Working towards agile manufacturing in the UK industry

Abstract

The business environment is one which is ever more demanding on companies, due to its sheer dynamism, which means that they are constantly having to improve their manufacturing performance. Organisations are continuously having to cope with changing markets that are unpredictable and more diversified, increasing global competition and ever changing customer demands. Companies now have to be able to not only predict variations and changes within the market and socio-economic and political environments but must also be able to adapt and change in accordance with these environments. As a result, this demands that an organisation develops and sustains an inherent ability to continuously change. Such a demand can be met by adopting the management philosophy of agile manufacturing. In embracing such an approach, there are a lot of key concepts and enabling technologies that are required to be able to implement agile manufacturing and many companies do not know how far down the path they are towards becoming agile manufacturing organisations. Hence, in providing a deeper understanding, this paper proposes a conceptual model, based on joint research, which has been developed to identify where UK's best practice companies are in their quest to become agile manufacturing organisations. In support of this, a questionnaire has been developed and completed by best practitioners of manufacturing, to assess the model, and establish whether they are making progress to becoming agile manufacturing organisations.

Introduction

In today's competitive environment businesses are undergoing profound changes. There is a world-wide spread of education and technology, leading to intense and increasingly global competition and accelerating rate of marketplace change. There is a continuing fragmentation of mass markets into niche markets as customers are becoming more demanding with increasing expectations. Also, there is a spread of collaborative product manufacture with suppliers and customers, joining together to add value within the supply chain.

In order to cope with these changes, companies are striving to improve their manufacturing performance. Halberstam [1]and Lamming [2]discuss the problems encountered by companies applying mass production techniques as they try to keep pace with the changing market requirements. Monden [3]discusses how the Toyoto Production System gave Japanese companies a manufacturing advantage whilst Womack et al. [4]introduced the term “Lean Manufacturing” which was introduced to improve manufacturing companies' competitiveness. Also, Deming [5], Juran [6]and Oakland [7]identified how total quality management, long regarded as a partner to just-in-time (JIT) [8]was maturing as a successful management philosophy.

Clearly, there appears to be many manufacturing panaceas, with much description about their philosophy. Although, there is no one definition of lean manufacturing, with most agreeing that lean enterprise includes external activities such as supply chain management, distribution and design [9]. The manufacturing trilogy of JIT, total quality and team involvement should be at the core of every lean enterprise according to Bicheno [10]. To be a world class factory requires all three; they are mutually supportive. However, in looking beyond the factory floor, a lean enterprise also requires supplier involvement, distribution logistics, IT/IS, effective design and attention to service. Therefore, JIT [11]can be thought of as largely within the plant whereas lean manufacturing extends the boundaries.