ABSTRACT
In this chapter we consider the relevance of the idea of flexibility to manufacturing in contemporary Britain. This is not a new topic. The flexibility of manufacturing processes and systems has been considered frequently by writers from many different disciplinary backgrounds in recent years. Engineers, technologists and some social scientists have proposed flexible organizations and flexible manufacturing systems as providing some sort of answer to the problems of contemporary manufacturing. Almost equally as often, however, the idea of flexibility has been rejected as having little value. Social scientists, in particular, have been inclined to be dismissive. In an otherwise valuable recent book, for example, Sayer and Walker (1992) devoted considerable space to arguments about flexibility, but concluded that concern with it has been largely misplaced.
