Defines flexibility as the ability to change or react with little penalty in time, effort, cost or performance, and surveys the literature on manufacturing flexibility. Presents a framework for its analysis, which provides a common language about the various categories of flexibility the company needs to manage; allows the company to rank them in order of importance, or of the degree of management attention they will need; and enables managers to formulate clear implementation plans for maintaining, measuring and improving them. It also allows managers to determine and distinguish what is required of manufacturing operations, and provides a common base of understanding, so that all involved know what is to be improved. Presents two case examples illustrating the application of the framework to define the type of flexibility - in terms of its dimensions, time horizons and elements - of concern to each of the companies involved.
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