ABSTRACT
Defined thus, flexibility (or adaptability) is in many ways a sine qua non of success and growth in the context of the manufacturing sector. There is growing pressure on industries in developing countries to adapt and change. Industrial technologies are evolving rapidly and constantly, probably faster than in other economic activities. Their skill, infrastructure and informational needs are changing in concert. Competition is increasingly on a global scale, and in most developing countries policy is moving to greater openness and outward orientation. All this raises the need for existing industries in the developing world to raise their productivity and competitiveness to world standards, and this, in turn, calls for flexibility in government policies, institutions, factor markets and technological efforts within firms.
