Agile Manufacturing

Jimeel Ferris
OperMngt. 345 Sec. 001
May 7, 2002

What will be covered

Introduction
What is Agile Manufacturing
Why do we need to be agile
Key to Agility and Flexibility
Agile Manufacturing in our company
Four Core Concepts
Nuts and Bolts
Interdisciplinary Design
How can we make the transition
Real world example
Exercise
Summary
Bibliography

Introduction
Manufacturing industry is on the
verge of a major paradigm shift.
This shift will take us away from
mass production, way beyond
lean manufacturing, into a world
of Agile Manufacturing (5)

What is Agile
Manufacturing?
Agile manufacturing is a method
for manufacturing which
combine our organization,
people and technology into an
integrated and coordinated
whole. (5)

Why do we need to be
agile
Global Competition is intensifying.
Mass markets are fragmenting into
niche markets.
Cooperation among companies is
becoming necessary, including
companies who are in direct
competition with each other.

Why do we need to be
agile cont:

Customers are expecting:

1.
2.
3.

Low volume products

High quality products
Custom products

Very short product life-cycles,

development time, and production
lead times are required.
Customers want to treated and
individuals (4)

Keys to agility and

flexibility
To determine customer needs quickly and
continuously reposition the company
against its competitors.
To design things quickly based on those
individual needs.
To put them into full scale, quality ,
production quickly.
To respond to changing volumes and mix
quickly.
To respond to a crisis quickly. (1)

Agile manufacturing in
our company
Customer-integrated process for designing,
manufacturing, marketing, and supporting
all products and services.
Decision making at functional knowledge
points not in centralized management
silos
Stable unit costs, no matter what the
volume
Flexible Manufacturing-ability to increase
or decrease production volumes at will.

Agile manufacturing in
our company cont.
Easy access to integrated data whether it
is customer-driven, supplier-driven, or
product and process-driven
Modular production facilities that can be
organized into ever changing manufacturing
nodes.
Data that is rapidly changed into
information that is used to expand
knowledge.
Mass customized product verses mass
produced product. (1)

Four core concepts

1. A strategy to become an Agile
Manufacturing enterprise.
2. A strategy to exploit agility to achieve
competitive advantage.
3. Integration of organization, people and
technology into a coordinated
interdependent system which is our
competitive advantage.
4. An interdisciplinary design methodology
to achieve the integration of
Organization, people and technology. (5)

Nuts and Bolts

Enriching the customer

1. Replace large centralized with

distributed clusters of mini-assembly
plants located near customers.

Cooperating to enhance
competition.

1. Internalcross-functional teams,
empowerment.
2. Externalmanaging the supply chain.

Nuts and Bolts

Organizing to manage change and

uncertainty

1. Rapid reconfiguration of plant and

facilities.
2. Rapid decision making-shallow
empowered.

Leveraging people and information.

1. Distribution of authority, resources, and

rewards. (1)

Interdisciplinary Design
Interdisciplinary design will form
the basis of designing Agile
Manufacturing systems in the new
knowledge intensive era.
Interdisciplinary design is one of the
most important challenges to that
managers and systems designers
and integrators will face in the years
ahead, it leads us to new approaches
and new ways of working and of
thinking. (5)

Interdisciplinary Design
To successfully adopt an
interdisciplinary design method, we
need to:
Challenge our accepted design
strategies and develop new and
better approaches.
Question our established and
cherished beliefs and theories, and
develop new ones to replace those
that know longer have any validity.
(5)

Interdisciplinary Design
Consider how we address organization,
people and technology, and other issues in
the design of manufacturing systems, so we
can have systems that are better for
performance, better for the environment,
and better for the people .
Go beyond the automation paradigm of the
industrial era, to use technology in a way
that makes human skill, knowledge, and
intelligence more effective and productive,
and that allows us to tap into the creativity
and talent of all our people. (5)

transition to Agile
manufacturing?
Make the break with the things
that are wrong with the way we
do things today.
Examine and define the
underlying conceptual
framework on which Agile
Manufacturing enterprises will
be built.

Making the transition

cont.
Explore and understand the nature of
the mass production paradigm and
the nature of the cultural and
methodological difficulties involved
in the transition to Agile
Manufacturing.
Define a methodology for designing a
21st century manufacturing
enterprise.(3)

Real world example:

The Industry : Japanese car
makers
The goal: To produce the three
day car, (three days from
customer order for a
customized car to dealer
delivery)

Real world ex. Cont.

The Challenges:

The challenges:

1. Break dependency on scale and

economies of scale (reducing setup
costs in key).
2. Produce vehicles in low volumes at a
reasonable cost.
3. Guarantee the three day car.
4. Replace large centralized with
distributed clusters of mini-assembly
plants located near customers.
5. Be able to reconfigure components in
many different ways.

Real world ex. Cont.

The Challenges:
1.
2.

3.
4.

Make work stimulating.

Turn the customer into a prosumer, an ugly
neologism that means proactive something; the
idea is that the customer will take an active
role in the product design by, for example,
configuring options at a computer in a dealer
showroom.
Streamline ordering systems and establish
close relationships with suppliers.
Manage the massive volumes of data generated
by the production system so as to be able to
analyze that data quickly and agilely (3)

Exercise
War has broken out somewhere in
the world, and the US becomes
involved. Suddenly, all branches of
our armed forces need more
conventional munitions-and they
need them immediately. How can
suppliers meet this kind of
unpredictable demand? (2)

Summery
Agile Manufacturing enterprises will be
capable of rapidly responding to changes in
customer demand. They will be able to take
advantage of the windows of opportunities that
appear in the market place. With Agile
Manufacturing we will be able to develop new
ways of interacting with our customers and
suppliers. Our customers will not only be able
to gain access to our products and services,
but will also be able to easily assess and
exploit our competencies, so enabling them to
use these competencies to achieve the things
that they are seeking. (5)

Bibliography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Abair, Bob. Agile Manufacturing: Not Just Another

Buzzword.
http://www.partnersforexcellence.com/95art3.htm
Agile Manufacturing: Gearing to meet demand.
Linkages http://www.llnl.gov/str/Burleson.html
Agile Manufacturing linkages
http://www.peterkeen.com/engbp003.htm
D&ME. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Linkages
http://www.technet.pnl.gov/dme/agile/index.stm
Kidd, T. Paul. Agile Manufacturing: Forging New
Frontiers.
http://www.cheshirehenvury.com/publications/amma
terial.html
.