Flexibility in manufacturing: A survey

This article is an attempt to survey the vast literature on flexibility in manufacturing that has accumulated over the last 10 to 20 years. The survey begins with a brief review of the classical literature on flexibility in economics and organization theory, which provides a background for manufacturing flexibility. Several kinds of flexibilities in manufacturing are then defined carefully along with their purposes, the means to obtain them, and some suggested measurements and valuations. Then the authors examine the interrelationships among the several flexibilities. Various empirical studies and analytical/optimization models dealing with these flexibilities are reported and discussed. The article concludes with suggestions for some possible future research directions.