Flexibility adoption in Indian manufacturing firms: a current perspective

This study examines the current state of flexibility adoption in manufacturing firms in India, considering the important flexible equipments and indeed, this is the first such attempt. Adoption/implementation includes equipments such as work centre, process centre, support stations, network communications, integration and control. Questionnaire survey methodology is used for status evaluation: not implemented, implementation in progress, and fully implemented. It is found that adoption follows an incremental, piecemeal progression from the least complicated through intermediate to integrated technologies. A few important equipments currently adopted are: universal machining centre, local area network, automated inspection and testing station etc. In-house development, supplier’s development and flexibility outcomes play central role for flexibility adoption-related issues. The results empirically support and cast insights into the flexibility adoption trend. Based upon the findings, various important stra...