A novel approach for measuring agility in manufacturing firms

  • Authors:

  • Ibrahim H. Garbie;Hamid R. Parsaei;Herman R. Leep

  • Affiliations:

  • Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering at Helwan, Helwan University, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt.;Industrial Engineering Department, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.;Industrial Engineering Department, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

Manufacturing firms have great interest in developing theirmanufacturing systems to be more competitive in terms offlexibility and agility. Agile Manufacturing Systems (AMS) will beconsidered as the next industrial revolution. They aremanufacturing and/or management philosophies that integrate theavailable technology, people, manufacturing strategies, andmanagement systems. Although agility is the set of capabilities andcompetences that the manufacturing firms need to thrive and prosperin a continuously changing and unpredictable business environment,measuring the level of agility in these firms is still unexploredaccording to the capabilities and competences. As there are manyimportant components (issues) to be included in embracing AMS,there are also many important questions to be asked concerning theexisting firm's agility level and how to assist in achievingenhancing agility more effectively. In this paper, a novel modelwill be proposed to measure the agility level of the manufacturingfirms based on existing technologies, level of qualifying people,manufacturing strategies, and management systems and the businessprocess. A complete case study will be presented.