Fractal architecture for 'leagile' networked enterprises.

The manufacturing environment and markets in recent times are becoming increasingly dynamic, diverse and unpredictable, due mainly to fast evolution of products and technology, erratic customer behaviour and high consumerism and an increasingly shorter lead-time. The burden of the impact falls on organisational structures built on centralized, rigid manufacturing architecture, because they cannot cope or adapt to the highly uncertain or unpredictable nature of the market. Enterprises who wish to survive these challenges need to rethink their business and manufacturing models, and most importantly reinvent their tactical, operational and organizational formulas to leverage their strategic long term visions.Newer manufacturing systems to curb the effects of this upheaval have to promote an entirely decentralised, flexible, distributed, configurable and adaptable architecture to ameliorate this condition. Many philosophies are proposed and studied towards planning, monitoring, and controlling the 21st century manufacturing system. These include - Bionic manufacturing system (BMS), Holonic manufacturing system (HMS), Fractal manufacturing system (FrMS), Responsive manufacturing etc.This research program focuses on the FrMS, which has vast conceptual advantageous features among these new philosophies, but its implementation has proved very difficult. FrMS is based on autonomous, cooperating, self-similar agent called fractal that has the capability of perceiving, adapting and evolving with respect to its partners and environment. The fractal manufacturing configuration uses self regulating, organisational work groups, each with identical goals and within its own area of competence to build up an integrated, holistic network system of companies. This network yields constant improvement as well as continuous checks and balances through self-organising control loops. The study investigates and identifies the nature, characteristic features and feasibility of this system in comparison to traditional approaches with a detailed view to maximising the logistical attribute of lean manufacturing system and building a framework for 'leagile' (an integration of lean and agile solutions) networked capabilities. It explores and establishes the structural characteristic potentials of Fractal Manufacturing Partnership (FMP), a hands-on collaboration between enterprises and their key suppliers, where the latter become assemblers of their components while co-owning the enterprise's facility, to create and achieve high level of responsiveness. It is hoped that this architecture will drive and harness the evolution from a vertically integrated company, to a network of integrated, leaner core competencies needed to tackle and weather the storm of the 21st century manufacturing system.