Volume flexibility: the agile manufacturing conundrum
Abstract
Agile manufacturing is a response to competition in environments characterised by unpredictable change, so having the ability to vary capacity, respond to sporadic changes in demand, mass customise at the cost of mass production, and compete in both mass and custom markets is crucial. Empirical justification of the benefits of implementing agile manufacturing is rare in the literature and an in‐depth empirical study of the benefits of implementing agile manufacturing practices is lacking. This article aims to address this gap by conducting a preliminary analysis of a much wider empirical research. The adoption and impact of a set of tools – enablers of agile manufacturing – were studied through a survey by questionnaire. The results show lower volume flexibility at higher levels of adoption of the five enablers, thus the resource competencies for enhancing it were not in place. Also, volume flexibility ranked very low in hierarchy of future improvement plans. Suggests virtual cells, and its extension into supply chain networks, as a solution to volume flexibility.
Keywords
Citation
Yusuf, Y.Y., Adeleye, E.O. and Sivayoganathan, K. (2003), "Volume flexibility: the agile manufacturing conundrum", Management Decision, Vol. 41 No. 7, pp. 613-624. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740310495540
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2003, MCB UP Limited