Management books and articles on the manufacturing industry have long focused on process efficiency at the expense of effectiveness. Waterfall and Lean approaches are now consolidated, but they offer a partial solution to the needs of product development in today&rsquo;s vuca world. Once appropriately adapted to the development of hardware products, Agile finally<br />makes it possible to give an organic response to the complexity of the variables involved &ndash; from customer needs to constructability and environmental impact &ndash; by putting people at the centre.<br />The results of the iterative and incremental approach described in these pages are extraordinary in terms of speed of development, quality of the product and construction of stimulating and collaborative work environments. Creativity and the ability to generate new products are incredibly enhanced as a result. The physicality of products enabled by software is the challenge we need to face in order to become active participants in the fifth industrial revolution.<br />&ldquo;The Agile Factory represents an approach to Agile hardware development integrating Lean, Waterfall and other practices. It removes the barriers between the office and the shop floor to turn them into an elastic, creative and human craft system capable of quickly transforming ideas into valuable and successful products.&rdquo;