Agile manufacturing is defined as the capability of surviving and prospering in a competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable change by reacting quickly and effectively to changing markets, driven by customer-designed products and services. Critical to successfully accomplishing AM are a few enabling technologies such as the standard for the exchange of products (STEP), concurrent engineering, virtual manufacturing, component-based hierarchical shop floor control system, information and communication infrastructure, etc.The scope of the book is to present the undergraduate and graduate students, senior managers and researchers in manufacturing systems design and management, industrial engineering and information technology with the conceptual and theoretical basis for the design and implementation of AMS. Also, the book focuses on broad policy directives and plans of agile manufacturing that guide the monitoring and evaluating the manufacturing strategies and their performance. A problem solving approach is taken throughout the book, emphasizing the context of agile manufacturing and the complexities to be addressed.

This work defines "Agile Manufacturing" and dispels the mistaken beliefs that surround it. It analyzes how our traditions, conventions, values and beliefs, based on outdated ideas and philosophies, block the path to achieving "Agile Manufacturing". The book then maps the way forward.

Traditional manufacturing systems rely upon centralized, hierarchical systems that are not responsive enough to the increasing demand for mass customization. Decentralized, or heterarchical, management systems using autonomous agents promise to nullify the limitations of previous solutions. Agent-Based Manufacturing and Control Systems: New

Today the Scottish electronics industry employs 40,000 people directly and a further 30,000 in the supply infrastructure. There are now more than 550 electronic manufacturing and supplier companies in ' Silicon Glen'. In terms of the contribution to the economy, electronics is by far the most valuable industry. Its value in 1996 was approximately £ 10billion and accounted for more than half of Scotland's exports. The major product groupings within the industry include: • PCs, laptops and workstations • Disk drives, cable harnessing • Printers, keyboards and peripherals • Semiconductor devices and PCBs • TV, VCRs, CDs, stereos and other consumer electronics • Cellular phones and telecommunications products • A TMs and funds transfer systems • Networking and security systems • Navigation and sonar systems • Microwave products • Power supplies • Software and compilers Many of these companies are multi-national OEMs, who came to Scotland as inward investing companies. Early inward investing companies were from USA, followed by companies from Japan, and more recently from Taiwan and Korea. An important segment of the industry is involved in the manufacture of computers, including IBM, Compaq, Digital and Sun. In fact approximately 40% of the PCs sold in Europe are built in Scotland. With five of the world's top eight computer manufacturers locating a manufacturing base in Scotland there has been an attraction for foreign companies keen to provide service for these multinationals. In 1995/96 the supply base output was worth £1.

Agility has become very important for the industries today as the lifetimes of the products are continuously shrinking. This book provides an excellent opportunity for updating understanding of agile methods from the design, manufacturing and business process perspectives, whether one is an industrial practitioner, academic researcher engineer or business graduate student. This volume is a compilation of various important aspects of agility consisting of systemic considerations in manufacturing, agile software systems, agile business systems, agile operations research, flexible manufacturing systems, advanced manufacturing systems with improved materials and mechanical behavior of products, agile aspects of design, clean and green manufacturing systems, environment, agile defence systems.

Becoming a world-class company demands agile manufacturing—a responsive method of expeditiously delivering products at a lower cost. For organizations which desire to increase profits while minimizing liability, this text is an invaluable guide. It explains how to introduce flexibility into manufacturing facilities through the modification of current computer software and systems. Rather than taking the cost-prohibitive approach of discarding the processes a company already has in play and starting from scratch, organizations can achieve their goal of becoming agile manufacturers by modifying existing systems. The author utilizes numerous case studies from companies such as Xerox, General Motors, Harley-Davidson, and Motorola to explore the current software movement, from MRP II (benefits and limitations) to alternative methods employed by companies attempting to align their software with new world class methodologies. For manufacturing managers and MIS employees struggling with inadequate systems, Software and the Agile Manufacturer offers the practical solutions they need to successfully navigate the difficult transitional period on the way to world-class status.

Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit Adapting agile practices to your development organization Uncovering and eradicating waste throughout the software development lifecycle Practical techniques for every development manager, project manager, and technical leader Lean software development: applying agile principles to your organization In Lean Software Development, Mary and Tom Poppendieck identify seven fundamental "lean" principles, adapt them for the world of software development, and show how they can serve as the foundation for agile development approaches that work. Along the way, they introduce 22 "thinking tools" that can help you customize the right agile practices for any environment. Better, cheaper, faster software development. You can have all three–if you adopt the same lean principles that have already revolutionized manufacturing, logistics and product development. Iterating towards excellence: software development as an exercise in discovery Managing uncertainty: "decide as late as possible" by building change into the system. Compressing the value stream: rapid development, feedback, and improvement Empowering teams and individuals without compromising coordination Software with integrity: promoting coherence, usability, fitness, maintainability, and adaptability How to "see the whole"–even when your developers are scattered across multiple locations and contractors Simply put, Lean Software Development helps you refocus development on value, flow, and people–so you can achieve breakthrough quality, savings, speed, and business alignment.

Dear reader! In your hand you have the second book from the series “XXI Century Techno- gies. ” The first book under the title “Manufacturing Technologies for Machines of the Future” was published by “Springer” in 2003. This book is aimed at solving one of the basic problems in the development of modern machine-building – working out of technologies and manufacturing equipment which would promote the continuous development and improvement of the final product design, rapidly “adaptable” to the requirements of the market as for the quantity, quality, and variety of products manufactured with the lowest cost and minimum time and labor of the product process. In this book the problems of theory and practice of development in the reconfigurable manufacturing systems and transformable factories for various machine-building branches with a focus on automotive industry are discussed. The problems concerning the development of a new class of production systems which in comparison to the flexible manufact- ing systems are composed of a far less quantity of machine-tools (reduced cost of production) are discussed. In comparison to the conventional automated lines (dedicated systems) they make it possible to rapidly transform the equipment for new products manufacturing. The book has some advantages concerning the art of scientific ideas and the presentation of developments.

Contemporary fastidious companies are required to eliminate wastes and offer value-added products and services to the customers, which requirement is fulfilled by adopting the paradigm called ‘lean manufacturing’. On the other side, futuristic companies surge towards reaching the twenty-first century mission by reacting quickly in accordance with the dynamic demands of the modern customers, for which researchers have been developing a paradigm called ‘agile manufacturing’. Although various techniques and tools are applied, cohesive procedures are yet to be evolved to implement these paradigms systematically and successfully in companies. In this context, this book is evolved to address students, academics, practitioners and researchers for gaining theoretical, practical and research futuristic knowledge on lean and agile manufacturing paradigms. Organised in 18 chapters, the text opens with a historical overview of lean and agile manufacturing paradigms. It then discusses the lean manufacturing principles with their application procedures. The book comprehensively analyses the methods of implementation of lean manufacturing paradigm in both traditional and moderate organisations. It also gives an equal treatment to the implementation of agile manufacturing paradigm under four drivers such as management driver, technology driver, manufacturing strategy driver and competition driver through the adoption of appropriate agile manufacturing criteria. The book concludes with a discussion of lean and agile manufacturing paradigms from the perspectives of academia, researchers and practitioners. The text is well supported by a large number of self-test questions with their answers. A unique feature of the book is the inclusion of research avenues at the end of each chapter, which enable the readers to carry out researches on these paradigms. This book is intended for the undergraduate and postgraduate students of industrial, manufacturing, production and mechanical engineering.

The Editor, Kevin Desouza, has organized the chapters under three categories: discussion of the concept of agile information systems (i.e. defining agile information management, its attributes, antecedents, consequences, etc.) discussion of information systems within the context of agility (i.e., descriptions of agile information systems and their attributes, how to build agile information systems, etc.) discussion of organizational management issues in the context of agile information systems (i.e., how to prepare the organization for agile information systems, management of agile information systems for improved organizational performance, etc.). This is the first book to address the hot topic of agile information systems. Contributions break new ground and provide concrete applications for practice. Contributors include highly respected academics from around the world