AGILITY WITHIN A MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY A CASE STUDY AT ABB ROBOTICS

摘要

Change and uncertainty dominate today's business environment. The competition is becoming truly global with fragmented markets and customers expecting to get the best product at the best price with immediate availability. In this environment success is very dependent on the ability to produce and develop products and services at the necessary rate of change, defined as "Agility". The objective of this paper is to analyze this concept of "Agility" and if it is possible for a manufacturing industry to be agile? A case study is presented which has been performed at ABB Robotics with the objective to analyze if the expansion that the company has been undergoing during the 1990's could be explained by and resembled to agile capabilities.