CHE 4560 - Agile Manufacturing

Lec. 3, Credit 3.
Prerequisite: CHE 4410. This course provides an introductory overview of several manufacturing strategies. It starts with a review of the characteristics of Mass Manufacturing and Lean Manufacturing and introduces the concept of Agile Manufacturing. It is proposed that the businesses practicing ‘mass manufacturing’ tend to invest funds in equipment and facilities as opposed to technology, people and information systems. Businesses practicing ‘lean manufacturing’ become cost efficient producers of goods and services by reducing waste and investing in technology. However, businesses practicing ‘agile manufacturing’ invest in people and information systems, respond quickly to market changes and anticipate the future demands of customers. The course covers the differences among the various modes of manufacturing as well as the advantages and disadvantages that each offers and introduces students to topics, such as: concept-to-cash time, virtual organizations, rapid Response to unanticipated changes, customer-focus approach, supply chain management, and innovation and implementation of advanced technologies. Additionally, brief discussions of ‘event-oriented thinking’ versus ‘systems-thinking’ will be included. The lectures will be followed by several case studies. Students will be asked to research individual cases involving real companies, based on publicly available literature, evaluate them, based on agile manufacturing criteria that they have learned in class, and regularly present their findings and conclusions in form of reports and presentations to the class as a whole.

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