Agile Manufacturing

Prior to the industrial revolution, products were manufactured by craftspersons, usually toiling in small, private workspaces. Usually one individual, occasionally several "skilled" individuals, would make a product one unit at a time. This process was used for thousands of years prior to the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution brought literally thousands of workers off the farms and into the urban areas to work in factories. Occurring first in Europe during the eighteenth century, it spread later to the United States. The changes to manufacturing and society were brought about by a han

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ned and reliable product (Maskell, 1994, p. 43). The term first came into use in 1991 (Kidd, 1994, p. 9). Alternative and equally descriptive names can also be applied to agile manufacturing, such as "flexible manufacturing," "lean manufacturing" and "elimination of waste," where waste is anything that adds cost without adding any value to the product (Kenworthy, 1997, p. 167). Using this definition, the storage of a product on a shelf, for example, can be considered waste since an item is not normally worth any more than its original value after it has sat in a warehouse for some given period. If the item is prone to rust or otherwise corrode, then its value may even diminish when in storage. Similarly, transportation adds nothing to the value of a product nor does inspection. Consequently, it can be said that "agile manufacturing," "continuous improvement," "lean manufacturing," and "elimination of waste" are all really more descriptive terms describing elements or portions of the more widely recognized and established "justintime", or JIT, approach. Elements of Agile Manufacturing The first principle of agile manufacturing is that an organization should be built on the competitive foundations of continuous change, rapid
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Approximate Word count = 2179
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)