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Section A (Part 1 of 4) An Introduction to the Reference Model Agile processes and strategic objectives for the agile enterprise have been the subject of a growing number of corporate investigations, research efforts, and government initiatives internationally since 1991; yet each year a more vocal demand for an enterprise-wide reference model is raised. This document answers that demand by providing the first comprehensive agile enterprise reference model. Sponsored by the Agility Forum, this 1996 reference model project had two principal goals: 1) design a reference model structure that effectively captures and displays the essence of enterprise-wide competency at both proactive and reactive change; and 2) validate the design with a rich, comprehensive example that provides an instructive reference case for an entire enterprise. The purpose is to provide a defining profile with examples for business managers and executives responsible for strategic planning, operational management, and reengineering. The reference model spans 24 interrelated critical business practices in 6 categories: strategic planning (3), business case justification (3), organizational relationship management (7), knowledge management (4), innovation management (4), and performance metrics (3). The seven organizational relationships focus on business units, employees, partners, suppliers, customers, information systems, and production systems. Each of the 24 practices is presented in a 35 page structure that provides: a generic definition, the framework and modules of a case-study practice that fits that definition, a set of generic proactive and reactive change issues, case-study responses for each issue, and finally, a change proficiency maturity synopsis that evaluates and displays the competency of the case example using the recently developed Change Proficiency Maturity Model. The case study providing the examples is of Remmele Engineering: a $100 million, four-division, five-plant, Minnesota-based machining company that serves aerospace, defense, electronic, medical, automotive, and electronic industries. Remmele was chosen very carefully for its observable broad proficiencies at change, discovered when the Agility Forum's Operations Focus Group conducted an analysis of production practices there in 1995 [1, 3]. It is important to understand that Remmele exhibits more competency at broad change proficiency than any other company we have examined to date and owes this competency to procedures that are instructive and exportable to companies of any size and in any business sector. Thus, the lessons to be learned from the Remmele case are not restricted in applicability to their specific industry, nor are they dependent upon Remmele's size or private ownership status. We define an agile enterprise as one that is broadly change-proficient; i.e., it exhibits competency at causing and dealing with change in the important competitive business practices of its business sector. There are three key concepts involved in this definition: change proficiency, critical business practices, and competency. Each of these concepts and the analytical tools employed in the case-study development will be discussed briefly. |
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