Development of a framework for agile manufacturing, Rahul Kumar, Dr. Kanwarpreet Singh and Dr. Sanjiv Jain
Rahul Kumar
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Punjabi University, Patiala
India
Email: rahulkumar.ace@gmail.com
Dr. Kanwarpreet Singh
Punjabi University, Patiala
India
Dr. Sanjiv Kumar Jain
Ambala College of Engineering and Applied Research, Ambala Cantt
India
DOI: 10.1108/WJSTSD-05-2019-0022
Purpose: In the past, the insufficiency of the traditional business practices to meet vibrant customer demands in continuously changing business environment has severely affected organizational competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to develop and propose a new framework for smoother and effective implementation of agile manufacturing by identifying and integrating a set of significant agility principles and techniques.
Design/methodology/approach: The present work proposed a framework for agile manufacturing by deploying the comparative analysis of 17 frameworks published in peer-reviewed journals.
Findings: The proposed conceptual framework constitutes of eight pillars for agile manufacturing implementation. The proposed framework relies on a strong foundation of leadership support. The roof of the proposed framework of agile manufacturing is supported by the pillars constituted of seven elements, an industry must deploy for successfully implementing agile manufacturing, namely, human resource-related issues, organizational culture-related issues, supplier-related issues, customer-related issues, innovation, concurrent engineering and information technology.
Originality/value: This work is the first attempt, in the best knowledge of the authors, to employ comparative analysis for critically analyzing a wide range of agile manufacturing frameworks. The findings of this study will assist researchers and managers in agile manufacturing implementation in more a smoother and effective way in manufacturing industries.
Keywords: Agile manufacturing; Business performance; Manufacturing industry.
Citation: Kumar, R., Singh, K. and Jain, S.K. (2019), "Development of a framework for agile manufacturing", World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 161-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJSTSD-05-2019-0022