques. It uni"es
the use of several manufacturing and communica-
tion standards which individually were conceived
to address `a particular aspect of the way in which
systems should be designed and builta. These stan-
dards are standard exchange for product model
data (STEP) (ISO 10303), manufacturing message
speci"cation (MMS) (ISO 9506), and common ob-
ject request broker architecture (COBRA) (OMG,
1887). This has required solutions to complex ques-
tions such as how MMS and COBRA `conceptsa
and `mechanismsa be integrated in a #exible but
e!ective way. Means of achieving the integration
are `embeddeda into the MCSARCH architecture
and approach. To implement the MCSARCH and
approach a computer-aided software engineering
(CASE) tool has been speci"ed. The particular im-
plementation of the speci"cation produced in this
study has been referred to as MCSTOOLS and has
been developed in a `proof of concepta form in
order to validate concepts embedded within the
MCSARCH architecture, as well as to de"ne en-
capsulation proposals for the di!erent elements
which comprise that architecture. The resultant sys-
tems engineering environment, i.e. MCSTOOLS,
allows semi-automatic MCS development. The
overall environment comprises means of support-
ing use of the uni"ed modelling language (UML)
and of C>> developer environments; using
C>> language extensions for multithreading, per-
sistence and distributed computing. This tool has
also provided its use as research tool to study
various aspects of the MCS domain.
Agility is interpreted as using market knowledge
and a virtual corporation to exploit pro"table op-
portunities in a volatile market place. This requires
the slashing of process lead times throughout the
chain. However, Mason}Jones and Towill in their
paper `¹otal Cycle ¹ime Compression and the Agile
Supply Chaina demonstrate that such action is sim-
ply not enough to enable agility. Similar steps must
also be taken to reduce information lead times,
resulting in the concept of the `Information En-
richeda supply chain. Simulation results on realistic
models of fashion trade supply chains con"rm the
superior agility resulting from information enrich-
ment. Their paper concludes with a route-map in-
3
dicating the steps to be taken in achieving supply
chain agility in real world scenarios.
Weng in his paper `Risk-Pooling over Demand
;ncertainty in the Presence of Product Modularitya
studies the e!ect of risk-pooling over demand un-
certainty of multiple products sharing product
modularity in two-echelon distribution. The distri-
bution system consists of a distribution center and
n retailers, each of which supplies random demand
for m products. The modular product design pro-
vides management an opportunity for using the
most capable product, which is also the most ex-
pensive, as joint bu!er stock to substitute for other
products when a stock occurs at a retailer. He
developed models to study the e!ect of retailer joint
bu!er stock on the system's expected operating
costs, including bu!er stock holding costs, backor-
der costs, and purchasing costs. The results indicate
that substantial savings are possible through em-
ployment of joint bu!er stock. The cost reduction
depends critically upon the customer service level
desired, as well as the diverse degree of variance in
end-of-period net inventory across all products and
all retailers. His study provides managerial insights
into basic e!ects of risk-pooling over demand un-
certainty through product modularity.
Manufacturing processes based on AM are char-
acterized by customer}supplier integrated process
for product design, manufacturing, marketing, and
support services. This needs decision-making at
functional knowledge levels, stable unit costs, #ex-
ible manufacturing, easy access to integrated data,
and modular production facilities. AM requires en-
riching of the customer, co-operating with competi-
tors, organizing to manage change, uncertainty and
complexity, and leveraging people and information.
In the recent years, a number of research papers
have been published on AM [5}7]. However,
a framework for the development of AM has not
received due attention from both researchers and
practitioners. Realizing the importance of agile
manufacturing systems in the 21st century manu-
facturing competitiveness, Gunasekaran in his
paper `Agile Manufacturing: A Framework for Re-
search and Developmenta made an attempt to re-
view the literature on AM with the objective to: (i)
identify key strategies and techniques of agile
manufacturing, (ii) suggest some future research
4 A. Gunasekaran/Int. J. Production Economics 62 (1999) 1}6
directions and (iii) develop a framework for the
development of AMSs along four key dimensions,
viz. strategies, technologies, systems and people.
As the lean thinking and agile manufacturing
paradigms have been developed there has been
a tendency to view them in a progression and in
isolation. The article `¸eagility: Integrating the
¸ean and Agile Manufacturing Paradigms in the
¹otal Supply Chaina by Naylor, Naim and Berry
shows that this is too simplistic a view. The use of
either paradigm has to be combined with a total
supply chain strategy particularly considering mar-
ket knowledge and positioning of the decoupling
point as agile manufacturing is best suited to sat-
isfying a #uctuating demand and lean manufactur-
ing requires a level schedule. This view is supported
by consideration of a PC supply chain case study.
Agile manufacturing is complementary to quick
response } an initiative initially developed for the
textiles, clothing and footwear industry. Quick re-
sponse manufacturing (QRM) is an expansion of
time-based competition (TBC) strategies which use
speed for a competitive advantage. Essentially,
QRM stems from a single principle } reducing lead
times [8]. Quick response refers fundamentally to
speed-to-market of products which move rapidly
through the production and delivery cycle, from
raw materials and component suppliers, to manu-
facturer, to retailer and "nally to end consumers.
The paper `Quick Response Supply Chain Alliances
in the Australian ¹extiles, Clothing and Footwear
Industrya by Perry, Sohal and Rumpf describes the
processes that were occurring as part of the Austra-
lian government funded quick response program in
the textiles, clothing and footwear industry. This
includes workshop meetings involving supply chain
partners where sel"sh `wish listsa were openly dis-
cussed leading to the development of common
quick response goals and open communication.
Their paper also presented a model of e!ective
communication and multidimensional information
#ow necessary for quick response supply chain
alliances. Finally, they identify the key factors that
led to the successful outcomes from the Australian
quick response program.
AM embraces a wealth of ideas, including inno-
vative alliances between suppliers, customers, and
manufacturers in the relenting pursuit of value, and
powerful concepts of technology enabled agility.
These alliances and concepts are integrated with
and characterized by #at organizations, team
production, empowerment, customization, and
concern of societal issues [9]. Strategic interor-
ganizational alliance that aids organizations is
gaining competitive advantages and improving
production e$ciencies. Network organizations, vir-
tual corporations, and value-adding partnerships
are envisioned by many experts as the epitome of
interorganizational alliances for the 21st century.
These multiorganizational structures are viewed as
a solution for rapid introduction of products while
maintaining high quality and minimal costs. One
common key issue in designing these new forms of
organizations is the partner selection process. The
business processes (`owneda by organizational
partners) must both individually and as group, be
e$cient. The paper `A Framework for Designing
E.cient Organizational Networksa by Talluri,
Baker and Sarkis proposes a two phase quantitat-
ive framework to aid the decision making process
in partner selection to most e!ectively select part-
ners that may "t within a globally e$cient enter-
prise. Phase 1 identi"es e$cient candidates for each
type of business process (e.g. inbound logistics, de-
sign, manufacturing, outbound logistics, etc.) utilis-
ing data envelopment analysis. Phase 2 involves the
execution of a goal programming model to deter-
mine the best portfolio of partners based on a num-
ber of objectives. Model application and insights
are evident through an illustrative example.
Critical to the success of an AMS is to recon-
"gure the manufacturing cell and to integrate many
disparate elements contained in cells. Therefore,
rapid modelling and reusable modelling capabili-
ties are demanded. Zhang, Gu, Li and Duan in
their paper `Object-oriented Modelling of Control
System for Agile Manufacturing Cellsa discuss the
object-oriented modelling for cell control system.
This paper de"nes manufacturing entity object
(MEO) as reusable building block of modelling and
addresses the structure of manufacturing entity ob-
ject. MEO modelling scheme facilitates the process
of modelling.
The business environment is one which is ever
more demanding on companies, due to its cheer
dynamism, which means that they are constantly
 A. Gunasekaran/Int. J. Production Economics 62 (1999) 1}6
having to improve their manufacturing perfor-
mance. Organizations are continuously having to
cope with changing markets that are unpredictable
and more diversi"ed, increasing global competition
and ever changing customer demands. Companies
now have to be able to not only predict variations
and changes within the market and socio-economic
and political environments but must also be able to
adapt and change according to these environments.
As a result, this demands that an organization
develops and sustains an inherent ability to con-
tinuously change. Such a demand can be met by
adopting the management philosophy of AM. In
embracing such an approach, there are many key
concepts and enabling technologies that are re-
quired to be able to implement AM and many
companies do not know how far down the path
they are towards becoming agile manufacturing
organizations. Hence, in providing a deeper under-
standing, the paper `=orking ¹owards Agile Manu-
facturing in the ;K Industrya by Sharp, Irani and
Desai proposes a conceptual model, based on joint
research, which has been developed to identify
where UK's best practice companies are in their
quest to become AM organizations. In support of
this, a questionnaire has been developed and com-
pleted by best practitioners of manufacturing, to
assess the model, and establish whether they are
making progress to becoming AM organisations.
In summary, the objective of the special issue on
agile manufacturing has been achieved in terms of
bringing to the fore certain key characterization of
agile manufacturing organizations along four key
dimensions, viz. strategies, technologies, people and
systems. As it could be seen that agile manufactur-
ing system is still in the development stage, there-
fore, it is hoped this particular special issue will
motivate the researchers/practitioners in AM and
its systems design by o!ering some insights into the
development of AMSs. The following are some of
the issues that could be highlighted as the major
observations from these special issue contributions:
(1) Suitable strategies have been discussed for the
development of agile manufacturing. These
strategies mainly focus on virtual enterprise,
supply chain management and concurrent en-
gineering.
5
(2) Real life experiences in developing virtual en-
terprises have been presented to highlight
some major issues such as rapid partnership
formation and the role of information techno-
logy in developing communication systems.
(3) A fair attempt has been made in this special
issue to present a range of de"nitions of agile
concepts from a multidimensional perspective
and to identify the major attributes of AM
based on key competitive bases such as pro-
ductivity, quality, responsiveness, proactivity
and #exibility.
(4) A range of architectures have been discussed for
the development of AM taking into account the
role of information technology, temporary
alliances and physically distributed "rms.
(5) Certain modelling methodologies and tools
have been developed for the development of
AMSs. These tools mainly concentrate on the
application of object-oriented models and pro-
gramming using C## and other commercial
softwares such as Shell, Extend, Witness, Arena,
Visual Basic and Microsoft Project.
(6) Other allied strategies to achieve agility such
as supply chain #exibility, reduction of in-
formation leadtimes, reengineering, rapid
product development have been analyzed.
(7) The idea of product modularity has been ex-
plored for the purpose of improving agility in
changing market requirements.
(8) A comprehensive framework has been de-
veloped for developing AMSs along four di-
mensions such as strategies, technologies,
systems, and people.
(9) Some case studies have also been presented
with the objective to identify the key at-
tributes of AM. This includes quick response
manufacturing, strategic alliances across sup-
ply chain and open communication through
multidimensional information #ow.
(10) AM organizations are characterized based on
innovative alliances between suppliers, cus-
tomers and manufacturers, agile-enabled
technologies, #at organizations, team produc-
tion and empowerment. Also, developed op-
erations research models for the representing
the organizational characteristics and analy-
sis of AM enterprises.
6 A. Gunasekaran/Int. J. Production Economics 62 (1999) 1}6
(11) Object-oriented modelling has been widely
used in modelling agile manufacturing cells.
The reuse and easy recon"gurability of this
modelling approach facilitate the process of
quick modelling and hence the appropriate
decisions for e!ectively controlling AM cells.
Acknowledgements
The editor of this special issue has been satis"ed
by the response to the call for papers on `Design
and Implementation of Agile Manufacturing Sys-
temsa. Each paper was reviewed by two referees.
The guest editor gratefully acknowledges the
assistance provided by Professor Robert W. Grub-
bstroK m, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal
of Production Economics and more than 20 anony-
mous referees who reviewed the manuscripts.
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