Agile Manufacturing-Samuel Raju

IMPORTANCE OF AGILE MANUFACTURING DURING COVID-19 CRISIS
ABSTRACT
Modern manufacturing facilities includes shorter time to market, lower manufacturing
costs and smaller lot sizes. Despite these facilities, the product once sold in the market
may experience some problems or may be the customer demand has not been met in
certain situations. And even the changes cannot be made unless it is manufactured right
from the beginning. Under these constraints, Agile Manufacturing systems are desirable
which uses technology, various organizational approach and people which transcends
existing methodology to facilitate its ability of the organisation to react to rapid change
and respond to an increasingly unpredictable marketplace.
Companies need to do faster than before dealing with the global supply chain so the
complexity really calls more agility and that are able to really have a competitive
advantage. So, since we are in the middle of global crisis with COVID-19 it is worth using
Agile manufacturing which not only help organizations to quickly respond to customer
and market changes but also generally bring extraordinary speeds in lead time.
Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management i

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................i
TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................ii
LIST OF FIGURES ...............................................................................................................................iii
1 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................... 1
2 WHAT IS AGILE .......................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 The 4 values of the Agile Manifesto: ............................................................................. 4
2.2 Principles that are mentioned in the Agile Manifesto:.............................................. 4
3 COMPARISON OF AGILE AND OTHER MANUFACTURING METHODS ...................... 6
3.1 Difference between Lean and Agile ............................................................................. 6
4 NEED OF AGILE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM .................................................................... 7
5 HOW TO IMPLEMENT AGILE .................................................................................................. 8
5.1 Scrum .................................................................................................................................... 8
5.2 eXtreme Programming .................................................................................................... 9
5.3 Kanban.................................................................................................................................. 9
5.4 Lean ...................................................................................................................................... 11
5.5 Crystal .................................................................................................................................12
6 ADVANTAGES OF AGILE ...................................................................................................... 14
7 CHALLENGES OF AGILE MANUFACTURING .................................................................. 15
8 CASE STUDY ............................................................................................................................. 16
9 CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................17
Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management ii

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Agile manufacturing applied during COVID-19 Crisis ............................................. 2

Figure 2: Agile Methodology ........................................................................................................... 3
Figure 3: Illustration of Lean vs Agile ............................................................................................ 6
Figure 4: Waterflow model .............................................................................................................. 7
Figure 5: Scrum methodology ........................................................................................................ 8
Figure 6: eXtreme Programming model ...................................................................................... 9
Figure 7: Kanban Model .................................................................................................................. 10
Figure 8: Lean Principles ................................................................................................................. 11
Figure 9: Crystal Methodology ......................................................................................................12
Figure 10: AGCO’s Supply chain & Manufacturing with data analytics ............................. 16
Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management iii

1 INTRODUCTION
Constant attention and efforts are a never-ending journey for an organization when it
set it's a target as the World-class performance. In the past, Mass production and full
utilization of plant capacity ruled the manufacturing world which also gave rise in the
economies of scale.
But on the other hand, this style of manufacturing resulted in inflexible plants which
could not be reconfigured easily along with swollen raw materials, work in process and
finished goods.
Today in the midst of COVID-19 crisis, which has resulted in the unprecedented
economic crisis and deep fall in the GDP has affected both Supply and Demand side of
the economy. The impact of this crisis can be seen by the changes brought in the
consumer goods and consumer behaviour.
As far as India is concerned, Despite the government has come up with suitable
economic package i.e. infusing more liquidity into the market may help to revive the
demand side of the economy and by providing easy loans to MSME sectors to regain its
strength. But at the same time Manufacturing companies can stay flexible and nimble
with lean manufacturing b
ut today the manufacturing has to go a bit beyond by creating processes tools and
training to enable them to quickly respond to customer and market changes much
faster.
For this the companies should cut down the lead time of the product, implementing
flexibility in the flow line, enhanced level of quality in both product and customer service.
This shift will take us away from the mass production to a method of manufacturing
which integrates organization, people and technology responding quickly to the
customer need and market changes still controlling cost and quality.
Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 1

Industrial analysts have popularised this term as Agile Manufacturing. Some of the
examples of Agile manufacturing applied during unforeseen circumstances are Covid-
19 Ventilators, 3D printers, retooling plants and shifting the production lines etc.
Figure 1: Agile manufacturing applied during COVID-19 Crisis

2 WHAT IS AGILE
Agile means “ability to move quickly”. In an Agile development approach, the

requirements and solutions are evolved through collaborative efforts with self-
organizing teams with their customers and end-users.
This approach includes adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early product

delivery, and continuous improvement. And it also encourages rapid and flexible to the
changes in the market.
Complex projects can be developed with the help of Agile Manufacturing which brings
out the team to work efficiently and effectively. Practices followed here are iterative
and incremental techniques which can be easily adopted and also display great results.
This technique reduces errors in the production to a greater extent by bringing more
changes as per the customer's requirement compared to traditional techniques in which
errors to be ratified involves huge changes in the entire system of production.
Figure 2: Agile Methodology

2.1 The 4 values of the Agile Manifesto:
➢ Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools.
➢ Working Software over comprehensive documentation.
➢ Customer Collaboration over contract negotiation.
➢ Responding to Change over following a plan.
2.2 Principles that are mentioned in the Agile Manifesto:
➢ Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable

product.
➢ Welcome changing requirements, even in late development.
➢ Close, daily cooperation between business people
➢ Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
➢ A face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-

location)
➢ Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace
➢ Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
➢ Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is

essential
➢ Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-

organizing teams
➢ Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective and adjusts
accordingly

In future, any COVID-19 type of crisis will not make an Agile enterprise vulnerable
because of already being put up in a place of business practices, cultural changes in the
organization and technology will allow the organization to be prepared for any changes
in the circumstances, market forces and customer needs.
And sometimes it is difficult to implement this Agile Methodology which requires speed
and flexibility along with radical changes to traditional thinking.
Since Agile Manufacturing allows the organization to respond rapidly to the changes in
the customer demands will result in the advantage of windows of opportunities in the
market. This will help the organization to develop new ways of interacting with
customers and suppliers.
One such important area of agile manufacturing is that now the customers not only gain
access to the products and services but also easily assess exploit the competencies
which will enable them to achieve the things that they are seeking.

3 COMPARISON OF AGILE AND OTHER MANUFACTURING
METHODS
The traditional manufacturing system is experiencing long cycle time with high
inventory which causes a delay in the goods delivery. During the present COVID-19
situation, this system will not be feasible enough to meet customer demand. Some of
the problems are lack of strategy, financial secrecy and record inaccuracy.
In contrast to traditional manufacturing, The Agile manufacturing focuses more on

customer enrichment, raising competitiveness through co-operation which could be
achieved by the integration of information, technology and people at the same roof.
3.1 Difference between Lean and Agile
Agile Model
Lean Model
Requirements
Design
Implementation
Verification
Release
Customer feedback
Eliminate waste
Figure 3: Illustration of Lean vs Agile
In Agile model we are basically creating releases in shorter time. At the same time of
release, we get the customer feedback. So, if there is a problem in early release will be
fixed in the next release. At the same if there are any future requirement that have been
changed will be accommodated in the next release. By the end of Agile methodology,
we get number of customer feedback and the customer is likely to be happier with the
delivery of the product.
The lean model is exactly like the agile methodology but also includes a social or
conscious thinking of eliminating waste. So at each release we not only look back and
see how much time has been saved but also empowering the workflows. Employees are
happier than they were before because now they have the direction having a stronger
team with a better work culture in a company. At the end we are getting the same result
as Agile also eliminating wastes.

4 NEED OF AGILE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
Before Agile came into the picture, the Waterfall model of development was practised
in the traditional manufacturing system. In the waterfall model, the sequential process
in the development of a system followed the top-down approach. This model was also
a linear model and straight forward. The various phases of the waterfall model are
requirements gathering, software design, implementation, testing, deployment and
maintenance.
Figure 4: Waterflow model
This model however suffered a few drawbacks such as follows:
➢ This model was too time-consuming. Unless you complete a particular stage, you
cannot proceed to the further stages.
➢ This model was suitable only for projects where requirements are stable.
➢ The working software is delivered only after completion of the final stage of the
model.
➢ It is very difficult to go back to the previous stages and make some changes that
you had not thought about in the initial phase. Due to the above-mentioned
drawbacks of the Waterfall model, the leaders from the different development
methodologies decided to meet to find a way forward through these problems.
They developed ligh weight model which came into existence known as Agile
Model.

5 HOW TO IMPLEMENT AGILE
The AGILE Manufacturing can be implemented with the help of various frameworks
such as Scrum, Kanban, eXtreme Programming(XP), Lean, Crystal, Adaptive Project
Framework(APF), and so on.
5.1 Scrum
Scrum is one such framework in which people can address the complex adaptive
problems along with increased productivity and creativity in delivering products at the
highest possible value. It is a best-suited framework for effective team collaboration on
complex products. It also one of the popular and widely followed Agile methodology.
Figure 5: Scrum methodology
The Scrum framework addresses the two critical points of product development. First
is the speed of the product development and second is the client's requirement which
keeps changing. In this approach, the product development will be executed in a
number of phases and each phase is known as Sprint. Mainly small teams of 6-7
members are created to work collectively towards the desired result.
Active client participation at each stage of production takes place so that any changes
are addressed immediately and acted upon. This will help the organization to gain
market access amidst COVID-19 crisis. By doing so, the project will be delivered within
the prescribed time and also meets the clients demand effectively.

5.2 eXtreme Programming
Figure 6: eXtreme Programming model
XP stands as the most successful method of agile development because of its focus on
customer satisfaction. Developing this software requires maximum customer
interaction. The entire software development cycle is divided into a number of shorter
development cycles. It incorporates changes and requirements from the customers
during any phase of the development cycle.
In extreme programming, Initially the user requirements are collected. Now the whole
developmental process will be divided into numbers of cycles depending upon the
requirements. eventually, the next phase will be the iteration planning, which includes
deciding the number of cycles, and all those parameters required to implement each
cycle.
During this development phase, new user requirement can be expected from the clients
and iteration plan should be adjusted accordingly.
5.3 Kanban
The Kanban framework was invented by an Engineer from Toyota called Taiichi Ohno
during the 1940s. Toyota came up with the system of actual consumption driving the
production plans. This was observed by the representatives of Toyota that how
supermarkets restocked their goods based on what has been picked off the shelves.

One of the core ideas of Kanban is to refrain from producing a surplus. This is achieved
by making use of Kanban cards and a Kanban board.
Figure 7: Kanban Model
Throughout the production cycle, the flow of the resources can be visualised with the
help of these Kanban cards and Kanban boards.
This helps everyone giving maximum insight into the process. And also helps managers
to address the surplus or shortage in real-time.The Kanban system also introduces the
notion of “pull” over “push,” meaning that workers pull in work according to their
capacity, as opposed to work being fed to them on a conveyor belt or in the form of a
to-do list.

5.4 Lean
Figure 8: Lean Principles
This method of product development is based on the principle of “Just in time

production”. The aim of Lean is to increase the speed of product development and to
reduce its cost. The seven steps to summarize Lean development are as follows:
1. Delete unnecessary things (everything that does not bring effective value to
the customer’s project is deleted);
2. Quality development (creating quality in development requires discipline and

control of the number of residuals created);
3. Create Knowledge (the team is motivated to document the whole

infrastructure to later retain that value);
4. Differing commitments (this point encourages the team not to focus too much
on planning and anticipating ideas without having a prior and complete
understanding of the requirements of the business);
5. Fast delivery (deliver value to the customer as soon as possible);
6. Respecting the team (communicating and managing conflicts are two essential
points);
7. Optimize the whole (the development sequence has to be perfected enough to

be able to delete errors in the code, in order to create a flow of true value).

5.5 Crystal
Figure 9: Crystal Methodology
Crystal Methods was developed by Alistar Cockburn from his study and interviews with
his teams. These are the family of product development methodologies.
The risk of human life is signified by the color codes. For example projects will use
Crystal Sapphire which involves risks to human life and Crystal Clear which do not
involves such risks.
Crystal focuses on six primary aspects: people, interaction, community,

communication, skills, and talents.
There are also seven common properties in Crystal that indicate a higher possibility of
success and they include frequent delivery, reflective improvement, osmotic
communication, and easy access to expert users.
The methods here are very flexible and avoid rigid processes because of their human-
powered or people-centric focus. Alistair Cockburn is also one of the original
signatories of the Agile Manifesto.
In Crystal Methods people are considered as the most important, so processes should
be modeled to meet the requirements of the team. It is adaptive, without a set of

prescribed tools and techniques. It is also lightweight, without too much

documentation, management or reporting.
The weight of the methodology is determined by the project environment and team
size. For example, Crystal Clear is for short-term projects by a team of 6 developers
working out of a single workspace

6 ADVANTAGES OF AGILE
The various advantages offered by AGILE methodology are as follows:
➢ In AGILE, the delivery of the product is persistent.
➢ After every Sprint, working feature(s) is/are delivered to the customer. This
increases the level of satisfaction in them.
➢ Customers can have a look at the developed features and check if they meet
their expectations.
➢ If the customers have any feedback or they want any changes in the features,
then it can be accommodated in the current or maybe the next release of the
product.
➢ Changes can be made even in the later stages of the development of the
product.
➢ In AGILE, the business people and the developers of the product interact daily.
➢ A significant amount of attention is paid to the design of the product.
➢ To respond quickly to customer demands in the wake of COVID-19 and develop

the virtuous cycle in the economy.

7 CHALLENGES OF AGILE MANUFACTURING
Interdisciplinary design however, means more than just applying knowledge from other
domains, such as psychology and organisational science, to the design of Agile
Manufacturing systems.
Achieving agility and flexibility through automation is especially difficult for high mix low
volume manufacturers. Because automotive production lines are fully automated with
dozens of large industrial robots in a single line. So, the solutions for these manufactures
are simplifying the designing the commissioning flow for automated equipment and
simplifying the manual assembly step that remain these manufactures in high mix low
volume environments can reach the productivity level that were previously reserved to
the large industries.
Usually it will be time consuming for companies to address organization, people and
technology, and other issues in the design of manufacturing systems, so that the
systems can achieve the better performance for the agile manufacturing environment
and for the people who form a part of this system.
Now the companies have to make use of the innovative technology in a way that makes
human skill, knowledge, and intelligence more effective and productive which allows
industries to tap into the creativity and talent of all people in an enterprise.

8 CASE STUDY
A Very Agile Supply Chain: The Inside Story of AGCO's Response to COVID-19
AGCO, a public company worth $9 billion in revenues has been extremely nimble and
agile between this COVID-19 pandemic which has affected global supply chains. AGCO
is the manufacturer of Agricultural Equipment and replacement parts and distributes
throughout the world having a supply chain that includes 41 manufacturing location, 37
distribution facilities, and thousands of suppliers.
During this COVID-19 crisis, the Agricultural equipment manufacturer has certain
advantages compared to other multinational manufacturers. Because the Agricultural
sectors has taken a massive hit both in production and food supply chain. In order to
avoid depression in coming days the world needs farmers to plant and harvest crops.
The other advantage is that despite the recession, demand for these products remains
high. Their current agility to respond quickly has been developed since 2004. Over the
time it moved from fragmented and decentralised procurement to a centralised
commodity management structure with an increased focus on risk management.
Implementation of standardised roles and responsibilities was supported by the change
management program. Team of managers were responsible for the supplier risk
management were developed. For AGCO, a “best cost sourcing strategy” includes
multi-sourcing, a certain percentage of components are produced locally and a certain
percentage – depending on the brand and its go to market strategy. The company
almost always has domestic sources for the components that go into the agricultural
equipment produced in that region. Local companies can respond more quickly when
something goes wrong.
Figure 10: AGCO’s Supply chain & Manufacturing with data analytics

9 CONCLUSION
➢ Agility as a subject is still a developing area. Companies are starting to move

towards agile behaviour, often not in a planned way, more usually they "fall into
it" and as a result it tends to be operational and lacks strategic direction.
➢ As a first step, companies need to understand the basic ideas and become
intelligent respondents to the concepts. Agility is a long-term issue for
businesses and achieving agility is a journey, not an objective to be attained
before moving on to something else.
➢ The implementation of agility is still very much a frontier activity, involving
radically new concepts concerning strategies, organisation, people and
technologies.
➢ It takes businesses into a domain where fundamental and taken for granted
assumptions are challenged.
➢ Agility is a paradigm shift and before one can move forwards one has to
understand the existing paradigm and to face up to the often-painful task of
accepting that current practices and beliefs are no longer appropriate or
relevant.
➢ Shifting from traditional manufacturing system to Agile Manufacturing during
this time of economic crisis will help the companies to ramp up the production
activities and sustain in the market.

Agile Manufacturing-Samuel Raju

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IMPORTANCE OF AGILE MANUFACTURING DURING COVID-19 CRISIS

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management i

TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................ii

LIST OF FIGURES ...............................................................................................................................iii

2 WHAT IS AGILE .......................................................................................................................... 3

2.1 The 4 values of the Agile Manifesto: ............................................................................. 4

2.2 Principles that are mentioned in the Agile Manifesto:.............................................. 4

3 COMPARISON OF AGILE AND OTHER MANUFACTURING METHODS ...................... 6

3.1 Difference between Lean and Agile ............................................................................. 6

4 NEED OF AGILE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM .................................................................... 7

5 HOW TO IMPLEMENT AGILE .................................................................................................. 8

5.1 Scrum .................................................................................................................................... 8

5.2 eXtreme Programming .................................................................................................... 9

5.4 Lean ...................................................................................................................................... 11

5.5 Crystal .................................................................................................................................12

6 ADVANTAGES OF AGILE ...................................................................................................... 14

7 CHALLENGES OF AGILE MANUFACTURING .................................................................. 15

8 CASE STUDY ............................................................................................................................. 16

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management ii

Figure 1: Agile manufacturing applied during COVID-19 Crisis ............................................. 2

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management iii

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 1

Figure 1: Agile manufacturing applied during COVID-19 Crisis

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 2

Agile means “ability to move quickly”. In an Agile development approach, the

This approach includes adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early product

Figure 2: Agile Methodology

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 3

2.1 The 4 values of the Agile Manifesto:

➢ Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools.

➢ Working Software over comprehensive documentation.

➢ Customer Collaboration over contract negotiation.

➢ Responding to Change over following a plan.

2.2 Principles that are mentioned in the Agile Manifesto:

➢ Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable

➢ Welcome changing requirements, even in late development.

➢ Close, daily cooperation between business people

➢ Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted

➢ A face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-

➢ Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace

➢ Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design

➢ Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is

➢ Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 4

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 5

3 COMPARISON OF AGILE AND OTHER MANUFACTURING

In contrast to traditional manufacturing, The Agile manufacturing focuses more on

3.1 Difference between Lean and Agile

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 6

4 NEED OF AGILE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM

Figure 4: Waterflow model

This model however suffered a few drawbacks such as follows:

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 7

5 HOW TO IMPLEMENT AGILE

Figure 5: Scrum methodology

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 8

5.2 eXtreme Programming

Figure 6: eXtreme Programming model

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 9

Figure 7: Kanban Model

Samuel Raju | Industrial Engineering & Management 10

Figure 8: Lean Principles

This method of product development is based on the principle of “Just in time

2. Quality development (creating quality in development requires discipline and