About a decade ago, the agile manufacturing paradigm was formulated in resp
onse to the constantly changing 'new economy' and as a basis for returning
to global competitiveness. While agility means different things to differen
t enterprises under different contexts, the following elements capture its
essential concept: agility is characterized by cooperativeness and synergis
m (possibly resulting in virtual corporations), by a strategic vision that
enables thriving in face of continuous and unpredictable change, by the res
ponsive creation and delivery of customer-valued, high quality and mass cus
tomized goods/services, by nimble organization structures of a knowledgeabl
e and empowered workforce, and facilitated by an information infrastructure
that links constituent partners in a unified electronic network. During th
is period, a significant amount of attention from both the academic and ind
ustrial communities has produced a large body of results in research and de
velopment related to this topic. Each contribution has tackled a different
aspect of this large field. In this paper, we review a wide range of recent
literature on agile manufacturing. About 73 papers from premier scientific
journals and conferences have been reviewed, and a classification scheme t
o organize these is proposed. We critique these bodies of work and suggest
directions for additional research and identify topics where fruitful oppor
tunities exist.