Agile methodologies in Manufacturing

 Agile is one of the latest methodology used in Manufacturing. English meaning of Agile is Fast and rapid, and industries it means how fast one can accept and adapt the changes going on, wheather it is from technology or customer demand.

Agile methodologies is started in IT industry and from there it is now used in manufacturing Industries also. The main of Agile is to deliver the product as per the customer requirement and delivery of the product should be at faster rate because now a days change in every field is taking in a great pace. If any product that deliver after one year or so, the features in that product will completely change and there will be new requirement in the product. There should be quick response to the customer need & requirement. Agile is some what related to Lean manufacturing.

What do Agile methodology mean in IT industry?

Long back the waterfall model is used for software development. In waterfall model there are five main steps which are arranged in sequential order, where each step start only after the completion of the previous step. Once the next step is started then project will not move back to the previous step. Waterfall model is unidirectional. If any change required by the customer in middle of the project then it will not able to include in the project, all changes will be considered in next version or revision of the project.

Although waterfall model is easy and good to use but it's biggest disadvantage is that it is unidirectional and we can't go back. This model is not feasible for big and object oriented projects and view of project is seems after the third stage, project prepared by using this model is very unpredictable during early stage

To overcome the problem faced in waterfall model group of IT experts introduce a methodology called Agile. Agile works on iterative methodology where customer gets working prototype project at early stage and their suggestions and feedback will consider and resubmit the project again and in this cyclic way project goes on. Agile methodologies don't believe in large documentation but instead on customer needs and services. Agile methodology has 4 values and 12 principles, which we will discuss after few points.

What do Agile methodology mean in Manufacturing industry?

Agile methodologies in manufacturing means to reduce the process time to produce a product so that product deliver to the customer in very less time. 

Agile manufacturing is not only just include deliver of the product but also focus on the reduce the response time to meet the customer and market requirement and needs with optimum utilisation of the the present resources. Companies which follows agile methodologies had more advantage over companies that not use Agile methodology, in this fast changing market requirement and needs. 

Lean manufacturing can be considered as a part of Agile manufacturing. It is not always possible that lean manufacturing company is using agile methodologies or vise versa. A company can be Agile or Lean or both or neither. A company which is both Agile and Lean termed as Leagile. 

It is also important to Agile that decision making process should be reduced and most of the decision should be taken at shop floor only, as Shop floor decision is quick and practical. Once the Situation moved to senior management the decision time will increase. With help of software and different type of framework like scrum kannan, decision and process time may reduce. Common software and data should be available to all departments so that they can be on same platform to respond to any situation. It is important that all the process of the product life cycle should go one to one and feedback from one step can take quickly as the input for the other step (it can be in reverse order also). This will help to response quickly to the change in requirement

In simple words Agile manufacturing is quickly response to the customer and market needs and develop customer specific product.

Values and Principles of Agile methodology.

Agile methodologies have Four core values that are as follows:

1. Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools: It is important to value individual over process and tools as individual only make the process and tools which can be we used for betterment of the business and the customer requirement. If a system driven through process then every product will take similar time but if individual involved in making product, then product can be develop quickly as individual will his exctra input to get the work done.
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation: Huge documentation is required before the development of software, Agile methodology focus on working software in hand of customer over the documentation. Keeping documents is good but extensive documentation delay the development of the software. To improve the quality of product or software, it is important to get feedback from the customer to develop the software or product as per their requirement and this will be only possible if product given to the customer as early as possible and further changes can be done after trial of product by customer.
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation: In traditional software development process, there was mutual agreement between customer and development team called contract, once contact is fixed about the needs and requirements of the the customer. If any requirement from customer related to change in software will not be considered and any changes. Agile methodology follows customer centric approach, there is still a contact between customer and development team but in agile process any feedback from the customer during the development of the product or software will be considered and implement in the software, any number of feedback from customer is welcome and considered for the improvement in the product.
4. Responding to change over following a plan: Agile is dynamic process, i e company change its strategy and process in development of the product or software after feedback received from the customer. In static process, strategy and plan remain fixed in development of software or product. In Agile there is freedom to change the roadmap of the activities as per the requirement of the customer or in responding quickly to fulfill the customer needs and requirements.

As Agile is itself dynamic in nature so as it's Values, they are also not fixed, as per requirement one can use all or one. 

There are 12 main principal on which Agile methodology works. As per the Agile Menifesto 12 principles are as follows:

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. 
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable development.
8. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10. Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Difference between Agile and Lean?

Agile methodology is based on Lean manufacturing still there are some differences between two. 

1. Agile is more customer centric process and to respond quickly to customer needs and requirements where as Lean manufacture product by eliminating the wastes.
2. Agile methodology follows set values and principles to get the work done more faster and better way, where as Lean works to remove inefficient process from the system.
3. Agile is not much focus on cost reduction of the product where as Lean focus on cost reduction by removing unnecessary process and waste from the system.
4. Agile respond to the changes in product after the feedback from customer where as Lean do not respond to the changes.
5. Agile is dynamic process where as Lean is static process.
6. Agile focus on individual over process where as Lean focus on process and system.

What are advantages and disadvantages of Agile methodology?

As everyone coin has two sides same is with Agile methodology, Agile too have pros and cons. 

Advantage of Agile methodology are:

1. Customer satisfaction increase as after every change customer got working model.
2. Quality of product will be superior as customer is involved in every phase of product development and any change is consider in that version only.
3. Team involvement and moral increase as development team and sales and marketing team have to collaborate on regular basis.
4. Customer retention increase due to transparency during entire development phase and feedback from customer is considered even in later stage of development cycle.
5. Better control over development of the product as every member even customer has transparency about product and what exactly is running.
6. Everyone involved in the project, got complete knowledge about the project. Hence knowledge level  of every employee increase even knowledge of customer also improved.
7. As documentation is less employee focus more on working software or product.
8. Once product released in the market it has all latest features that make one of the best product of that time, as any new feature required was add during that version only.

Disadvantages of the Agile:

1. It is difficult to add new members in project as documentation is less and it make difficult to understand them about the project.
2. It is difficult to assume the cost of the project at initial stages, as no one know how much iteration will require to complete the project.
3. Difficult to measure the progress of the project as end of the project is know to team.
4. It requires more time of every one customer as well as development & business team as they all have to sit together more frequently as compare to other model or process.
5. Development team may not work on many project simultaneously as they can need any te after feedback from customer.
6. Agile is not feasible for low cost and small projects.

This is basics about Agile methodology, we will discuss about different framework and software used in Agile methodology in our latter post. 

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