Agile Manufacturing

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) Then use that agility that arises from this integrated and coordinated whole for our competitive advantage. Being able to rapidly respond to changes occurring in the market environment and through our ability to use and exploit a fundamental resource – knowledge.

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. Agility is the ability to thrive and prosper in an environment of constant and unpredictable change. Listed above are a few of the reasons that the manufacturing paradigm is changing form mass production to agile manufacturing.

Why do we need to be agile cont: Customers are expecting: 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) Agility is the ability to thrive and prosper in an environment of constant and unpredictable change. Listed above are a few of the reasons that the manufacturing paradigm is changing form mass production to agile manufacturing.

Keys to agility and flexibility To determine customer needs quickly and continuously reposition the company against it’s 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) “Agility” includes “leanness” because a high stock or spare capacity method of providing flexibility to changing customer demands or adversity is not a viable financial option, but in addition it demands increased flexibility in terms of the ability

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 A strategy to become an Agile Manufacturing enterprise. A strategy to exploit agility to achieve competitive advantage. Integration of organization, people and technology into a coordinated interdependent system which is our competitive advantage. An interdisciplinary design methodology to achieve the integration of Organization, people and technology. (5) The integration of these four concepts are key to becoming an Agile Manufacturing enterprise.

Nuts and Bolts Enriching the customer Replace large centralized with distributed clusters of mini-assembly plants located near customers. Cooperating to enhance competition. Internal—cross-functional teams, empowerment. External—managing the supply chain. There are no clear road maps designed to establish and achieve agility. These examples are merely guidelines to start the journey.

Nuts and Bolts Organizing to manage change and uncertainty Rapid reconfiguration of plant and facilities. Rapid decision making-shallow empowered. Leveraging people and information. Distribution of authority, resources, and rewards. (1) There are no clear road maps designed to establish and achieve agility. These examples are merely guidelines to start the journey.

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 however, means more than just applying knowledge from other domains such a psychology and organizational science, to the design of Agile Manufacturing systems. It also implies looking into the unexplored areas between these disciplines and the areas where they overlap, to find new insights, new knowledge and new and original solutions.

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) Japanese car makers can presently deliver the 10 day car right now, but are currently working on techniques in congruency with Agile Manufacturing to produce the three day car. Challenge #2) Nissan’s Intelligent Body System, a Lego-block approach that favors existing over newly designed body components, leaves tooling as the only major expense for a new model.

Real world ex. Cont. The Challenges: Break dependency on scale and economies of scale (reducing setup costs in key). Produce vehicles in low volumes at a reasonable cost. Guarantee the three day car. Replace large centralized with distributed clusters of mini-assembly plants located near customers. Be able to reconfigure components in many different ways. Japanese companies invented JIT manufacturing, lean production, flexible manufacturing, and many of the tools of TQM. Even as the rest of the world catches up and some companies overtake them, they are positioning for the next leap forward. So, too are their American competitors. The three day car is coming. Flexible manufacturing is adaptive; agile production is adaptive and faster. The aim of lean manufacturing is to keep production steady and predictable and minimize cost and waste in a world of business that is increasingly unpredictable and unsteady.

Real world ex. Cont. The Challenges: 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) Japanese companies invented JIT manufacturing, lean production, flexible manufacturing, and many of the tools of TQM. Even as the rest of the world catches up and some companies overtake them, they are positioning for the next leap forward. So, too are their American competitors. The three day car is coming. Flexible manufacturing is adaptive; agile production is adaptive and faster. The aim of lean manufacturing is to keep production steady and predictable and minimize cost and waste in a world of business that is increasingly unpredictable and unsteady.

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) The concept of Agile Manufacturing is built around the synthesis of a number of enterprises that each have some core skills or competencies which they bring to a joint venturing operation, which is based on using each partners facilities and resources. For this reason, these joint venture enterprises are called virtual corporations because they do not own significant capital resources of their own. This helps to make them agile, as they can be formed and changed very rapidly.

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 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/ammaterial.html.