What Are the Pros and Cons of Agile Manufacturing?

Agile manufacturing refers to the use of modern communication means by manufacturing enterprises to quickly configure various resources (including technology, management and personnel), respond to user needs in an effective and coordinated manner, and achieve manufacturing agility. ^[1]

In the 1990s, information technology advanced by leaps and bounds, and a wave of informatization surged. Many countries have formulated advanced manufacturing plans aimed at improving their country's competitive position in the future world and cultivating competitive advantages. To regain world leadership in U.S. manufacturing, the U.S. government put

Agile manufacturing mainly includes three elements, production technology, organization method,

The core idea of agile manufacturing is: to improve the company's ability to respond quickly to market changes and meet customer requirements. In addition to making full use of the internal resources of the enterprise, it can also make full use of the resources of other enterprises and society to organize production.

Features

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Although the improvement of agility itself does not depend on high technology or high investment. But proper technology and advanced management can make the agility of the enterprise reach a new height. It must be pointed out that the technology we are talking about here is still about improving agility.

I. Good information technology framework support

In response to different challenges from different markets, support

1.The entire process from product development to production cycle meets the requirements

Agile manufacturing adopts flexible and modular product design methods and reconfigurable process equipment, so that the functions and performance of the product can be changed according to the specific needs of the user. With the help of simulation technology, users can easily participate in the design. To produce products that meet user needs. Its concept of product quality is to ensure that customer satisfaction is achieved throughout the entire product production cycle; the company's quality tracking will continue until the product is scrapped, or even until the product is replaced.

2.Using a dynamic and dynamic organizational structure

The criteria for measuring competitive advantage in the 21st century lies in the speed of the company's response to the market and its ability to satisfy users. To improve this speed and capability, the advantages of the company and the advantages of different companies outside the company must be gathered at the fastest speed to form a flexible operating entity, that is, a virtual company.

The so-called virtual company is a new type of using information technology to break the barriers of time and space

Agile manufacturing believes that the speed of new products to market is the most important competitive advantage today. The fastest way to launch a new product is to use the resources of different companies and various resources within the company. This requires the flexibility of internal organizations and the dynamic alliances between organizations. A virtual company is the most ideal form. A virtual company is like a company that specializes in a specific plan. As long as the market opportunity exists, the virtual company exists; the market opportunity disappears, and the virtual company disintegrates. The ability to form a virtual company often will become a powerful competitive weapon for enterprises.

As long as the enterprise resources distributed in different places can be concentrated, agile manufacturing enterprises can form a virtual company at any time. In the United States, virtual companies will use the nation s industrial network, the National Industrial Network, to integrate comprehensive industrial databases and services in order to enable corporate groups to create and operate virtual companies.

Agile manufacturing enterprises must have a highly flexible and dynamic organizational structure. Depending on the product, different forms such as internal teams, external teams (suppliers, users can participate) and other companies or virtual companies are used to ensure that the internal information of the enterprise reaches instantaneous communication, and that it can quickly grasp the market outside the enterprise And further make a sensitive response.

To achieve effective integration of organization, personnel and technology with flexible management methods, especially emphasizing the role of people. The basic idea of agile manufacturing in human resources is that in a dynamic competitive environment, the most critical factor is personnel. Flexible production technology and flexible management should enable the personnel of agile manufacturing enterprises to implement their own inventions and rationalization proposals. Need to provide the necessary material and organizational resources to support people's actions and give full play to the initiative and creativity of personnel at all levels. Knowledgeable people are the most valuable asset of agile manufacturing enterprises. It is a long-term task for enterprise management to continuously improve the quality of personnel training.

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1. Put continuing education first in the realization of agile manufacturing, and attach great importance to and create conditions to enable employees to obtain new information and knowledge in the future. The competition is, in the final analysis, the competition for talents, the knowledge and creativity of talents. Only with broad knowledge and broad perspectives can the company's employees constantly generate new ideas to overcome competitors.

2. Composition and work of virtual enterprises

From competition to cooperation and from confidentiality to information exchange, in fact, it will bring greater benefits to enterprises. The basis for implementing agile manufacturing is the national and even global communication networks. I have learned about partners with expertise on the Internet, determined cooperative relationships in network communications, and achieved the fastest and high-quality new product development through the use of concurrent engineering on the network.

3. Wide application of computer technology and artificial intelligence technology

Emphasizing the role of people in manufacturing in the future is not to devalue technology. Computer-aided design, manufacturing, computer simulation and modeling

Status of Agile Manufacturing Companies

Since the agile manufacturing enterprise was proposed in December 1991, in the past few years, various American companies have consciously applied the ideas of agile manufacturing and dynamic alliances to make rapid progress and have become a hot spot in the world's manufacturing industry.

1.Informatization process of manufacturing industry

Over the past half century, especially in the past thirty years, the information revolution has penetrated into various economic sectors and has rapidly changed the face of traditional industries and the entire economy. The rapid development of computer and communication technology has greatly expanded the breadth and depth of the manufacturing industry, produced a number of new manufacturing philosophies and manufacturing technologies, and the manufacturing industry is undergoing a qualitative leap. Throughout the manufacturing informationization process, it can be divided into the following stages: functional automation stage. The development of electronic technology and computer technology in the 1970s provided the possibility for automatic control in the field of production.

1. Competition is the driving force for the advancement of society, but excessive competition has caused a huge waste of manpower and resources. Early cooperation in today's competition has become a common method used by major companies to solve a key technology. As products become more and more complex, under the competition of entering the market first, it is no longer possible for any enterprise to manufacture all of a product, or even complete all designs of a product independently, so agile manufacturing will Basically change the content and significance of industrial competition. In order to achieve the opportunity of responding quickly to the market, the relationship between competitors, partners, suppliers, and buyers in agile manufacturing companies changes frequently with the project, which will make the competition and cooperation compatible.

2. In addition to agile manufacturing companies seizing market opportunities, it is important to do everything possible to increase investment in scientific research and development and enhance

Agile manufacturing (17 photos)

Proper use of agile technology can fundamentally change the economic model and create and measure value. We are now in the 21st century integrated economy from the 20th century goods and services economy. This new economy has begun to emerge in the last decade, but before the widespread application of e-commerce, the emergence and impact of this new economic model have not been seen.

In an integrated economy, customers no longer look for individual products and services. Customers must integrate products and services into a system that produces the desired goals or results. In an integrated economy, we shift responsibility for achieving goals from buyers to suppliers, or share them with suppliers. In this new model of transferring or sharing target responsibility that generates value, customers seek to purchase their skills, knowledge, and professional experience in long-term collaborations with suppliers. In this new model, we see goods and services integrated in a two-way flow of information to generate valuable long-term goals.

Computers, photocopiers, and other devices were the first to use information to service products. These devices use control systems, sensors, and information to self-diagnose and repair. Even if it cannot be repaired automatically, advanced information technology is used to notify the user of "not functioning properly", to guide repairs or to call the maintenance service network.

Another example of an integrated economy is that suppliers send their employees to customers to participate in the development and improvement of new products. For example, TRW sent its engineers to a car company, and Goodyear simulated the new cars and tires jointly developed by engineers and major car companies. They can simulate the driving of concept tires and concept cars before making products or prototypes, thus providing users with valuable goals (feelings). From providing products and services with a certain cost and value in the past, to entrusting users with the skills, knowledge, and professional experience of suppliers to achieve users' unique and valuable goals, in this economy, supplier-specific products and Services appear in users' products or processes. To be such a supplier, you must be very agile.

Moving from focusing on the value of products and services to the goals of specific users is not a process that evolves step by step according to formulas. Our understanding of this new integrated economy will lead us to think that we are being involved in this economy at an unprecedented rate. Some people say that this kind of economy is growing at an exponential rate.

Economic, model and other changes are still happening. When we bring more goods and services together to achieve one goal, customer expectations are no longer the price of individual products and services, but the long-term goal of value.

We are entering a model that some people call "solving" the economy, or "feeling" the economy. Customers look for suppliers who can provide valuable solutions, as many suppliers can provide valuable solutions in the competition. Customers choose suppliers based on their experience and cooperation results, so cooperation experience and results are particularly important factors. Factors related to the relationship when selecting a supplier include reliability, the spirit of sharing risk for a common cause, and so on. Customers are asking suppliers as partners to share risks in valuable inventions, creating intellectual property rights and logistics supply, which is a manifestation of this new trend. Information technology has energized and made this change possible. Therefore, the world of e-commerce is accelerating the transformation of the integrated economy, and the growth of the economy and value system based on providing solutions is run.

Information and e-commerce Networking vendors' tools and facilities together can strengthen strategic partnerships. This next-generation supply network is backing global agile manufacturing capabilities that are necessary to provide a competitive environment that provides solutions and a good feel. Some people will argue whether e-commerce has brought about this change or whether this change has promoted the development of e-commerce. We believe that e-commerce and information technology provide technical support for the agility of competitive strategies.

As one of the pioneers of agile manufacturing, we experienced tremendous resistance early on when it came to the need for agility and agile manufacturing. But with the emergence of this new economy and our focus on providing customers with solutions and e-commerce, our interest in agile manufacturing has grown dramatically. Many people think that agile manufacturing is the best way to complete this economic form and use the advantages of e-commerce to build capabilities. Therefore, we see enterprises such as Dell, Intel, Cisco, UPS, and many other organizations preparing to use e-commerce as the basis to make more agile and use agile technologies as unique competitive strategies in global manufacturing competition.

When we pay attention to a company's manufacturing goals, we see a change from the static pursuit of the lowest cost and highest quality of manufactured products. This goal is no longer what is usually pursued. The goals of manufacturing are becoming more dynamic and agile. It is particularly important to point out that we should stand out from the competition based on products and services in accordance with its series of goals to support users, and judge the performance and future of an enterprise in an integrated economy. The means of business manufacturing must be sufficiently agile to enable the business to provide customers with goods and to provide the skills, knowledge, and expertise needed for the customer's specific needs.

We divide agility into the following 4 categories:

1) Adaptability: Get information and reorganize quickly.

2) Strong human resources: employees' skills, knowledge, professional experience and ability to build relationships.

3) Virtual organization: Combine customers, suppliers, partners, and competitors in a dynamic, creative, and temporary project team.

4) Be productive: provide valuable benefits to customers, employees and other shareholders.

It's important to realize that the enterprise is undergoing fundamental structural changes to be more agile. This is even more obvious if you compare the old-fashioned, static organization with the more agile organizations that are now emerging.

20th century old static mode

In this static organization, leaders decide what they should do and exercise strict control. The past was considered a good day, decision-making was slow, and change, even if it was possible, was a last resort and was negative. In such organizations, people are told what you should do and how to do it. The corporate culture is hierarchical and not conducive to resisting risks and punishing mistakes. In this form of organization, moving from an idea to an action is slow.

21st Century Agile Electronic Organization

The future is seen as an attractive opportunity for leaders. Its role is to determine goals, systems, and conventions. The purpose of the system is to help people across the enterprise identify who is in charge of technology that can make progress and overcome obstacles. In the new organizational structure, people (employees and leaders) are required to do positive and distinctive work. They are trusted and authorized, and their actions can be rewarded. This is a distributed decision-making mechanism that acts at the speed of the Internet. For example, the decision-making and action cycle at Cisco reaches three months.

The transition from a static model to an agile electronic organization is not instantaneous or gradual. No organization must look at the need to improve resilience and speed, and the need to empower its employees. As the company's goals and strategic needs increase, a more agile second organizational structure change will inevitably occur. In such a huge change in corporate culture, business leaders face many challenges. Therefore, change must involve significant organizational opportunities or competitive pressures. Change also requires special attention to training, education and management of organizational resources.

Even more revolutionary is that agility requires attention to management relationships. The key to this is the leadership, teamwork, and interpersonal skills of employees, providing customers with reliable services that exceed user expectations. The way to achieve this goal is to actively use the relationship strategy to join the process of users. Some of the success factors or measures to achieve this relationship with your partner are:

Need each other and be willing to compromise with each other;

Disputes are normal and can be resolved through discussion;

Understand each other's interests and capabilities.

A group of suppliers that customers are looking for. They should understand the customer's business, be able to explain to customers the strategic development or support of the company's strategic goals, and how to use the supplier's skills, knowledge, and professional experience.

So we see that many customers are actively working with suppliers as part of their organization. In addition, a series of companies can be strategically combined to form a network to create a virtual enterprise. As a more competitive organization, a virtual enterprise can replace a single enterprise.

There are four concepts of advanced agile technology:

1) Borderless: Virtual organization personnel work across corporate boundaries.

2) Mutual relationship: Mutual relationship is based on mutual trust, authorization, responsibility for major inventions, and shared responsibility and benefits for the success of the enterprise. This relationship is often strengthened through integrated information and personnel exchanges, and through technology.

3) Cooperation: Requires partners to communicate extensively and rely on each other. The team is active and cooperative. They must know to work for each other's needs and jointly develop new opportunities.

4) Feelings: The value of the achievement is concentrated in the satisfaction of all parties responsible for the achievement of the achievement.

For suppliers, this has important implications. For example, delivery will become smaller, more frequent, and shorter. Logistics and execution must take place at the speed of the Internet. This requires companies to pay attention to their core competitiveness and transfer non-core parts to partners.

Due to the revolution in e-commerce and the glory of Chinese manufacturing companies, the challenges of agile manufacturing in the global economy will present huge opportunities for Chinese companies to establish global partnerships and relationships. I look forward to working with you in the future. (Roger Nagor)