Agile Manufacturing

... This significantly reduced costs, eliminated the purchasing/order entry role within the ... highly customized products with perfect quality and 100 per cent on-time delivery, and at a low cost is forcing companies to abandon the old ideas of mass production; even lean or world ...

The flexibility required of an agile manufacturing system must be achieved largely through computer software. The system's control software must be adaptable to new products and to new system components without becoming unreliable or difficult to maintain. This requires designing the software specifically to facilitate future changes. As part of the Agile Manufacturing Project at Case Western Reserve University, we have developed a software architecture for control of an agile manufacturing workcell, and we have demonstrated its flexibility with rapid changeover and introduction of new products. In this paper, we describe the requirements for agile manufacturing software and how our software architecture addresses them.

— The major objective of this research is to suggest an integrated model to assess suppliers from an agile manufacturing viewpoint. Agile manufacturing has attained a broad quantity of attention in preceding researches. However, its incorporation with supplier selection is less inspected. To consider this ignorance, this research proposed an incorporated method to select suppliers based on agile manufacturing attributes. Mainly, four performance categories (virtual enterprise, market sensitivity, process integration and network based supply) as well as 12 related measures were chosen as substitutes for agility. The extracted metrics were used as the main criteria of Fuzzy AHP. The proposed model was solved and some managerial implications were recommended.

Agile manufacturing, a recently popularised concept, has been advocated as the 21st century manufacturing paradigm. It is seen as the winning strategy to be adopted by manufacturers bracing themselves for dramatic performance enhancements to become national and international leaders in an increasingly competitive market of fast changing customer requirements. This paper identi"es the drivers of agility and discusses the portfolio of competitive advantages that have emerged over time as a result of the changing requirements of manufacturing. The need to achieve the competitive advantages of manufacturing in synergy and without trade-o!s is fundamental to the agile paradigm. To further the understanding of agility, this paper reviews the meaning of agility from di!erent perspectives and suggests a comprehensive de"nition which can be adopted as a working de"nition by practitioners. Four underlining concepts of agility has emerged from the working de"nition and the paper presents a representation of these concepts and their interactions. Finally, the paper highlights some of the key enablers of agility and identi"es potential future research directions.

Agile and flexible manufacturing system makes it mandatory that a control program should have a features such as agility, flexibility, and reusability in order to meet fast changing customer demands. Proper modeling and fast formation of the control logics using graphical and mathematical tools is one of the most peculiar ways to make the control logic more feasible for rapid product prototyping, concurrent engineering, flexible, and agile manufacturing. This paper illustrates efficient conversion of Petri nets model into programmable logic controller like LLD (Ladder Logic Diagram) in a very convenient way using one-to-one mapping technique. Furthermore, property analysis has been briefly explained to generate flawless control code for better operational performance. An example of painting robots has been demonstrated to prove the proposed method.

Agile manufacturing (AM) is a new concept in manufacturing intended to improve the competitiveness of "rms. Manufacturing processes based on AM are characterized by customer}supplier integrated process for product design, manufacturing, marketing, and support services. This needs decision-making at functional knowledge levels, stable unit costs, #exible manufacturing, easy access to integrated data, and modular production facilities. Agile manufacturing requires enriching of the customer, co-operating with competitors, organizing to manage change, uncertainty and complexity, and leveraging people and information. In the recent years, a number of research papers have been published in the area of AM. However, a framework for the development of AM has not received due attention from both researchers and practitioners. Realizing the importance of agile manufacturing in the 21st century manufacturing competitiveness, an attempt has been made in this paper to review the literature available on AM with the objective to: (i) identify key strategies and techniques of AM, (ii) suggest some future research directions and (iii) develop a framework for the development of agile manufacturing systems (AMSs) along four key dimensions which include strategies, technologies, systems and people.

Feature recognition, from low level geometric entities of product design representations within a CAD model to facilitate process planning and manufacturing activities, has been of significant importance in computer integrated manufacturing Ž . CIM . However, the emerging paradigm of Agile Manufacturing has imposed additional requirements of ''neutral format'' so that form-feature information can be readily shared among multiple partners of a virtual enterprise. Recently, the Ž . STandard for the Exchange of Product model data STEP has emerged as the means for neutral form exchange of product related data. The ''STEP efforts'' have broken down the domain of manufacturing related activities in the form of Ž . application protocols APs target for specific functions which include drafting, configuration control and feature-based Ž . process planning to mention a few. Efforts are still on to increase the acceptance and use of this international standard IS . This paper focuses on our efforts to support the STEP standard with the development of a standards-oriented form-feature extraction system. The developed feature extraction system takes as a input a STEP file defining the geometry and topology of a part and generates as output a STEP file with form-feature information in AP224 format for form feature-based process w planning. The system can also be interfaced with a recent IGES to AP202 translator M.P. Bhandarkar, B. Downie, M. Hardwick, R. Nagi, Migration from IGES to STEP: one-to-one translation of IGES drawing to STEP drafting data, accepted by Computers in Industry, July, 1999; M.P. Bhandarkar, Satisfying information needs in Agile Manufacturing through translation and feature extraction into STEP product data models, MS Thesis, State University of New York at Buffalo, x Ž . 1997. to allow conversion of legacy data. The feature recognition algorithm is boundary-representation B-Rep based and follows a sequential approach through an existing classification of features. Properties of each feature class are exploited to enable their extraction. The algorithm is currently developed for prismatic solids produced by milling operations and that Ž Ž . . contain elementary shapes such as plane and cylindrical surfaces possibly using non-uniform rational B-splines NURBS . Special attention has been paid to implementation issues. We demonstrate the efficacy of the system using representative parts. q

Purpose -This paper aims to peruse theories and practices of agile and lean manufacturing systems to determine whether they employ sustainability, complexity and organizational learning. Design/methodology/approach -The critical review of the comparative operational similarities and difference of the two systems was conducted while the new views and issues of emerging vital scenarios were analyzed in detail. Findings -In spite of their differences, the two systems of agile and lean manufacturing can co-exist in one system. The concepts of sustainability, complexity and organizational learning for agile and lean systems highlight outputs of differences in the output of operationalization but there can be substantial alignment in the input of intentions. The two excel at the three areas of consideration. Practical implications -The organizations of today must consider the applicability of designing both agile and lean systems within one organization for the purposes of achieving fast response time, high levels of productivity and better efficiency. Originality/value -The paper defines the relationship between agile and lean systems.

During the recent years, competition is intensified due to the globalisation and entry of several players in markets. This situation has facilitated the modern customers to demand innovative products and models in varied volumes. In order to fulfil this customer demand, it is necessary for the traditional manufacturing companies to practice agile manufacturing (AM) principles. On adoption of AM, a traditional company can exhibit agility by which it reacts quickly to meet the customers' dynamic demands. In this paper, we review a wide range of recent literature on agile manufacturing. About 42 papers from premier scientific journals and conferences have been reviewed. We critique these bodies of work and suggest directions for additional research and identify topics where fruitful opportunities exist.

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. This article 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 market knowledge and positioning of the decoupling point as agile manufacturing is best suited to satisfying a #uctuating demand and lean manufacturing requires a level schedule. This view is supported by consideration of a PC supply chain case study.

Changes in the business environment are leading firms to adopt a new production model termed agile manufacturing. This moves away from the traditional mass production paradigm and focuses on manufacturing highly customised products as and when customers require them. In this paper, we present an initial approach to agile manufacturing based on case studies on four factories in Spain. Despite different activities, products and production processes, similar trends were found in all four in the development of agile manufacturing. Based on the conclusions of the case studies, an agile manufacturing conceptual model has been drawn up and a number of hypotheses inferred. This work confirms the suitability of case study methodology in the early stages of research, especially for drawing up hypotheses. The study presented here is of an exploratory nature and the conclusions drawn from it offer possible routes for future research in the field of agile manufacturing. r

A short presentation on Agile Manufacturing , its basics, and future. You can get a brief outline of models proposed by researchers which will be helpful for an organization to get converted from traditional manufacturing system to agile manufacturing system. This ppt contains a self selected case study to explain agile manufacturing prevailing in that company. References stated in this ppt are true, and can be traced for further study.

A structural model incorporating agile manufacturing as the focal construct is theorized and tested. The model includes the primary components of JIT (JIT-purchasing and JIT-production) as antecedents and operational performance and firm performance as consequences to agile manufacturing. Using data collected from production and operations managers working for large U.S. manufacturers, the model is assessed following a structural equation modeling methodology. The results indicate that JIT-purchasing has a direct positive relationship with agile manufacturing while the positive relationship between JITproduction and agile manufacturing is mediated by JIT-purchasing. The results also indicate that agile manufacturing has a direct positive relationship with the operational performance of the firm, that the operational performance of the firm has a direct positive relationship with the marketing performance of the firm, and that the positive relationship between the operational performance of the firm and the financial performance of the firm is mediated by the marketing performance of the firm.

Purpose -This paper seeks to analyze the evolution of shift in the area of operations management (OM) and attempts to anticipate potential developments in the relevant areas of OM. Design/methodology/approach -A hybrid approach is adopted to understand how the field of OM has evolved over time relying on the perspectives of both academics and business practitioners. This evolution of shift in the area of OM is examined based on a thorough literature review and the authors' industrial experience. Findings -From the days of functional point solutions relying on concepts like reorder point to finite capacity planning, OM research at present deals with a set of important problems facing both private and public sectors at the organizational level. Most prominent of these include e-business, supply chain management, production planning and scheduling, product development, decision support systems, information-based strategy, systems development and implementation, risk and environmental management. OM has also embraced several organization-wide philosophies including lean production, mass customization and agile manufacturing. Practical implications -With the advent of Internet and burgeoning of the new economy, this paper provides important insights regarding the evolution of OM in the past, recent developments at present and what the future holds for this field. It is envisaged that a focus on the issues central to OM will soon propel both researchers and industry practitioners beyond existing technologies and also provide the catalyst for developing new ones. Originality/value -This paper provides useful insights to both researchers and practitioners who are interested in the field of OM.

Purpose -This paper seeks to analyze the evolution of shift in the area of operations management (OM) and attempts to anticipate potential developments in the relevant areas of OM. Design/methodology/approach -A hybrid approach is adopted to understand how the field of OM has evolved over time relying on the perspectives of both academics and business practitioners. This evolution of shift in the area of OM is examined based on a thorough literature review and the authors' industrial experience. Findings -From the days of functional point solutions relying on concepts like reorder point to finite capacity planning, OM research at present deals with a set of important problems facing both private and public sectors at the organizational level. Most prominent of these include e-business, supply chain management, production planning and scheduling, product development, decision support systems, information-based strategy, systems development and implementation, risk and environmental management. OM has also embraced several organization-wide philosophies including lean production, mass customization and agile manufacturing. Practical implications -With the advent of Internet and burgeoning of the new economy, this paper provides important insights regarding the evolution of OM in the past, recent developments at present and what the future holds for this field. It is envisaged that a focus on the issues central to OM will soon propel both researchers and industry practitioners beyond existing technologies and also provide the catalyst for developing new ones. Originality/value -This paper provides useful insights to both researchers and practitioners who are interested in the field of OM.

A. GUNASEKARAN² Tougher competitive situations have led to increasing attention being paid to customer satisfaction, of which timely and customized services are the key concepts. As the product life cycle becomes shortened, high product quality becomes necessary for survival. Markets become highly diversi® ed and global, and continuous and unexpected change become the key factors for success. The need for a method of rapidly and cost-e ectively developing products, production facilities and supporting software, including design, process planning and shop¯oor control system has led to the concept of agile manufacturing.

Existing knowledge about agile manufacturing (AM) and an agile workforce was reviewed in order to extend the concept of agility to the whole enterprise. The frameworks that describe other elements of the enterprise besides manufacturing, or contain attributes that could be applied to all enterprise structures were also included into the review. The review identified a large number of papers related to the AM. However, there was little empirical research done on the agile workforce and agile organization. This review identified the global characteristics of agility which can be applied to all aspects of enterprise: flexibility, responsiveness, speed, culture of change, integration and low complexity, high quality and customized products, and mobilization of core competencies. The need for further research in order to empirically establish and validate the attributes and indices of the agile workforce and agile enterprise has also been discussed. r

Current industry standards for dyeing woollen textiles use high temperatures and long processing times to aid dye diffusion. The consumption of water, energy and chemicals used in dyeing and finishing processes have been identified as key challenges to sustainability within the textile industry. This paper furthers the discussion of a recently developed digital laser-dyeing technique for woollen textiles. The research examined the effect of infrared laser irradiation, as a pre-treatment to dyeing 100% wool and its potential as a design tool for textile processing. Analysis of the dye performance properties of treated wool substrates and potential sustainability advantages of the technique are presented. Laser modification of the outer cuticles of wool fibres was found to remove and disrupt the hydrophobic surface. Therefore, after laser treatment, an increased rate of dye diffusion may be expected. By offering this technique as an alternative solution to traditional wet processing, the potential has been found to increase environmental sustainability through significant reduction in energy and wastewater effluent. In addition, the CAD controlled laser provides the advantage of accurate and targeted processing, allowing design and surface patterning capabilities.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to assess the agility of manufacturing companies.
Design/methodology/approach

Particularly, three supply chain logistic drivers (facility, transportation and inventory) along with three cross-functional drivers (information, sourcing and pricing) are selected as the main sets to classify all required activities of agility. In addition, supply chain contracts, as an important indicator of supply chain agility, is also considered to categorize the activities. These activities are ranked using an (AHP) and then categorized based on the major perspectives of agility. Finally, using a cycle view of supply chain, the developed activities are categorized as the major policies of supply chain’s echelons.
Findings

This study developed a framework to evaluate the agility of manufacturing companies. Operational activities of agile supply chain strategy (ASCS) in addition to supply chain contracts are determined and categorized with regard to supply chain drivers.
Originality/value

This study contributes to recognizing, ranking and classifying the operational activities of ASCS with regard to logistics and cross-functional drivers of supply chain. In addition, this study considers the supply chain contracts in conjunction with supply chain drivers. From the theoretic and methodological features, to the best of authors’ knowledge, this study contributes to offer new insights to this area as no similar research has been conducted before.

The emerging of agility has received a considerable attention in dealing with uncertainties in today’s fast-changing environment, yet little empirical research exists to explain how firms can develop the agile capabilities. The paper reports an agile framework to capture the key agility’s drivers and output capabilities that firms need to achieve superior performance. The key components of agility are identified and are used to perform both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in order to provide a research-ready instrument. The instrument is developed on a large sample of Thai automotive part industry using a survey methodology to obtain information. A total of 297 Thai automotive part suppliers were participated in this study, giving a response rate of 43%. The results revealed four distinctive manufacturing practices including Integrated Product Development (IPD), Modularised Manufacturing (MM), Supply Chain Coordination (SCC) and Information Technology Integration (ITI) as the key enablers of agile capabilities. These manufacturing practices supported the development of agile capabilities in the areas of Responsiveness (RES), Flexible Product (FLP), Innovation Competency (INC), and Speed in Delivery (SD). The instrument transforms a philosophy into concrete actions and creates a better understanding of how agility can be constructed and measured.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a new assessment tool for Leagility.
Design/methodology/approach – This research was carried out to systematically propose the
operational activities of Leagile supply chains (SCs) with regard to SC drivers. Particularly, SC logistic
(facility, transportation and inventory) and cross-functional drivers (information, sourcing and pricing)
were selected to classify all operational activities of Leagile SCs.
Findings – This study proposed a new framework to evaluate the operational activities of Leagile
SCs. Operational activities of Leagile supply chain strategy were determined and categorized with
regard to SC drivers. These activities were ranked using an analytic hierarchy process and were then
categorized using a cycle view of SC.
Originality/value – This study contributed in proposing operational activities of Leagile SC based on
its major drivers. The result of this study assist managers, scholars and practitioners to construct new
Leagile SCs or assess their Leagility level.
Keywords Leagile manufacturing, Leagile supply chains, Supply chain strategy
Paper type Research paper

Manufacturing plant managers have sought performance improvements by adhering to the guiding principles of leanness and agility. Lean manufacturing and agile manufacturing paradigms have also received considerable attention in operations management literature. However, paradoxically, the extant literature is lacking in clarity and fails to delineate with sufficient precision how and why leanness and agility differ. Given the resource constraints within which most manufacturing firms have to operate today, it is useful, if not critical, to develop a good understanding of how these paradigms differ and what their constituent dimensions are. Such an understanding is also essential for developing and testing theories relating to leanness and agility.

With growing tendency towards globalization and the number of free trade agreements, we are approaching not only a global market but also a manufacturing era that has no boundaries. This is accomplished through off-shoring and outsourcing. Manufacturing companions and particularly Small to Medium size Enterprise (SME's) are facing a very tough and fierce competition. This article is intended to provide a roadmap for manufacturing companies to help them survive and excel.

Companies in either manufacturing or servicing have to be restructured or re-organized in order to overcome with challenges of the 21st century in which customers are not only satisfied but also delighted. In this competitive environment, organizations should use a flexible, adaptive and responsive paradigm that can be entitled by a unique term: agile manufacturing (AM). An AM system is able to develop a variety of product at low cost and in a short time period. For this, it has some of useful enabling technologies and physical tools. Among these, concurrent engineering (CE) is a systematic approach to the integrated, concurrent design of product and their related processes, including manufacture and support. It is then a useful and beneficial approach to reduce the development time and manufacturing cost, while simultaneously improving the quality of a product in order to better respond to the customer expectations. The aim of this study is to underline the synergistic impact of new product development (NPD) and CE, (which can be called CNPD), and to survey their methods and tools in association with the AM.

Agile Manufacturing (AM) is a relatively new operations concept that is intended to improve the competitiveness of ®rms. Manufacturing/service processes based on AM are characterized by customer-supplier integrated processes for product design, manufacturing, marketing, and support services. Agile manufacturing requires enriching of the customer; cooperating with competitors; organizing to manage change, uncertainty and complexity; and leveraging people and information. In recent years, a number of research papers have been published in the area of AM. The term`agile' was coined in 1991. However, there are still some serious concerns that prevent companies from taking an entirely di erent direction from AM. Considering the potential importance of agile manufacturing in 21st century manufacturing competitiveness, an attempt has been made in this paper to reexamine the scope, de®nitions and strategies of AM. In addition, a framework has been presented as a basis for understanding the major strategies and relevant technologies of AM.

Agile manufacturing, as a new manufacturing paradigm, requires a systematic study of its enablers to aid in successful adoption and implementation of the concept and practice. This study identifies and determines a relationship among the various enablers for the agile manufacturing philosophy. A systemic relationship among various enablers help to identify for researchers and industry the complexities and dynamics involved in the nurturing and implementation of agile manufacturing in an effective and appropriate manner. Enablers are identified and supported from various literary sources. The systemic relationship among these enablers is developed using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM).

The purpose of this paper is to compare the effect of lean and agile strategies on the manufacturing process of an aquarium manufacturer. Numerous studies has demonstrated the benefits of lean and agile strategies in enhancing the competitiveness of firms but none has really discussed or compared how performance differed when utilizing either strategies. Lean strategy can reduce, or even eliminate waste in the production process but lean might not be able to respond to fluctuation in customer demand while agile strategy enhance the responsiveness of the manufacturer. The results of this research show that both strategies provide different types of impact for the manufacturer. The findings also suggest that the manufacturer should not select either a lean or agile strategy but rather to combine both strategies.

Manufacturing plant managers have sought performance improvements by adhering to the guiding principles of leanness and agility. Lean manufacturing and agile manufacturing paradigms have also received considerable attention in operations management literature. However, paradoxically, the extant literature is lacking in clarity and fails to delineate with sufficient precision how and why leanness and agility differ. Given the resource constraints within which most manufacturing firms have to operate today, it is useful, if not critical, to develop a good understanding of how these paradigms differ and what their constituent dimensions are. Such an understanding is also essential for developing and testing theories relating to leanness and agility.

Changing customer and technological requirements force manufacturers to develop agile supply chain capabilities in order to be competitive. Therefore, several companies are stressing flexibility and agility in order to respond, real time, to the unique needs of customers and markets. However, the resource competencies required are often difficult to mobilise and retain by single companies. It is therefore imperative for companies to co-operate and leverage complementary competencies. To this end, legally separate and spatially distributed companies are becoming integrated through Internet-based technologies. The paper reviews emerging patterns in supply chain integration. It also explores the relationship between the emerging patterns and attainment of competitive objectives. The results reported in the paper are based on the data collected from a survey using the standard questionnaire. The survey involved 600 companies in the UK, as part of a larger study of agile manufacturing. The study was driven by a conceptual model, which relates supply chain practices to competitive objectives. The study involves the use of factor analysis to reduce research variables to a few principal components. Subsequently, multiple regression was conducted to study the relationship amongst the selected variables. The results validate the proposed conceptual model and lend credence to current thinking that supply chain integration is a vital tool for competitive advantage.

Manufacturing companies are facing three challenges: low cost production of product, high quality standard and rapid responsiveness to customer requirements. These three goals are equally important for the manufacturing companies who want to be competitive in the global economy. Reconfigurable machining system facilitate the demand for Mass Customization Manufacturing, (MCM). The reconfigurable machining system is a subsystem of Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS), which falls within the scope of Agile Manufacturing (AM). AM provides the ability to accomplish rapid changeover between manufacturing processes for different assemblies.

This paper deals with three concepts of concern to manufacturing management; agile manufacturing, adaptable production and lean production. These are described and compared within the context of the modern competitive situation in Japan. A survey of Japanese firms is described where the concepts are explored through a number of questions concerned with strategy, action programmes and performance measures. Many companies have responded to the change in economic conditions through a modification of their production operations and by changing their cost structure. The results suggest that companies are trying to realise their cost adaptability through agility enhancement activities.

Increasing complexity and interdependency in manufacturing enterprises require an agile manufacturing paradigm. This paper considers a dynamic control approach for linking manufacturing strategy with market strategy through a reconfigurable manufacturing planning and control (MPC) system to support agility in this context. A comprehensive MPC model capable of adopting different MPC strategies through distributed controllers of inventory, capacity, and WIP is presented. A hierarchical supervisory controller (referred to as decision logic unit, DLU) that intakes the high-level strategic market decisions and constraints together with feedback of the current manufacturing system state (WIP, production, and inventory levels) and optimally manages the distributed controllers is introduced. The DLU architecture with its three layers and their different functionalities is discussed showing how they link the higher management level to the operational level to satisfy the required demand. A case study for an automatic PCB assembly factory is implemented to demonstrate the applicability of the whole approach. In addition, a comparative cost analysis study is carried out to compare between the developed agile MPC system and classical-inventory- and capacity-based MPC policies in response to different demand patterns. Results showed that the developed agile MPC policy is as cost effective as the inventory-based MPC policy in demand patterns with steady trends, as cost effective as capacity-based MPC in turbulent demand patterns, and far superior than both classical MPC polices in mixed-demand patterns.

This paper introduces a design for agile manufacturing workcells intended for light mechanical assembly of products made from similar components (i.e. parts families). We define agile manufacturing as the ability to accomplish rapid changeover from the assembly of one product to the assembly of another product. Rapid hardware changeover is made possible through the use of robots, flexible part feeders, modular grippers and modular assembly hardware. The flexible feeders rely on belt feeding and binary computer vision for pose estimation. This has a distinct advantage over nonflexible feeding schemes such as bowl feeders which require considerable adjustment to changeover from one part to another. Rapid software changeover is being facilitated by the use of a real-time, object-oriented software environment, modular software, graphical simulations for off-line software development. and an innovative dual VMEbus controller architecture. These agile features permit new products to be introduced with minimal downtime and system reconfiguration. 'P.M. Noaker. The search for agile manufacturing.

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Double sampling (DS) X-control charts are designed to allow quick detection of a small shift of process mean and provides a quick response in an agile manufacturing environment. However, the DS X-control charts assume that the process standard deviation remains unchanged throughout the entire course of the statistical process control. Therefore, a complementary DS chart that can be used to monitor the process variation caused by changes in process standard deviation should be developed. In this paper, the development of the DS s-charts for quickly detecting small shift in process standard deviation for agile manufacturing is presented. The construction of the DS s-charts is based on the same concepts in constructing the DS X-charts and is formulated as an optimization problem and solved with a genetic algorithm. The efficiency of the DS s-control chart is compared with that of the traditional s-control chart. The results show that the DS s-control charts can be a more economically preferable alternative in detecting small shifts than traditional s-control charts.

Existing knowledge about agile manufacturing (AM) and an agile workforce was reviewed in order to extend the concept of agility to the whole enterprise. The frameworks that describe other elements of the enterprise besides manufacturing, or contain attributes that could be applied to all enterprise structures were also included into the review. The review identified a large number of papers related to the AM. However, there was little empirical research done on the agile workforce and agile organization. This review identified the global characteristics of agility which can be applied to all aspects of enterprise: flexibility, responsiveness, speed, culture of change, integration and low complexity, high quality and customized products, and mobilization of core competencies. The need for further research in order to empirically establish and validate the attributes and indices of the agile workforce and agile enterprise has also been discussed. r

Agile methodologies promote delivery of a long software development project in short-term cycles or iterations. Iteration involves a tiny portion of software that is developed quickly and accurately for a testing purpose. Iterations are technically called time-boxed, because they are based on a predetermined duration. The duration usually varies between different methodologies. Each agile methodology's uniqueness is determined by the number of tasks, steps and work products involved in it.

Multimedia is an application of real time-critical computing. In a networked multimedia system such as video conferencing, real-time image communication is the key for its success. The application of multimedia in the manufacturing industry has received significant attention since the emergence of the Internet and World Wide Web. This paper attempts to review the application of multimedia technology in manufacturing organisations. In addition, the justification for the application of multimedia in new manufacturing environments such as lean agile manufacturing is highlighted. A conceptual framework for the design of a multimedia system for manufacturing is presented and discussed. Future research directions are also proposed. q 0166-3615r99r$ -see front matter q 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper summarizes results of a five-year, multidisciplinary, university-industry collaborative effort investigating design issues in agile manufacturing. The focus of this project is specifically on light mechanical assembly, with the demand that new assembly tasks be implementable quickly, economically, and effectively. Key to achieving these goals is the ease of equipment and software reuse. Design choices for both hardware and software must strike a balance between the inflexibility of special-purpose designs and the impracticality of overly general designs. We review both our physical and software design choices and make recommendations for the design of agile manufacturing systems.

Producing customized products to respond to changing markets in a short time and at a low cost is one of the goals in agile manufacturing. To achieve this goal customized products can be produced using an assembly-driven product di!erentiation strategy. The successful implementation of this strategy lies in e$cient scheduling of the system. However, little research has been done in addressing the scheduling issues related to assembly-driven product di!erentiation strategies in agile manufacturing. In this paper, scheduling problems associated with the assembly-driven product di!erentiation strategy in a general #exible manufacturing system are de"ned, formulated, and solved. The manufacturing system consists of two stages: machining and assembly. At the machining stage, multiple identical machines produce parts. These parts are then assembled at the assembly stage to form customized products. The products to be produced in the system are characterized by their assembly sequences that are represented by di!erent digraphs. The scheduling problem is to determine the sequence of products to be produced in the system so that the maximum completion time (makespan) is minimized for any given number of machines at the machining stage. The scheduling problems discussed in this paper have not been solved in the literature. The originality of the paper lies in de"ning and formulating the problems in the context of agile manufacturing and developing optimal and near-optimal for solving them. The heuristic algorithm solves the scheduling problem in two steps. First, an optimal aggregate schedule is determined by solving a two-machine #owshop problem. Next, the optimal aggregate schedule is decomposed by solving a simple integer programming formulation model. The computational experiment shows that the heuristics provide optimal and near-optimal solutions to the scheduling problems.

Agile manufacturing is a technique which is implemented in an organisation that has created the ability to respond quickly to customer needs with irrespective of the processes, tools and training. These all are done at the same cost and quality. This paper discusses about the various industrial perspective aspects of several researchers on agile manufacturing. Further, the various models implemented by various researchers are discussed and a scope for the future research is suggested.

Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) face increased market pressure due to demand fluctuation and the shift of the consumer focus  from high volume/low mix to high mix/low volume environment.  Costumer requirement as seen by SME’s can be summarized as: quantity scaling, unpredicted and sudden demands, on-time and quicker delivery times, and increased number of customized products. This paper proposes an agility realization model for SMEs to achieve higher responsiveness to these requirements. The agility model is based on integrating four main agility enablers: quick manufacturing response strategies, multi channel manufacturing approach, high mix/low volume techniques and collaborative networks. A case study is presented to demonstrate the proposed approach. The framework presented in this paper represents a roadmap for SMEs to raise their internal efficiency, achieve maximum responsiveness that will increase their competitive edge.

The recent manufacturing environment is characterized as having diverse products due to mass customization, short production lead-time, and unstable customer demand. Today, the need for flexibility, quick responsiveness, and robustness to system uncertainties in production scheduling decisions has increased significantly. In traditional job shops, tooling is usually assumed as a fixed resource. However, when tooling resource is shared among different machines, a greater product variety, routing flexibility with a smaller tool inventory can be realized. Such a strategy is usually enabled by an automatic tool changing mechanism and tool delivery system to reduce the time for tooling setup, hence allows parts to be processed in small batches. In this research, a dynamic scheduling problem under flexible tooling resource constraints is studied. An integrated approach is proposed to allow two levels of hierarchical, dynamic decision making for job scheduling and tool flow control in Automated Manufacturing Systems. It decomposes the overall problem into a series of static subproblems for each scheduling window, handles random disruptions by updating job ready time, completion time, and machine status on a rolling horizon basis, and considers the machine availability explicitly in generating schedules. Two types of manufacturing system models are used in simulation studies to test the effectiveness of the proposed dynamic scheduling approach. First, hypothetical models are generated using some generic shop flow structures (e.g. flexible flow shops, job shops, and single-stage systems) and configurations .They are tested to provide the empirical evidence about how well the proposed approach performs for the general automated manufacturing systems where parts have alternative routings. Second, a model based on a real industrial flexible manufacturing system was used to test the effectiveness of the proposed approach when machine types, part routing, tooling, and other production parameters closely mimic to the real flexible manufacturing operations.

In the first paper of this two-part series, the assembly variant design system architecture and complementary assembly methodology have been presented. The general complementary assembly models, hierarchical assembly model and relational assembly model, are established which were further specified as assembly variants model (AVM) and assembly mating graphs (AMG) respectively to cater for the needs for assembly variant design. This paper discusses the assembly variant design methodology which is based on these assembly models. The matching components are searched and retrieved from the AVM and then the constraint groups are identified by manipulating the AMGs. Then the assembly variant design process is formulated as a mixed integer (linear or nonlinear) programming problem which is solved using a standard solver or heuristic. This methodology provides a systematic approach to facilitate the variant design of complex assembly products in the agile manufacturing environment. Finally, a prototype system is developed and examples are presented.

Configurational theory can significantly enhance understanding of organisational strategy and diversity. Despite this, there have been limited efforts to examine the value and utility of configurational research as a method for realising manufacturing strategies. This paper introduces a strategic management framework based on configurational theory and an evolutionary classification method (cladistics). Focusing on agile manufacturing concepts, the framework provides a system for collecting and organising information on manufacturing routines and capabilities. This facilitates the processes of strategic analysis, strategic choice and strategic information.

The term agile manufacturing refers to a manufacturing system that can fabricate various products simultaneously without long downtimes for retooling. Agile manufacturing systems can bene t signi cantly from a database support and more speci cally from real-time database systems. This chapter describes AMDS, an agile manufacturing database system designed for capturing and manipulating the operational data of a manufacturing cell. AMDS is a continuous data gathering, real-time DBMS, and it can be logged either locally or remotely and used for o -line analysis as well. The temporal operational data obtained is used for performance and reliability analysis, high-level summary report generation, real-time monitoring and active interaction. This chapter describes the overview of AMDS, its real-time features and the cooperative transaction model that it employs.