TABLE OF CONTENTS Highly adaptable (agile) production capability is enabled by an engineering design that facilitates the reconfiguration and reuse of common modules across a scalable production framework. Examples of agile fixtures, machines, cells, assembly lines, plants, and production organizations are presented; and a common set of 10 underlying design principles are shown to be responsible for the high adaptability in each. Finally, a method for capturing and displaying these principles in action, which facilitates learning, knowledge transfer, and competency development, is demonstrated.
In 1991 the author co-led an intense four-month-long collaborative workshop at Lehigh University that gave birth to the concept of the agile manufacturing enterprise. This workshop was funded by the U.S. government and engaged 15 representatives from a cross section of U.S. industry plus 1 person from government and 4 people as contributing facilitators. The Japanese had just rewritten the rules of competition with the introduction of lean manufacturing. Our intent was to identify the competitive focus that would be the successor to lean believing that there would...
