Flexibility in an automobile manufacturing enterprises

The present manufacturing systems have become very complex. This requires the manufacturing system to rapidly adjust itself to changes, complexities, and uncertainties. Therefore, flexibility is needed. At the same time, productivity is also desired due to resource crunch and severe competition. This paper presents an approach for managing flexibility in an automobile manufacturing enterprise, keeping productivity improvement in mind. The values of various types of flexibilities have been found at various intervals of time for a tractor manufacturing enterprise. Various types of productivity have been calculated for the corresponding time intervals. The trends of flexibility and productivity have been determined. An approach has been suggested for managing flexibility in future. A hireachy of flexibility, listing the order in which various types of flexibility should be focused in future, is also given. SAP (situation-actor-process) analysis has been carried out to arrive at learning issues.