Title: An empirical-exploratory study of the status of lean manufacturing in India

Authors: Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes; Harshad Sudhir Parkar; Ilias Oraifige; Horacio Soriano-Meier; Dani Harmanto

Addresses: School of Technology, The University of Derby, Markeaton Street Campus, Derby, Derbyshire DE22 3AW, UK. ' School of Technology, The University of Derby, Markeaton Street Campus, Derby, Derbyshire DE22 3AW, UK. ' School of Technology, The University of Derby, Markeaton Street Campus, Derby, Derbyshire DE22 3AW, UK. ' Northampton Business School, The University of Northampton, Park Campus, Boughton Green Road, Northampton, Northamptonshire NN2 7AL, UK. ' School of Technology, The University of Derby, Markeaton Street Campus, Derby, Derbyshire DE22 3AW, UK

Abstract: Lean manufacturing is considered, by many authors and practitioners, the most prominent paradigm in manufacturing. As a consequence, its application has expanded to other industries and different countries around the world. However, although the academic literature shows evidence of the application of lean manufacturing in many countries, the status of this methodology in India is unclear. This paper presents the results of an empirical-exploratory study that investigates the degree of adoption of lean manufacturing in India. The study replicates the methodological approach followed by Antony and Desai (2009) in a similar investigation. Therefore, the study is based on a survey questionnaire and its results were analysed using descriptive statistics. The results revealed that lean manufacturing is not the most 'popular' operational and/or quality performance improvement methodology adopted by Indian organisations. The results also provide evidence of the degree of awareness, implementation issues, results achieved and possible future, in India, of lean manufacturing.

Keywords: lean manufacturing; India; operational improvement; quality improvement; survey.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEX.2012.047906

International Journal of Business Excellence, 2012 Vol.5 No.4, pp.395 - 412

Published online: 31 Jul 2014 *

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