ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE THROUGH AGILE

MANUFACTURING: NEED OF THE HOUR

ABSTRACT
Manufacturing industry is on the verge of a major paradigm shift. This shift will
take us away from mass production, way beyond lean manufacturing, into a
world of Agile Manufacturing. Agile Manufacturing enterprises will be capable
of rapidly responding to changes in customer demand. They will be able to
take advantage of the windows of opportunities that appear in the market
place.

With Agile Manufacturing we will be able to develop new ways of

interacting with our customers and suppliers. Our customers will not only be
able to gain access to our products and services, but will also be able to easily
assess and exploit our competencies, so enabling them to use these
competencies to achieve the things that they are seeking. The current paper
focuses on two technologies i.e. Rapid Prototyping, Rapid Tooling and two
philosophies i.e. Reverse Engg. & Concurrent Engg, that can really make Agile
manufacturing a success.

Keywords: Rapid Prototyping, Rapid Tooling, Reverse Engg, Concurrent

Engg, Agile Manufacturing.

Introduction:
While Lean or world class manufacturing is being very good at doing the things we can
control, Agile manufacturing deals with the things you can NOT control. Agility is the
ability to thrive and prosper in an environment of constant and unpredictable change.
Here are a few of the reasons that the manufacturing paradigm is changing from mass
production to agile manufacturing:

Global competition is intensifying.

Cooperation among companies is becoming necessary, including

companies who are in direct competition with each other.

Customers expect low volume, high quality and custom products.

Very short product life cycles, development time, and production lead

times are required.

The swift trend towards a multiplicity of finished products with short development and
production lead times has lead many companies into problems with inventories,
overheads, and inefficiencies. They are trying to apply the traditional mass-production
approach without realizing that the whole environment has changed. Mass production
does not apply to products where the customers require small quantities of highly custom,
design-to-order products, and where additional services and value-added benefits like
product upgrades and future reconfigurations are as important as the product itself.
Approaches such as Rapid prototyping (RP), Rapid tooling (RT), Reverse engineering
and Concurrent engineering are helping to solve some of these problems.

Fig (i) Product Life Cycle

Agile Manufacturing:
Agile manufacturing is a method for manufacturing which combine our organization,
people and technology into an integrated and coordinated whole to meet the rapid
changes in the products and services.

Keys to agility and flexibility:

To determine customer needs quickly and continuously reposition the

company against its competitors.

To design things quickly based on those individual needs.

To put them into full scale, quality , production quickly.

To respond to changing volumes and mix quickly.

To respond to a crisis quickly.

Application of Agile Manufacturing Strategy:

Customer-integrated process for designing, manufacturing, marketing, and

supporting all products and services.

Decision making at functional knowledge points not in centralized

management silos

Stable unit costs, no matter what the volume

Flexible Manufacturing-ability to increase or decrease production volumes

at will.

Easy access to integrated data whether it is customer-driven, supplier-

driven, or product and process-driven

Modular production facilities that can be organized into ever changing

manufacturing nodes.

Data that is rapidly changed into information that is used to expand

knowledge.

Mass customized product verses mass produced product.

Four core concepts:

1. A strategy to become an Agile Manufacturing enterprise.
2. A strategy to exploit agility to achieve competitive advantage.
3. Integration of organization, people and technology into a coordinated
interdependent system, which is our competitive advantage.
4. An interdisciplinary design methodology to achieve the integration of
Organization, people and technology.

Agile Manufacturing Philosophy aims at:

Enriching the customer

1.

Replace large centralized with distributed clusters of mini-

assembly plants located near customers.

Cooperating to enhance competition.

1.

Internalcross-functional teams, empowerment.

2.

Externalmanaging the supply chain.

Organizing to manage change and uncertainty

1.

Rapid reconfiguration of plant and facilities.

2.

Rapid decision making-shallow empowered.

Leveraging people and information.

1.

Distribution of authority, resources, and rewards.

Transition to Agile manufacturing:

Make the break with the things that are wrong with the way we do things

today.

Examine and define the underlying conceptual framework on which Agile

Manufacturing enterprises will be built.

Explore and understand the nature of the mass production paradigm and

the nature of the cultural and methodological difficulties involved in the transition
to Agile Manufacturing.

Define a methodology for designing a 21st century manufacturing

enterprise.

Fig (ii). Support to Agile Manufacturing

Rapid Prototyping:
Rapid prototyping is a relatively new class of technology used for building physical
models and prototype part from 3D computer-aided design (CAD) data. Unlike milling
machines (which are subtractive in nature), RP systems join together liquid, powder and
sheet materials to form complex parts. Layer by layer, RP machines fabricate plastic,
wood, ceramic, and metal objects based on thin horizontal cross sections taken from a
computer model.
Although several rapid prototyping techniques exist, all employ the same basic five-step
process. The steps are:

1.CAD Model Creation:

2. Conversion to STL Format:
3. Slice the STL File:
4. Layer-by-Layer Construction:
5. Clean and Finish:

Fig (iv). Parts produced by Rapid Prototyping

Thus at the time of need for changing or modifying the product, parts can be rapidly
produced with the help of rapid prototyping for analysis, improvement and research.

Rapid Tooling:
Rapid tooling falls into two categories:
1. Advanced methods of making tools using RP technology, an additive process
2. Advanced methods of making tools using milling technology, a subtractive
process.

Both are driven from a digital database, which is the key to making it rapid. RP-driven
RT accelerates the tool-making process using RP masters that are, in turn, used to
produce molds.

Fig(v). Rapid Tools

Facts about Rapid Tooling:

Tooling time is much shorter than for a conventional tool. Typically, time

to first articles is below one-fifth that of conventional tooling.

Tooling cost is much less than for a conventional tool. Cost can be below

five percent of conventional tooling cost.

Tool life is considerably less than for a conventional tool.

Tolerances are wider than for a conventional tool.

Master pattern can be made for the tools with the help of Rapid Prototyping, which can
be used to make tools of H.S.S. etc. and meeting rapid requirement of tool design change.

Reverse Engineering:
Reverse engineering is the dismantling and inspecting of a competitors product to
discover product improvements.
Product dissection is examining the way in which products and machines work: their
physical operation, the manner in which they are constructed, and the design and societal

considerations that determine the difference between success and failure in the
marketplace.

The primary objective is to learn about engineering and product design by:

Dissecting existing consumer and industrial products to determine

how they function, how they were made and how they might be improved

Explaining that function by applying appropriate physical

principles

Communicating that function effectively - oral, written, electronic,

graphic

Developing visual reasoning skills and basic mechanical aptitude

Fig (vi). Product Dissection

The design of the part is defined by drawings, specifications, dimensions and tolerances,
materials and processes.

Benefits of Reverse Engineering:

Learn how to build them ourselves (without paying royalties for the

design)

Improve on existing designs if possible

Another reason for reverse engineering - need to replace a part for which

you have no drawing or technical information

Thus Reverse Engg. gives a very easy and fast way of keeping up with the competition.
Concurrent Engineering:
Concurrent engineering methodologies permit the separate tasks of the product
development process to be carried out simultaneously rather than sequentially. Product
design, testing, manufacturing and process planning through logistics, for example, are
done side-by-side and interactively. Potential problems in fabrication, assembly, support
and quality are identified and resolved early in the design process.

Fig (vii). Concurrent Engg. Approach

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:
Agile Manufacturing enterprises will be capable of rapidly responding to changes in
customer demand. They will be able to take advantage of the windows of opportunities
that appear in the market place. With Agile Manufacturing we will be able to develop

new ways of interacting with our customers and suppliers. Our customers will not only
be able to gain access to our products and services, but will also be able to easily assess
and exploit our competencies, so enabling them to use these competencies to achieve the
things that they are seeking. It is also concluded that the effective use of the technology
and philosophy discussed in the paper will make the agile manufacturing approach more
popular and successful.
REFERENCES:
1.

Industrial and Production Engg. Martand Telsang

2.

Tool Design Donaldson

3.

Advances in concur-rent engineering B. Prasad

4.

Abair, Bob. Agile Manufacturing: Not Just Another Buzzword.

http://www.partnersforexcellence.com/95art3.htm
5.

Agile Manufacturing: Gearing to meet demand. Linkages

http://www.llnl.gov/str/Burleson.html
6.

Agile Manufacturing linkages http://www.peterkeen.com/engbp003.htm

7.

D&ME. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Linkages

http://www.technet.pnl.gov/dme/agile/index.stm
8.

http://www.cheshirehenvury.com/publications/ammaterial.html.