A study of barriers to agile manufacturing

Manufacturers in the 21st century enterprises have to cope with an increasingly dynamic and competitive environment. In order to function effectively within this environment, manufacturers have sought to apply a variety of principles, one of these umbrella groupings is agile manufacturing and incorporating the concepts of agility. However, adoption of agile manufacturing is not a trivial task with barriers existing throughout its life cycle spectrum, from development and implementation to its maintenance and improvement phases. Investigating agile manufacturing barriers is necessary to help understand and overcome them. The aim of this study is to explore various barriers to adopt agile manufacturing and to establish a relationship among the dimensions of barriers through the Interpretive Structural Modelling methodology. This is a well-established methodology for identifying and summarising relationships among specific items that define an issue or problem. Practical implications and future research directions are identified.