International Journal of Agile Management Systems

Colin Rigby; Marc Day; Paul Forrester; John Burnett

doi: 10.1108/14654650010356086pmid: N/A

There has been extended debate about how to conceptualise inter-organizational restructuring in late twentieth century capitalism, giving rise to a number of models that attempt to represent productive change. A number of such conceptualisations of transformation under the banner of "agility" attempt to provide guidance about "managing" physical and social relationships within and between companies in response to growing market complexity. The theoretical argument in this paper is that inter-firm agility cannot be objectively understood in all cases using simple unidirectional cause and effect as such theories do not take into account more subjective aspects of interaction. Specifically, we argue that to have a vision of agility in action there must be an evaluation of complexity in and between organisational boundaries with a theoretical approach that gives a more robust appreciation of inter-firm ties. Conceptualising agility in this way captures the essence of tacit knowledge between firms along with the physical dynamics of network functioning.

Layek Abdel‐Malek; Sanchoy K. Das; Carl Wolf

doi: 10.1108/14654650010356095pmid: N/A

Flexibility is a key component in any agile manufacturing enterprise. A methodology that a firm may use to design, build and then implement a flexible manufacturing (FM) solution is presented. An FM solution is defined as an operational intervention that helps the company counter the changes in its internal and external environments. The methodology was developed in collaboration with several industrial partners, and is easy to use and readily applicable in an industrial setting. The FM solution design method is structured as a three-phase execution. Phase I involves identifying the flexibility needs of the company. Phase II is the actual development of the FM solution and includes models for measuring the current and target flexibility levels. Phase III incorporates a process to address the economic viability of the proposed solutions. Also reported are the results of a survey on the relative importance of the flexibility types.

Remko I. van Hoek

doi: 10.1108/14654650010356103pmid: N/A

Both postponement and information decoupling have been considered as relevant initiatives in making the agile supply chain a reality. It is commonly argued that the two can be combined into "leagility", which is the combination of agility with lean capabilities within one supply chain. Based upon a one-year study of agility in the supply chain, this paper indicates that leagility might work well in operational terms as lean capabilities can contribute to agile performance and might often be a prerequisite. If the leagility approach is to work, though, it is required to fit within a purely agile supply chain strategy, rather than a purely lean approach. Thus it is concluded that the leagility thesis does not fundamentally challenge the agility concept. Specific suggestions on how to move forward in creating the agile supply chain are then developed.

Rakesh Narain; R.C. Yadav; Joseph Sarkis; James J. Cordeiro

doi: 10.1108/14654650010356112pmid: N/A

Flexibility in manufacturing has aroused considerable interest among researchers and professionals. However, the vast body of literature on flexibility does not adequately address the kind of flexibility a company needs to meet its strategic objectives, nor how this flexibility can be achieved. An overview is provided of different types of flexibility, a classification scheme based on the strategic positioning and goals of the firm is provided, and suggestions are made on how these goals may be achieved. The importance of such a classification in the design and investment justification of flexible manufacturing is also discussed.

V. Borja; J.A. Harding; K.T.K. Toh

doi: 10.1108/14654650010356121pmid: N/A

Creation of new products from existing solutions (product re-design) shortens new product introduction phases and reduces costs. The product re-engineering process is a new approach to the realisation of substitute components without the benefit of original design process documentation or any other documentation relating to the component. Re-engineering comprises stages which are potentially applicable to many industries. This research applies an enterprise modelling architecture to modelling the re-engineering process, producing descriptions of the process from several different descriptive views, namely function, information, resource and organisation. This results in a more complete description of the process, in which the model itself may be used as a reference for the implementation of a re-design process in a particular company. This research also shows how the information modelling constructs of CIMOSA can be used to meet the particular unique requirements of the process of re-design.

Marla E. Hacker; Jonathan D. Lang

doi: 10.1108/14654650010356130pmid: N/A

Discusses the process and issues involved in developing a performance measurement system for a virtual engineering team working within a high technology environment. This team consists of members from many different sites across the world with a unique role in maintaining standardized manufacturing processes at the lowest possible cost. As a result, they faced many challenges including communication barriers, culture differences, as well as different reporting structures within each individual site. To help address these issues, a performance measurement system was developed to focus the team on the key actions affecting performance instead of the issues getting in the way. A measurement system was developed that linked the team's objectives to its mission and identified the critical actions associated with each objective.

J. Ballantine; M. Levy; A. Martin; I. Munro; P. Powell

doi: 10.1108/14654650010356149pmid: N/A

The evaluation of information systems (IS) is a major concern of business, and a variety of approaches have been developed to tackle the issue. These approaches vary in their use and usefulness, yet few consider or incorporate ethical aspects of the process and the outcomes. A framework for assessing the ethics of information systems evaluation approaches is developed and investigated. It is argued that ethical issues are an important and unavoidable feature of IS evaluation, despite their lack of consideration. A framework is developed that demonstrates that ethical considerations are implicit in the concept of evaluation in terms of its purposes, its processes and its involvement of people. Concludes by considering how evaluation approaches might be extended to include a more substantial ethical content.

Katsuhiko Takahashi; Nobuto Nakamura

doi: 10.1108/14654650010356158pmid: N/A

As a just‐in‐time (JIT) ordering system for multi‐stage production inventory systems, both the kanban system and its alternative, the concurrent ordering system, have been proposed. For both JIT ordering systems, the reactive JIT ordering systems that adjust the buffer size responding to unstable changes in demand were proposed. In addition to the adjustment of buffer size, switching ordering systems between the kanban system and the concurrent ordering system is proposed in order to realize agile control in JIT ordering systems. In the proposed system, the time series data of demand is monitored, and switching the order release systems and adjusting the buffer size are considered when an unstable change in demand is detected with the exponentially weighted moving average charts. The effectiveness of the proposed system is analyzed using simulation experiments under unstable conditions. From these simulation experiments, it is clear that the proposed system can react to unstable changes in demand and satisfy the required level for the mean waiting time of demand. Also, to attain the required level, the proposed system must possess much less work‐in‐process inventories than the previous systems which adjust only the buffer size and do not switch ordering systems.