Methodology to form agile strategies in manufacturing organisations
Since the concept of agile manufacturing was introduced in 1991, the benefits of implementing agile manufacturing in companies have been widely recognised by researchers and industry. Motivated by Sharifi and Zhang's research in assisting agile manufacturing implementation in 1999, this paper proposed a methodology to implement agile manufacturing in manufacturing organisations through benchmarking processes. Quantitative assessment tools are developed to continuously and objectively analyse changes in a company's business environment, as well as capabilities and performances in reactively and proactively coping with the changes. A mechanism is established for identifying relations between agility drivers, capabilities and performances. This paper also presents a case study which employs the proposed methodology to form agile business development strategies in a SME company. I. INTRODUCTION Attaining and maintaining world-class manufacturing performance and staying ahead of competitions are the never- ending targets for manufacturing companies. The development of ways to achieve the targets has been an evolutionary process in responding to the changing criteria of business competition since the beginning of the industrial age. In the last decade, business economy has shifted from economies of scale toward economies of scope. Price is no longer the sole factor in winning competitions. Academic researchers and industry were seeking the decisive factors that could result in better performances in responding to the changing market conditions.