The concept of agile manufacturing was originally introduced in the report entitled

21st Century Manufacturing Enterprise Strategy and published by the Iacocca Institute of
Lehigh University (Goldman and Nagel, 1991) as an option for managing firms in a dynamic
world. Since then, it has been adopted by researchers, managers and consultants as the last
stage in the evolution of manufacturing models or systems. However, perhaps because the
concept of agile manufacturing is at the developmental phase, it has been surrounded by
considerable confusion. The term agile manufacturing is sometimes incorrectly used to refer
to concepts such as flexible manufacturing, lean production or mass customisation.
Additionally, while the interest of agile manufacturing for firms has been widely disseminated,
its relation with performance has not been empirically validated. This study analyse the
drivers, practices and results of agility in order to offer an initial approach to agile
manufacturing. The case analyzed the context and degree of practical application of agile
manufacturing in four factories in Spain. In particular, the main needs for agility in the
production plants were analyzed, as well as the practices and tools being used by them to
increase their responsiveness and, therefore, their competitiveness.
Agile manufacturing: theoretical background
In the last decade the industrial environment has undergone substantial changes
characterised not only by their breadth and depth but also by their speed. In this context,
firms in general, and those dedicated to manufacturing in particular, are finding it difficult to
attain a sustainable competitive advantage or even ensure their survival due to the high
levels of complexity, dynamism and uncertainty they face. This critical situation has forced
firms to review their competitive priorities, triggering a transition process in which they are
giving up traditional manufacturing models in favour of new organisational forms, new
management practices and new strategies at all levels. A transformation has been observed
in traditional production models leading to a new production paradigm linked to agility.
With this move towards a new agility-based paradigm, the term agile manufacturing
has arisen, a concept that has been increasingly used in literature on Operations
Management and Business Administration to denominate a model of flexible manufacturing,
capable of rapidly adapting to changes in the environment and of placing a large variety of
products on the market to satisfy the needs of increasingly demanding and well-informed
customers. This emerging paradigm, the philosophy of which considers a new strategic
positioning in manufacturing and requires a global view of the firm, breaks with the
guidelines of the traditional mass production model, placing special emphasis on the
proactive adaptation to change. It highlights the development of dynamic capabilities, the
strategic use of new technologies, the integration of strategies and operations, customer
satisfaction through new forms of interfirm cooperation and knowledge management.

The pioneering work done by the Iacocca Institute describes agile manufacturing as
a new manufacturing infrastructure, establishing a list of systems and subsystems enabling
agility, all of which are related to continuous change, responsiveness, quality improvement
and social liability in environmental and working condition terms.
Agile manufacturing is based on three basic resources: (a) an innovative
management organisation and structure, (b) a worker base consisting of highly trained,
motivated and empowered people and (c) advanced, flexible and intelligent technologies.
Agility is obtained by integrating these three resources in an interdependent and coordinated
system. Agility is a global response to changes imposed by a new business environment
dominated by a set of forces that attempt to break with mass production systems and are
characterised by change and uncertainty. Four dimensions or foundational elements of agile
manufacturing are, (a) enriching the customer, (b) cooperating to enhance competitiveness,
(c) mastering change and uncertainty and (d) leveraging the impact of people and
information. For each of these dimensions they establish a list of characteristics of the agile
firm that have been considered by many authors as the starting point in their works on agility.
Despite the fact that agility has been defined in different ways and from different
perspectives and fields of knowledge, a common element to all the definitions is that it is far
removed from mass production. Agility implies breaking with the moulds of mass production
in order to manufacture more customized products at the time and place required by
consumer demand. Thus, agile manufacturers represent a new form of industrial competition
on a global scale for the 21st century that generates new operative and management forms
designed to meet the challenges of the new competitive environment. As a concept, agility in
manufacturing identifies a production model that is conditioned by changes in the
environment and links innovation in manufacturing, information and communication
technologies with a radical organisational redesign, new human resources practices and the
application of new marketing strategies. Implementation of this model, considered the latest
in the stages of evolution of production systems, has been considered a solution for the
problems arising from turbulent business environments. Therefore, a positive relation is to be
expected between more turbulent environments, the application of agile manufacturing, the
factory results and the degree of competitiveness.
three key elements in the implementation
and development of agile manufacturing have been
identified: motivators (or drivers), facilitators (enablers,
providers or pillars) and results.
The business environment, as a source of change and
generator of uncertainty, has been considered the main
motivator or agility driver. In fact, agile manufacturing

describes a comprehensive response to a new competitive

environment shaped by forces that have undermined the
dominance of the mass-production system (Gunasekaran
et al., 2001, p. 28). Thus, new forces and changes in the
markets competitive landscape (changing customer expectations
and escalating requirements to satisfy individual
needs, globalisation, intensification of competition from a
national scale to a global arena, social pressures, fragmentation
of mass markets into niche markets, technology and
management innovations, shorter product life cycles,
increasing product variety, strong need for rapid and
dynamic product innovation cycle, etc.) are identified as
precursors of agile manufacturing in that they are forcing
firms to adopt practices linked to the new manufacturing
paradigm. So, agility is reflected in the capability to
survive and prosper by reacting quickly and effectively to a
continuously and unpredictably changing, customer-driven
and competitive environment (Jain and Jain, 2001, p. 516).
Agile manufacturing can be considered a production
model that integrates technology, human resources and the
organisation through an information and communication