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Agile Manufacturing: Concepts and Evolution

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International Journal of Science and Advanced Technology (ISSN 2221-8386)
http://www.ijsat.com
Agile Manufacturing: Concepts and Evolution
Priyank Srivastava
Department of Mechanical Engineering
N.C College of Engineering, Israna,
Panipat, India.
Email id: priyank.cim@gmail.com
Dr. Dinesh Khanduja
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National Institute of Technology,
Kurukshetra, India.
Abstract— Businesses are restructuring and reengineering
themselves in response to the challenges and demands of 21 st
century. The needs of the customer are highly specific and
rapidly changing, although they still want high quality and low
cost products and services. The company should respond to new,
rapid, continuous and predictable changes in environment and
should provide a suitable product or service variety in order to
survive and be competitive. There has been shift in
manufacturing philosophy since the start of industrial
revolution. It has taken a long journey from Craft Production
(1905-1930) to post 2000 Agile Manufacturing.
Keywords-Agile Manufacturing,Lean Manufacturing,Flexible
Manufactuing, Flexible Manufacturing.
I. INTRODUCTION
Over the past two decades a powerful drive by enterprises
and academic institutions has boosted the development and
adoption of new manufacturing initiatives to enhance
business in an increasingly competitive market. The need for
a method of rapidly and cost-effectively developing products,
production facilities and supporting software, including
design, process planning and shop poor control system has
led to the concept of agile manufacturing.
All the manufacturing paradigms have evolved due to one
or other problems as being faced in manufacturing
enterprises. The concepts have shifted from one being
manufacturing strategy to being a business strategy. The
attributes of most of the paradigms are interlinking. The
reason may be like one paradigm is predecessor of the other.
There is a need for differentiating between these paradigms
for their proper utilization.
In this paper, a comparative study of Agile Manufacturing,
Lean Manufacturing, Computer Integrated Manufacturing, and
Flexible Manufacturing has been presented. Existing
knowledge about agile manufacturing, attributes of other
manufacturing terms have been reviewed to extend the
comparative study.
Volume 1 No 9 November 2011
Dr. V.P Agrawal
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
T.I.E.T, Thapar University,
Patiala, India.
Neeraj Grover
Department of Mechanical Engineering
N.C College of Engineering, Israna,
Panipat, India.
Also evolution of Agile Manufacturing paradigm has been
discussed. Evolutions of manufacturing paradigms have been
discussed as industrial age and information and post
information stage.
II. AGILE MANUFACTURING
The term „Agile Manufacturing‟ appeared at the
beginning of the 90s.In 1991, a group of more than 150
industry executives participated in study. Their effort
culminated in a two volume report titled “21 st Century
Manufacturing Enterprise Strategy”. As a result, the Agile
Manufacturing Enterprise Forum (AMEF), affiliated with
Iacocca Institute at Lehigh University, was formed and the
concept of agile manufacturing was introduced.
To understand Agile manufacturing, we should consider
the Iacocca Institute report, which makes three key points:
1. A new competitive environment is emerging, which
is acting as a driving force for change in manufacturing.
2. Competitive advantage will accrue to those
enterprises that develop the capability to rapidly respond to
the demand for high quality, highly customized product.
3. To achieve the agility that is required to respond to
these driving forces and to develop required capability, it is
necessary to integrate flexible technologies with highly
skilled, knowledgeable, motivated and empowered
workforce.
The term agility has been used for assessing the
proactiveness and ability of an enterprise to respond
unpredictable changes in market, customer demand etc. Since
the evolution of buzz word “Agile Manufacturing”,
academicians and industry executives have viewed it in
different ways. Some definitions of Agile Manufacturing
have been listed in the table.
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International Journal of Science and Advanced Technology (ISSN 2221-8386) Volume 1 No 9 November 2011
http://www.ijsat.com
Table1. Definitions of Agile Manufacturing 3. Technology
S.N. Author Definition
4. Strategy
1 Iacocca A manufacturing system with
Institute, Lehigh capabilities (soft technologies, If agile manufacturing is viewed as system, then these key
University human resource, educated dimensions can be viewed as its sub-systems. Figure 2 shows
management, information) to meet sub-sub-systems of agile manufacturing.
rapidly changing needs of the
marketplace ( speed, flexibility,
customers, competitors, suppliers,
infrastructure, responsiveness) [1]
2 Goldman Agility is an overall strategy
focused on thriving in an
unpredictable environment. Focusing
on the individual customer, agile
competition has evolved from
unilateral producer centered
customer responsive companies
inspired by lean manufacturing
refinement of mass production to
interactive producer customer
relationships. [2]
3 Goldman Agile manufacturing system is a
system that is capable of operating
profitably in a competitive
environment of continually and Figure 1: Agile Manufacturing Structure
unpredictably changing customer
opportunities. [3] A more detailed structural diagram for these components
may be:
4 Cho Agile manufacturing can be
defined as the capability of surviving
and prospering in a competitive
environment of continuous and
unpredictable change by reacting
quickly and effectively to changing
markets, driven by customer
designed products and service.[4]
5 Gunasekaran Agile manufacturing is defined
as the capability to survive and
prosper in a competitive environment
of continuous and unpredictable
changes by reacting quickly and
effectively to changing markets,
driven by customer designed product
and demand. [5]
6 Gunasekaran Agile manufacturing is a
business strategy aimed at providing
an enterprise with the capabilities for
success in the current changing Figure 2: Component diagram
environment that demands flexible
solution. [6] III. AGILITY
Agility is the driving force behind the success of Next
Generation Manufacturing System. The agility may be
III. AGILE MANUFACTURING STRUCTURE defined as the ability of an enterprise to rapidly respond to
Agile Manufacturing can be considered as a structure with change in market and customers‟ demands.
in which every company can develop its own business Four elements are required to shape the agile
strategies and products. The structure is supported by three manufacturing [8]:
primary resources: innovative management structure and
organization, a skill base of knowledgeable and empowered 1. Agility Drivers (drivers of agility): Factors that drive
people and flexible and intelligent technologies. Agility is and guide the company in the pursuit of agility. E.g.: market
achieved through the integration of these resources into a trends, competitor‟s actions, customer‟s desires, etc.
coordinated and interdependent system. The four key 2. Strategic abilities: widely regarded as an attribute in
dimensions of AM system can be listed into enabling agile organizations.
subsystems. These key dimensions are [7]:
3. Agility Capabilities (skills that enable agility):
1. People Features that the company should seek to become agile. E.g.:
2. Strategy flexibility, competence, response speed, etc.

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International Journal of Science and Advanced Technology (ISSN 2221-8386) Volume 1 No 9 November 2011
http://www.ijsat.com
4. Agility Providers: The factors available at the 6 Tolone Agility implies effectively
company that can provide agility. E.g.: trained and qualified integrating supply chain and forging
close and long term relationship with
personnel, advanced technologies and organization, working customers and suppliers. [14]
in an integrated manner.

7 Agility is all about customer

Van Hoek responsiveness and market turbulence
and requires specific capabilities that
can be achieved using „lean
thinking‟. [15]

8 Agility is an ability to have

Aitken, visibility of demand, flexible and
Christopher quick response and synchronized
operations. [16]

Most of the researchers have defined agility as ability,

Figure 3: Agility Implementing Model
Since its inception, the concept of agility has grown in
interest among management practitioners and academicians.
Some have been listed in table 2.
Table2. Definitions of Agility
S.N. Authors Definition of Agility
1 Agility means delivering value to
customers, being ready for change,
Goldman, valuing human knowledge and skills,
Nagel, & Preiss and forming virtual partnership. [9]
proactiveness, capability, strategy to negotiate uncertainty in
customer demand, turbulence in market. The main driving
force behind agility is change. Even though change is nothing
new; today‟s change is taking place at a much faster speed
than ever before. Turbulence and uncertainty in the business
environment have become the main causes of failure in the
manufacturing industry. The number of changes and their
type, specification or characteristic cannot be easily
determined and are probably indefinite. To assist managers in
achieving agility better, there have been numerous studies
dedicated to measure the agility of an enterprise. Some
authors proposed integration agility index methods. They
defined the agility index as a combination of measuring
intensity levels of agility capabilities. Thus, the absolute
agility level of company is measured as
(AGILITY index)i = (1)
where Aij is the agility level of capability j of company i..

2 Fliedner & Agility is an ability to produce a

Table 3 gives details of different tools used by researchers
Vokurka, broad range of low-cost, high quality for assessment of agility.
products with short lead times in
Table3. Agility Measurement tools
varying lot sizes, built to individual
customer specification. [10]
S.N Authors Measurement
Tool
3 Katayama & Agility relates to the interface
Bennett between the company and the market. 1 Ren Analytical
Agility acts as a pillar to improve Hierarchical Process
competitiveness and the business (AHP) [17]
prospects. [11]
2 Lin Fuzzy Logic based
agility index for mass
4 Christopher Agility is defined as the ability customization product
of an organization to respond rapidly manufacturing. [18]
to changes in demand, both in terms
of volume and variety. [12] 3 Tsourveloudis Integrated Agility
Index Approach [19]
4 Van Hoek Integrated Agility
5 Mason- Agility means using market Index Approach [20]
Jones knowledge and virtual corporation to
exploit profitable opportunities in a 5 Giachetti Use of complexity
volatile market place. [13] as surrogate measure of
Agility, Use of Petri
nets, BPR [21]
6 T. S FELIX Use of Object and
knowledge based
Interval Timed Petri
Nets [22]

226
International Journal of Science and Advanced Technology (ISSN 2221-8386)
http://www.ijsat.com
There are different characteristics of these manufacturing
paradigms. These have been listed in table 4.
7 Ellenoro Use of Quality
Function Deployment
and House of Quality
Concepts
(Methodologies). Fuzzy
Logic tool is being
used. [23]
IV. EVOLUTION OF AGILE MANUFACTURING
The industrial age, triggered by the industrial revolution,
in the middle of the eighteenth century, was supported by a
favorable convergence of factors namely: mass availability of
raw materials (iron, timber, oil, etc.), technological
development (including the steam engine, perceived as the
trigger invention that led to the industrialization), availability
of labour force, emergence of business leaders, etc. In
addition the industrial revolution triggered a shift from craft
production to mass production. Due one or other limitations
and complex nature in manufacturing, trend shifted from one
of Industrial age to one of Information and post information
ages. Figure 4
Volume 1 No 9 November 2011
Table4. Paradigms Characteristics
Paradigm Characteristics
Craft Customized Product, High Quality, High Skill
Production of Worker, Product Flexibility, Slower Production
Rates, High Price of Product, Non Standardized
Production.
Mass Continuous Flow assembly Line,
Production Interchangeable Parts, Specific and Systematized
tasks to workers, Faster Production, High Quality,
Low Price, Non customizations of product,
Adaptability of Customer to the Product, Low
Variety of Products.
Lean High Throughput, Little Inventory, Minimal
Manufacturing Waste, Organized Shop Floor, Workers organized
in team with team leader rather than Foreman,
Polyvalent Workers, Greater Job Satisfaction,
Role of Workers in Improving Process,
Synchronized SIPOC for reduction of Inventory,
More of the application in Automotive and
Electronics i.e. High Volume and Low Variety,
Rare applications in High differentiated and Low
Volume, More anxiety levels for managers.
Computer Integration of different computer systems,
Integrated Integrated information flow, Global architecture
Manufacturing modeling and accumulating different tasks and
providing integrated view, high initial investment.
Flexible Use of automated material handling systems,
Manufacturing automatic tool exchanging mechanism, High
System initial investment, Cost of introducing new models
is high, product volume capacity is low, capacity
to introduce new model is medium.
Mass (Mass Production + Craft Production), use of
Customization flexible computer aided manufacturing systems
for producing customized product, high product
variety, less cost.

Figure 4: Evolution of Agile Manufacturing

Agile Customized Product, Employee
Figure 5 shows chronological evolution of Agile Manufacturing Empowerment, Leveraging, Virtual Organization,
Use of Information and Communication
Manufacturing. Also it shows evolution of manufacturing Technology, Use of Electronic Data Interchange,
paradigms from pure industrial age to information and post Use of Concurrent Engineering, Proactive
information age. Approach, Turbulent market environment, Use of
Rapid Prototyping Techniques.

V. AGILE MANUFACTURING VS OTHER

MANUFACTURING PARADIGMS

Agile manufacturing is a business strategy aimed at

providing an enterprise with the capabilities for success in the
current changing environment that demands flexible solution.
As discussed in previous section, this new paradigm has
evolved because of the limitation of earlier paradigms
therefore tools of other manufacturing paradigms can also be
used for Agile Manufacturing. Table 5 shows differences
between characteristics of these.
Figure 5: Evolution of Agile Manufacturing [24]

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International Journal of Science and Advanced Technology (ISSN 2221-8386) Volume 1 No 9 November 2011
http://www.ijsat.com
Table5. Comparative Difference marketing and sales, which can only be achieved with
Characteri Craft Mass Lean Agile Flexible information and communication technology (ICT).
stics

Emphasis Medium Low High High Low ACKNOWLEDGMENT

on The author would like to thank Dr. Dinesh Khanduja,
eliminating National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, India and Dr.
V.P Agrawal, T.I.E.T, Thapar University, Patiala, India for
the losses
their valuable advice support and guidance in preparation of
Loss of Low Mediu High Flexibl Medium this paper.
production m/High e
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International Journal of Science and Advanced Technology (ISSN 2221-8386) Volume 1 No 9 November 2011
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Neeraj Grover is Lecturer in Mechanical

Engg. Deptt, N.C.College of Engg, Israna
Panipat

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