Manufacturing flexibility: A literature review

Abstract

In this article an attempt is made to classify the vast literature regarding manufacturing flexibility; the aim is to contribute to the conceptual systemization of the debate, whose richness plays witness of the abundance of themes and the difficulty of obtaining a unitary and univocal framework. The literature on manufacturing flexibility is analysed according to a scheme which considers six different aspects: (1) definition of flexibility, (2) request for flexibility, (3) classification in dimensions of flexibility (the authors group the various classifications proposed according to different logics: horizontal, vertical, temporal, by the object of the variation, mixed), (4) measurement of flexibility, (5) choices for flexibility, (6) interpretation of flexibility.