Reconfigurable manufacturing, providing capacity and functionality on demand, is an ever more important factor of competitiveness in volatile, unpredictable, and rapidly changing markets. In this regard, scalability and convertibility are considered particularly relevant characteristics, as they directly reduce reconfiguration effort and enhance system responsiveness. However, in previous research, scalability and convertibility have predominately been addressed conceptually on a high level of abstraction with only limited consideration of how specific manufacturing elements can enhance and realize them. Therefore, the objective of this paper is first to identify and classify elements enabling scalability and convertibility in order to bring reconfigurability-related concepts closer to the world of practitioners. Moreover, as a result, the paper concretizes scalability and convertibility and provides a foundation for future empirical research on reconfigurability.