Date of Award

Spring 8-1-2007

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

College of Technology

First Advisor

James Smallwood

Second Advisor

Jeffrey McNabb

Third Advisor

Kevin Berisso

Abstract

Manufacturers are facing new challenges as competition has become global. Manufacturing companies arc looking for strategies which would help them gain an edge over their competitors. In the United States, lean manufacturing and agile manufacturing have been gaining importance among industries. Agile manufacturing was developed when the United States Department of Defense (DOD) requested Iacocca Institute at Lehigh University to develop a manufacturing framework that could give US companies an edge over their worldwide competitors whereas lean manufacturing has its roots tied to the Toyota Production System (TPS). This raises the questions: what is the clear difference between the two and how different would it be when both strategies are applied to the manufacturing enterprise? And, what could be the indicators of both the strategies? Considering the different types of companies in the manufacturing spectrum, this study was focused on one segment of manufacturing known as job shops. The objective of this study was to develop a framework for a survey questionnaire to measure the leanness and agility of job shops. This study made use of the Delphi technique to obtain lean and agility indicators. Two different Delphi studies were conducted utilizing panels oflean and agile experts. The experts were dispersed geographically around the world including Israel, United Kingdom and United States. A framework for a questionnaire that could be utilized to measure agility and leanness of job shops was developed. The lean and agility indicators that resulted from the Delphi study were used for the framework. Based on the results of the Delphi studies the researcher deduced that leanness IV and agility are two different concepts addressing two different aspects of an organization, even though there is some overlap. They are not complementing, contradicting or competing strategies to each other; rather they should be co-existing strategies.

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