Agile Operations

The concept of Agile manufacturing also referred to as Fast and Flexible Manufacturing, was popularised in 1991 by the Iaccoca Institute of Lehigh University in USA (Kidd, 1994).

The thrust of the report by the group was to convey an industry-led vision for a possible profound shift in manufacturing paradigm. The view of agile manufacturing enterprise included components, infrastructure and operating mechanisms as well as identifying competitive foundation, characteristics, elements and enabling sub-systems of agility (Iaccoca Institute, 1991).

The globalisation of markets, growing inter-penetration of economies and increased interdependence of economic agents are prompting farsighted companies to re-examine and modify their competitive strategies

As my colleague rightfully stated,agility is a strategy that must be embodied by the entire company to be effective. It allows the firm to capitalize quickly on emergent market opportunities. It includes more agile marketing, production systems, supply chain management and distribution.The main drivers of agility include; quality and speed to market; widening customer choice and expectation; competitive priorities of responsiveness, new product introduction, delivery, flexibility, concern for the environment and international competitiveness (Goldman and Nagel, 1993). Agility has been expressed as having four underlying components; Delivering value to the customer; Being ready for change; Valuing human knowledge and skills; Forming virtual partnerships (Goldman, 1995). Of these, the first three can be found within the operating philosophies of companies generally thought to be "lean" as described in 'The Machine that Changed the World'. [Womack, Jones, and Roos] The fourth principle is different. In fact, Agile and Lean take quite different attitudes toward partnerships, and here is where an important research and practical challenge may lie. Companies like Toyota stress how long it takes to develop effective partnerships for procurement of complex automotive assemblies. Relationships of 20+ years are typical. In the world of agility, where such partnerships are predicted to be of dramatically shorter duration, extra attention will have to be paid to launching and maintaining supplier relations.

As we can see more and more companies are adopting the agile operations strategy. In January 1999,Nortel Networks unveiled details around it's global operations strategy, a three-year plan designed to make the company more agile, flexible, and responsive to an increasingly competitive environment requiring significantly