Firefly enabled agility assessment in manufacturing systems

Abstract

The manufacturing processes have now evolved from dinosaur type of enterprise to lizard type known as agile manufacturing. Agility can be enhanced with some trivial change in firm's processes. In this study, an effort has been made to obtain the agility index of two different firms with their currently implemented agile enablers'. The two industries were identified based on the demand pattern, i.e., seasonal and volatile demand. The methodology of AHP is used to obtain effectiveness of the agile enablers'. These effectiveness values are given as input to the FA to obtain the agility index in terms of 'response time' between market and industry. Based on the results, the firms' can focus on the enabler with least response time to improve business performance through appropriate strategies. The response time of fashion firm is less than that of core-manufacturing firm. Hence fashion firms are more agile than core firms.