Analysis of the Use of Agile Methods, Tools and Techniques in Foundry Enterprises

In an increasingly volatile environment, the importance of agile management, which should be based on flexible procedures and agile strategy, is increasing. The purpose of the study was to analyze the trend of development, level of knowledge and implications with the application of agile methods, techniques in project, program and manufacturing process management tools, as well as to identify areas of activity of foundry companies in the context of increasing the efficiency of their operations through the use of agile project approach. The completed research indicated that the knowledge and variety of application of agile methods, tools and techniques is at a relatively low level within the framework of project, program and manufacturing process management in the surveyed foundries. Among the most commonly used instrumentation are: PDCA, Kanban, SCRUM, SCRUMBAN, Lean Development, DMAIC and XP. The research showed that the use of agile instrumentation in the areas of projects, programs and manufacturing process management allows work to be done in an orderly and transparent manner. Foundries that consistently use agile instrumentation produce high-quality and non-conformity-free products with short time-to-market. Future research directions will be to perform a comparative analysis of the level of knowledge and implications of agile instrumentation in foundries located in Poland and selected neighboring countries.