A theoretical framework for analyzing the dimensions of manufacturing flexibility

摘要

The competitive environment of today has generated an increased interest in flexibility as a response mechanism. While the potential benefits of flexibility are familiar, the concept of flexibility itself is not well-understood, Neither practitioners nor academics agree upon, or known, how flexibility can be gauged or measured in its totality. Consequently, this study seeks to provide a framework for understanding this complex concept and to create a theoretical foundation for the development of generalizable measures for manufacturing flexibility. With this objective in min, we first critically examine diverse streams of literature to define fur constituent elements of flexibility: range-number (R-N), range-heterogeneity (R-H), mobility(M), and uniformity (U).