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An empirical investigation and prioritization of barriers toward implementation of agile manufacturing in the manufacturing industry

Rahul Kumar (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala, India)
Kanwarpreet Singh (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Punjabi University, Patiala, India)
Sanjiv Kumar Jain (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ambala College of Engineering and Applied Research, Ambala Cantt, India)

The TQM Journal

ISSN: 1754-2731

Article publication date: 8 July 2020

Issue publication date: 31 December 2020

606

Abstract

Purpose

The study aims at empirically investigating and prioritizing the critical barriers for the successful implementation of agile manufacturing in the medium- and large-scale Indian manufacturing industries.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review of peer-reviewed journals and discussion with experts is used to identify 17 barriers to the implementation of agile manufacturing. An empirical survey is then conducted to collect data regarding the agile manufacturing barriers and is further analyzed using the factor analysis and vlsekriterijumska optimizacija i kompromisno resenje (VIKOR).

Findings

Based on the survey of empirical data, the investigated critical barriers were reduced in five critical categories, as follows: Managerial constraints, technological constraints, human resource–related constraints, operational constraints and organizational culture-related constraints, which are further ranked in terms of their severity using VIKOR. This research advocates the development of a strategy for addressing the most critical barriers instead of focusing on all for the successful implementation of agile manufacturing.

Originality/value

This work contributes to agile manufacturing literature by the structured presentation of the barriers to implement agile manufacturing in the Indian manufacturing industry. It also extends the integrated factor analysis and VIKOR method to investigate and rank the barriers.

Keywords

Citation

Kumar, R., Singh, K. and Jain, S.K. (2021), "An empirical investigation and prioritization of barriers toward implementation of agile manufacturing in the manufacturing industry", The TQM Journal, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 183-203. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-04-2020-0073

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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