Assessment of CMMI level of manufacturing industry using fuzzy logic approach : a case study

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a CMMI model for the manufacturing industry and to find an appropriate method to assess the CMMI level. The CMMI level indicates how well the processes are planned, performed, measured and controlled, thus revealing the performance level of an organization. Design/methodology/approach: Among the various process areas of CMMI, “organizational process focus” (OPF) is selected for the study. The CMMI model for the process area OPF is designed based on the CMMI enablers, criteria and attributes. Based on this multilevel model, a case study approach is adopted and fuzzy logic is used to measure the CMMI level of an organization. The fuzzy performance importance index (FPII) and the ranking score are used to further analyze the attributes. Findings: The proposed model has been successfully used to measure the CMMI level of the manufacturing industry in south India. The triangular fuzzy number of the fuzzy CMMI measure index (FCMI) is obtained as (2.077, 3.534, 5.000). The transformation of FCMI back into linguistic terms discloses the current CMMI level of the industry as “Capability Maturity Level 2” (CML 2). Originality/value: The authors tested the suitability of an inter-disciplinary approach known as CMMI for the process appraisal in the manufacturing sector. The investigation sets forth a unique framework to quantify the performance of practices followed in a manufacturing organization and thereby help the industry to realize the present strength and weakness in terms of process assets.