8. Advantages And Disadvantages of Agile
Agile manufacturing refers to the ability of a company to change its production according to the unforeseen changes in the customers demands. Since there is always a rapid change in the production line this leads to advantages as well to disadvantages.[12,16]
Advantages of agile manufacturing:
- The company is given a competitive advantage since it is continuously changing its approach to satisfy its customers.
- Innovative designs based on the customers’ demands are provided. This in turn gives a wider variety for the customer to choose from.
- Responds quickly to emerging crisis
- Even tough the production could change rapidly, mass production could still be reached while flexibility is still possible.[12,16]
Disadvantages of agile manufacturing:
- Sudden increase in demand (more than expected due to the liking of the new product) will cause shortage. Meanwhile if the demand of a product with a high production rate decreases drastically this could result in a number of products that could not be sold.
- To become an agile manufacturer the company will need to invest in trained and highly skilled labourers who are competent to be agile.
- The change in machinery to produce the new products requires high costs.
- Continuous need to keep the machinery and workers up-to-date to new technologies, and to keep the company competitive due to the short product life cycles.
- The complexity of the new machinery could lead to a higher increase in breakdown of the same machinery, which will lead to an increase in production down time.
- The maintenance to keep the machinery in good working condition increases the costs due to higher costs of the parts.
- Intensive planning and management of such systems is required, since a shift is being introduced from mass production ideology to agile manufacturing. [12,16]