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Agile manufacturing (AM) has evolved as a revolutionary way of manufacturing the products while managing the uncertainties, product introduction time, responsiveness, innovation, superior quality, etc. along the supply chain to satisfy the ever increasing customer demand and to maximize the profit. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the literature related to various dimensions of AM and to report the findings.

This paper presents the reviews of 300 scholarly articles from 1993 to 2016 by various researchers and practitioners on AM collected from different sources, i.e. Google Scholar and ResearchGate. The information related to AM is also captured during industrial visits to different Indian manufacturing plants.

AM definitions are reported along divergent scopes and objectives in the literature. The researchers have given importance on performance measurement and process analysis through empirical and descriptive analysis whereas its implementation issues are neglected. It is also observed that the effort made on AM is significant for manufacturing industries which is overlooked in service industries.

This literature review has identified many research gaps in AM which were not paid attention before. Researchers can address these research gaps for strengthening the AM implementation.

In total, 300 research papers are reviewed and analyzed to capture the various aspects of AM and its related issues but not restricted to research methodologies, author profiles, types of industries, tools/techniques/methodology used, etc.

Regarding today’s volatile and turbulent markets accompanied by natural disasters and political upheavals, being resilient has become crucially important for many firms. It is widely accepted that the firm’s operations need to be cost efficient as well as customer responsive. Lean and agile have been proven to be pertinent strategies toward efficiency and responsiveness. But the operations also need to be resilient against disruptions to quickly return to their original state or even a better one. While the question of how leanness and agility impact operational performance outcomes has been researched, the question of how resilience can boost operational performance outcomes is yet to be investigated. The purpose of this paper is to show how resilience is distinguished from leanness and agility. It then examines the impact of resilience, along with leanness and agility, on operational performance outcomes.

A structural model is drawn up based on the literature to relate lean, agile and resilient practices to performance outcomes. Leanness, agility and resilience are measured through bundles of practices and operational performance outcomes are measured in terms of cost, quality, delivery, flexibility and time to recovery. The model is tested using SPSS 19 and AMOS 19 based on the data collected via survey from a sample of 151 automotive parts suppliers.

The results show that a higher level of resilience will lead to a better performance in terms of delivery, cost and time to recovery, while it does not have a significant impact on flexibility performance. Regarding leanness, the results confirm that lean operations positively affect cost, delivery and flexibility performances. The results also reject the hypothesis stating that higher level of leanness will lead to worse recovery performance, inferring that higher level of leanness leads to better time to recovery performance (i.e. helps time to recovery reduction).

The present research emphasizes the importance of operations resilience and demonstrates its contribution, alongside leanness and agility, to operational performance. The developed structural model contributes to the nascent theories around resilience, and the use of empirical data makes the results valuable practically. This may inform operations strategy decisions in terms of the results expected from resilience, leanness and agility.

The advent of globalization not only made the manufacturing sector highly competitive but also facilitated best-quality products. The trend is further augmented by e-Commerce which increases the penetration to the targeted customer with the easy availability of customized product. In this backdrop, Indian manufacturing industries are striving hard to seek out best systems which will yield maximum profitability. Time is ripe to realize the true potential of agile manufacturing system (AMS). Infusion of AMS in manufacturing industry will bring forth the elusive mix of customer needs and products at lowest possible cost. But adoption and implementation of AMS is a challenging task in itself. There are certain facilitators and criteria which not only facilitate the system but also help in the effective and smooth implementation of this system. The purpose of this paper is to identify the criteria to weightage and ranking to AMS facilitators. This study was carried out by different approaches, namely, entropy approach, multi-objective optimization on the basis of ratio analysis (MOORA) method, Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) analysis and a cross-sectional survey of manufacturing firms in India.

The criteria and facilitators are identified followed by the application of entropy approach, MOORA method and VIKOR analysis to study and analyze the criteria weight and provide the ranking to AMS facilitators.

The result of the entropy approach concludes that beneficiary and non-beneficiary criteria carry 48.43 and 51.56 percent weight, respectively. MOORA method and VIKOR analysis conclude that organization structure and virtual enterprise facilitators are carrying the first and second rank, respectively.

This study is completed on the basis of responses from few experts from industry and academicians who may not reflect the attitude of entire industry community.

This research is expected to facilitate policy makers in government and industries to frame policies for optimum utilization of resources and infrastructure for better performance. This paper helps the researcher to do a case study on the implementation of AMS and then finally helps to society in getting the high-quality product in an easy way.

Integration of entropy approach, MOORA method and VIKOR analysis with identification of AMS criteria weightage and ranking to AMS facilitators has been recommended for an industry which is an innovative effort for the execution of AMS.

Lean and agile manufacturing are two initiatives that are used by manufacturing plant managers to improve operations capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate internal and external factors that drive the choice of lean and agile operations capabilities and their respective impact on operational performance.

Lean and agile manufacturing are each conceptualized as a second‐order factor and measured through a bundle of distinct practices. The competitive intensity of industry and the competitive strategy are modeled as potential external and internal drivers, respectively, and the impact on quality, delivery, cost, and flexibility performance is analyzed using structural equations modeling. The model is tested with data from the high performance manufacturing project comprising a total of 211 plants from three industries and seven countries.

The results indicate that lean and agile manufacturing differ in terms of drivers and outcomes. The choice of a cost‐leadership strategy fully mediates the impact of the competitive intensity of industry as a driver of lean manufacturing, while agile manufacturing is directly affected by both internal and external drivers, i.e. a differentiation strategy as well as the competitive intensity of industry. Agile manufacturing is found to be negatively associated with a cost‐leadership strategy, emphasizing the difference between lean and agile manufacturing. The major differences in performance outcomes are related to cost and flexibility, such that lean manufacturing has a significant impact on cost performance (whereas agile manufacturing has not), and that agile manufacturing has a stronger relationship with volume as well as product mix flexibility than does lean manufacturing.

Cross‐sectional data from three industries and seven countries are used, and it would be interesting to test this model for more industries and countries.

The results provide insights into the factors that influence the choice of lean or agile manufacturing for improving operations, and the results that can be obtained.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first large‐scale empirical survey of leanness and agility simultaneously, using data from manufacturing firms in Europe, Asia, and North America. The model incorporates a wide perspective on factors related to lean and agile manufacturing, to be able to identify similarities and differences.

Despite the fact that agile manufacturing has been frequently promoted as a means of improving business competitiveness, little empirical evidence exists in the literature validating its positive link with business performance. The purpose of this research paper is to analyse agile manufacturing in Spain and study whether it is a critical factor for success in different industries.

A conceptual model is drawn up, based on the literature and a previous case study, to relate turbulence in the environment with agile manufacturing practices and business performance. The model is tested on a large sample of Spanish manufacturers using a survey methodology to obtain information and a structural equation model to analyse the data.

The results obtained show that, in turbulent environments, the integrated use of agile manufacturing practices promotes manufacturing competitive strength, leading to better operational, market and financial performance.

This study has two main limitations. First, it is difficult to determine the most suitable unit of analysis when studying agile manufacturing. Second, single respondent bias may be considered a limitation.

Managers should consider the integrated implementation of agile manufacturing practices in order to develop manufacturing strength and to outperform competitors in turbulent business environments.

This study adopts a systematic approach to the analysis of agile manufacturing, considering various agility practices or enablers in an integrated way and relating them not only to environmental characteristics but also to business performance. This approach is especially interesting because most of the literature on agile manufacturing deals with agility strategies or techniques in an isolated way. The study also tests the suitability of agile manufacturing in real organisations – for the first time in the Spanish context.

For decades multiple management philosophies directed toward lean production and mass were assumed as to respond to process inefficiencies and rampant consumerism, optimizing operation costs. However, new customization and flexible productions philosophies have been gaining ground in some industries, such as the agile manufacturing. From a literature review that addresses the history of this philosophy, it is clear that agile manufacturing is not fully comprehended, with very scarce information about practical cases. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper the authors describe an exploratory methodology approach, with three semi-structured case study interviews. The goal is to study which of agile manufacturing practices are being applied in the studied companies and what is the perceived effect that these have on operational performance. Since most of these companies develop highly customized products, the role of agility on new product development can have a huge impact on their operational performance.

Agile manufacturing is not yet a widespread philosophy of managing for the companies studied, being virtually unknown as a global concept. However, it was found that many of the practices of agile manufacturing are already implemented in these companies without association with this philosophy. It was also concluded, by the finding through respondents opinions, that agile practices contribute positively to the studied companies operating performance.

The novelty of this research derives from observation of agile manufacturing practices in SMEs. This research is useful to SMEs implementing agile manufacturing principles.

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise and develop various phases of agile product development cycle (PDC) for a manufacturing organization.

The literature on agile manufacturing (AM) has been reviewed. Agile PDC has been conceptualised and the implementation study has been conducted in a rotary switches manufacturing organisation. The various phases of agile PDC have been performed and the inferences have been derived.

The outcome of this research indicated the power of agile PDC as an enabler of agility in contemporary manufacturing organisations.

The developed PDC has been test implemented in a single manufacturing organization. However, the model could be extended to several organisations.

The various phases of agile PDC have been systematically explored and the practical inferences have been derived.

The conceptualisation and development of various phases of agile PDC is an original contribution of the authors.

Nowadays, organizations have to resist the rising competition more effectively than their competitors and take a step closer to excellence in offering the product to customer demands. To do this, organizations need agile leaders in order to implement agility principles and practices. Especially in the health sector, health managers must be agile because of the specific characteristics of health services. From this view, this chapter aims to develop a theoretical agile leadership model in healthcare organizations. First, the authors define agile leadership and its sub-dimensions based on previous literature. Then, the antecedents and outcomes of agile leadership have been analyzed. “Drivers of agile leadership,” “organizational factors affecting agile leadership” and “individual factors affecting agile leadership” are identified as the antecedents of agile leadership. “Organizational outcomes” and “individual outcomes” are determined as the outcomes of agile leadership in the health sector.

Today's businesses are facing a world that is more complex, turbulent and unpredictable than in the past with increasing levels of environmental complexity. Rather than proposing environmental uncertainty as a mediator/moderator of the relationship between agility and performance as others have done, the authors offer an alternative view where supply chain agility is seen as mediating the relationship between environmental uncertainty and supply chain performance.

The authors propose that supply chain agility is a response to the effects of environmental uncertainty and, as such, environmental uncertainty should be seen as a driver of supply chain agility. Few studies test the direct relationship between uncertainty and supply chain performance, and none simultaneously test for agility's mediation and moderation effect between environmental uncertainty and agility.

The model was statistically assessed using partial-least-squares structural equation modeling (PLS/SEM) by analyzing survey data from manufacturing managers in 136 US firms. The study results did not indicate a significant relationship between environmental uncertainty and supply chain performance. However, the authors did find a significant positive relationship between agile manufacturing and supply chain performance using measures that were primarily operations-centered rather than financial. Additionally, the authors found that agile manufacturing fully mediates the relationship between environmental uncertainty and supply chain performance.

The authors’ model, though simple, provides a base for future research for them and other researchers who can incorporate other impacting variables into the model. The study results show that uncertainty can be a force for good and that utilizing agile manufacturing can be a new source of opportunity.

Agile manufacturing is largely dependent on the capabilities of its people to learn and evolve with change. However, while agile manufacturing uses e‐commerce enabled technology in a decentralized organizational setting, it remains unclear how these individual capabilities should be linked to other organizational resources to create an agile organization. Another important modern management research perspective is the internal resource‐based perspective, resulting in a phenomenon called competence‐based competition with renewed attention for competence management. Competence management comprises the management, building, leveraging and deployment of strategic and operational competencies, the causal relationships and linkages between them, and the way competencies are embedded in organizational and individual resources. In this paper, we explore the relation between agile management and time‐based competence management, and study its adoption in small batch discrete parts manufacturing environments with the help of a coarse fact‐finding survey research.