ABSTRACT
Presentation of stages of manufacturing helps provide a framework for the theory formulation of Agile Manufacturing. Guilds craft system was the fundamental form of manufacturing for all of ancient history. A slightly modified version of this system appeared in Northern Europe in the twelfth century: the craft guild. By the 1860s, the form of the factory system in the United States became so distinctive that the British were desperately studying it to learn how to emulate the “American System”. Mass production manufacturing systems soon became a necessary condition for survival. Mass production utilized the manufacturing interchangeability aspects of the American System applied to a design and assembly process that allowed production on an enormous scale. Since the 1950s the key precepts of mass manufacturing have been sometimes challenged, dismissed, and replaced while at other times reinforced, refocused and strengthened. A dizzying array of philosophies has been investigated, offered and practiced by the business community.
