Manufacturing priorities and action programmes in the changing environment : An empirical study of Indian industries

This paper is based on a survey on manufacturing practices of Indian companies. The purpose was to get an insight into manufacturing priorities and action programmes. The study was also designed to capture the behaviour of manufacturing in the changing environment. Results indicate that manufacturing companies consider cost, quality and delivery as important objectives to be pursued, in that order, with lower priority for the flexibility – preference being for those aspects which can give immediate returns. Action programmes for achieving these objectives emphasise shop‐floor activities and also favour adapting softer options like worker training, periodic reviews etc. Companies seem to be reluctant to adopt approaches requiring either substantial investments or major organisation restructuring. Action programmes proposed by these companies for the future show no significant change when compared to the present, indicating no major shift in approach.