ABSTRACT
Agility was first conceptualized as a focus of business in the US in 1991. This chapter reviews the development of the topic of Agility towards building a new paradigm for business operations. The concept of agility has spread nonetheless and has been particularly well received among manufacturers. While agility has been defined in a variety of ways, a common theme is that it is a concept separate and unique from mass manufacturing. Agility is the ability to build on and integrate the principles of quality, empowerment, and the industrial engineering principles of lean manufacturing, but to go beyond a production emphasis to focus on throughput and to align performance measures to support this emphasis with the net result a gain in market share. Outcomes of agility focus on shortened cycle times for product development as well as business processes which lead to quicker response to customer demands for high customization with customers often integrally involved in product specifications and design.
