Agility evaluation using the IF-THEN approach

The recent trend in the manufacturing sector is to develop highly customised products to satisfy niche needs of customers. In order to satisfy this requirement, a newer manufacturing technique has been deployed; this is called Agile Manufacturing (AM). AM principles are used to manufacture highly customised products within a shorter period of time. In this article, the IF-THEN rules approach has been used to evaluate the current agile position of the firm. The assessment has been carried out in an Indian modular switches manufacturing company. The assessment revealed that the organisation is fairly agile. Besides computing agility level, the gaps that impede agility have been identified, and proposals for agility improvement have been derived. The identified proposals are subjected to implementation in the case organisation.