Measuring agility of indian automotive small & medium sized enterprises (SMEs)

Abstract

Indian SMEs are going to play pivotal role in transforming Indian economy and achieving double digit growth rate in near future. Performance of Indian SMEs is vital in making India as a most preferred manufacturing destination worldwide under India’s “Make in India Policy”. Current research was based on Indian automotive SMEs. Indian automotive SMEs must develop significant agile capability in order to remain competitive in highly uncertain global environment. One of the objectives of the research was to find various enablers of agility through literature survey. Thereafter questionnaire administered exploratory factor analysis was performed to extract various factors of agility relevant in Indian automotive SMEs environment. Multiple regression analysis was applied to assess the relative importance of these extracted factors. “Responsiveness” was the most important factor followed by “Ability to reconfigure”, “Ability to collaborate”, and “Competency”. Thereafter fuzzy logic bases algorithm was applied to assess the current level of agility of Indian automotive SMEs. It was found as “Slightly Agile”, which was the deviation from the targeted level of agility. Fuzzy ranking methodology facilitated the identification & criticalities of various barriers to agility, so that necessary measures can be taken to improve the current agility level of Indian automotive SMEs. The current research may helpful in finding; key enablers of agility, assessing the level of agility, and ranking of the various enablers of agility to point out the weak zone of agility so that subsequent corrective action may be taken in any industrial environment similar to India automotive SMEs.