Assessing the awareness of the agile manufacturing for organizational change in Indian small manufacturing firms : An empirical investigation

Purpose Agile manufacturing (AM) has the new scenario in the business system and it is widely seen as a “New Revolution” in the manufacturing firms. AM, which continuously focusses on the adoption of new methodologies and quickly respond to the customer expectation. For this reason, many of the research studies are focussed on the AM environment and this system is mainly followed in large sector only and most of the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are not aware of it. Especially in the developing countries which are still lagging behind in the implementation of AM. Considering the above reason, the purpose of this paper is to assess the awareness of AM in Indian SMEs. Design/methodology/approach By means of researching many literature reviews and empirical data collected by using a self-administrated instrument distributed to the selected Indian SMEs and the awareness about the AM was investigated. The authors have selected 100 SMEs in Indian service sectors and sent the data sheets through by e-mail and also by directly visiting the company and collected the information. A total of 68 useable survey data’s were identified from the final analysis. The study data sample consists of a group of selected Indian SMEs, from different industries including the pump and foundry industries. The collected data were analyzed using the graphical representation method and by the statistical analysis. Findings The analysis revealed the significance and usage of AM in the Indian SMEs. The results also suggested that the Indian SMEs are well aware of the AM system, through more efforts need to be focussed on implementing this system properly and effectively to improve these standards. By the use of agile models and frameworks in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), would result in cost-effectiveness in their quality and services and can be continuously improving the ongoing agile practices. Research limitations/implications Indian SMEs managers seem to be stronger familiar with the agile concepts and practices and they believe that agile environment would guaranteeing in their services and high-quality products. Therefore, SMEs should concentrate and invest in agile practices that would help them to improve their competitiveness in the global market. Further, Indian SMEs managers and practitioners would concentrate more about this maintenance of standards and with this dynamic approach it takes toward the agile environment to meet the future challenges. Practical implications The data collected and the results provided in this paper will help in understanding, the awareness about the AM environment in Indian SMEs. Also, suggest some additional improvements in the knowledge of agile to the managers and practitioners in the Indian SMEs, which could enhance the level of agile implementation. Originality/value The assessment of agile awareness in Indian SMEs, along with the concepts of understanding the AM environment, has been explained in the literature on AM in the Indian SMEs.