Evidence of manufacturing strategies in Indian industry: a survey

This paper presents findings of an extensive survey of Indian manufacturing companies. The survey encompassed four sectors: automobile, electronics, machinery, and process industry. Various manufacturing strategy issues (such as competitive priorities, order winners, and activities of improvement) have been identified and assessed in Indian context. Sector wise comparison of competitive priorities, order winners, and activities of improvement (advanced manufacturing technology, integrated information systems, and advanced management systems) is provided. Our results showed that most of the Indian companies are still emphasizing on quality; however, automobile sector has set to compete globally with high innovation rate, faster new product development, and continuous improvement. Manufacturing competence index is also computed for each sector. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.