Agile manufacturing: Industrial case studies in Spain

Changes in the business environment are leading firms to adopt a new production model termed agile manufacturing. This moves away from the traditional mass production paradigm and focuses on manufacturing highly customised products as and when customers require them. In this paper, we present an initial approach to agile manufacturing based on case studies on four factories in Spain. Despite different activities, products and production processes, similar trends were found in all four in the development of agile manufacturing. Based on the conclusions of the case studies, an agile manufacturing conceptual model has been drawn up and a number of hypotheses inferred. This work confirms the suitability of case study methodology in the early stages of research, especially for drawing up hypotheses. The study presented here is of an exploratory nature and the conclusions drawn from it offer possible routes for future research in the field of agile manufacturing.