Agile Manufacturing

Book excerpt: Agile manufacturing is defined as the capability of surviving and prospering in a competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable change by reacting quickly and effectively to changing markets, driven by customer-designed products and services. Critical to successfully accomplishing AM are a few enabling technologies such as the standard for the exchange of products (STEP), concurrent engineering, virtual manufacturing, component-based hierarchical shop floor control system, information and communication infrastructure, etc.The scope of the book is to present the undergraduate and graduate students, senior managers and researchers in manufacturing systems design and management, industrial engineering and information technology with the conceptual and theoretical basis for the design and implementation of AMS. Also, the book focuses on broad policy directives and plans of agile manufacturing that guide the monitoring and evaluating the manufacturing strategies and their performance. A problem solving approach is taken throughout the book, emphasizing the context of agile manufacturing and the complexities to be addressed.