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In the present era of intense competition, industries are adopting lean manufacturing for successful survival. The concept of lean manufacturing is new for Indian process industries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the status of lean manufacturing in Indian process industries in terms of lean practices, reasons and challenges of implementing lean manufacturing.

A survey was carried out to assess the level of lean implementation in Indian process industries. Statistical tests were conducted to assess the significant lean practices, reasons and challenges of implementing lean in Indian process industries.

It is observed that the level of implementation of lean manufacturing in Indian process industries is still low. Results indicate that Indian process industries those who have implemented lean found lean to be very useful to reduce wastes and to increase quality. Major lean practices being implemented by Indian process industries are primarily those which are related to waste elimination or improvement in quality. Indian process industries found that important challenges to implement lean are to produce in small batches, to arrange for lean experts and to impart training to employees.

In the present study, the sample size is small and hence, the findings should be generalized cautiously. Although the study indicates that lean can be very useful if implemented in Indian process industries but further empirical studies are required to quantify performance improvements through adoption of lean.

The paper explores status of lean adoption in Indian process industries. Considering the unique characteristics of process industries, the present research would be helpful for making strategies to implement lean in process industry setups.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of lean practices on performance improvement of process industries in India.

Based on a survey of Indian process industries, this paper proposes two sets of hypothesis to examine if there is any statistically significant impact of lean practices on certain specific performance metrics. First, the sample is classified into two classes of process industries: the adopters of lean and those who have not yet adopted the lean practices in their manufacturing operations. Then statistical tests are conducted to measure the differences in the level of performance between the two classes of Indian process industries with respect to nine performance measures. The survey results are augmented by two in-depth case studies. Case studies include one from lean adopter firms (a refinery) and another from the firms that have not yet adopted the lean practices (a primary metal manufacturing unit).

A survey result of 121 Indian process industries shows that adoption of lean practices results in a positive impact on inventory control, waste elimination, cost reduction, productivity, and quality improvement in process industries. On the other hand, based on the sample data on Indian process industries, no statistically significant improvement could be found on the lot size or space utilization between lean adopters and their counterparts.

This research provides guidance to the managers on how adoption of lean practices results in better performance in process industries in several operational areas.

To the knowledge, this study is the first attempt to analyze the impact of lean practices on a set of specific performance metrics in Indian process industry. Although this study focuses on the Indian process industry, the authors believe that findings of the research can inform other practitioners and researchers who are considering implementing lean in process industry sector in other developing countries like India.

Lean manufacturing (LM) principles are one of the alternatives to improve manufacturing productivity, quality and customer satisfaction in Indian manufacturing industry. The purpose of this paper is to find the implementation status of LM principles across Indian manufacturing organizations through the empirical survey methodology.

The survey questionnaire was developed based upon literature review conducted on LM and also considered experts suggestion in the field of LM. The survey questionnaire was sent to 753 manufacturing organization located in India. The respondent organization details have gathered from the list of Confederation of Indian Industries directory for the year 2011.The selected respondents were production managers, quality managers, sales managers, maintenance managers, CEOs of the organization. The empirical survey collected 180 filled survey questionnaires from Indian manufacturing industries.

The study clearly identified that many manufacturing organizations were in initial transition stage and concentrating mostly in-plant operations instead of collaboration in all levels of business with suppliers and customers. The present study found that drivers for implementation of LM were customer satisfaction and organizational continuous improvement program. The present study also found that barriers to implement LM principles were employee resistance, implementing few elements of LM principles instead of the complete package of LM framework, budget constraints and lack of understanding of LM principles to shop floor managers. Finally the study concluded that Indian manufacturing organizations have to conduct continuous learning programmed to improve understanding of LM principles as well as to maintain their motivation level in apex point. The study also suggested that a systematic LM framework is needs to Indian manufacturing organizations, which will act as clear cut guiding torch to the organization managers to implement LM principles across organization.

The sample size of the present study was moderate number than previous studies. However the study only concentrated on manufacturing organizations across India. The results of the present study cannot generalize across all the sectors of Indian organizations.

The concept of LM was very popular among developed and developing countries in the world. Many research studies were performed across world to find the status of LM implementation in their countries. Very few research studies reported the status of LM implementation in Indian manufacturing industries and those studies also with limited focus of the status of LM implementation. Hence the study presented details status of LM principles implementation in Indian manufacturing industries.

The purpose of this paper is to report a pilot study on lean awareness and implementation using the survey data collected from about 32 industries situated in western and eastern region of India.

A survey instrument containing 45 statements was designed to assess respondents’ attitude and awareness toward lean practices and to explore the level of lean implementation in the organization. The instrument was distributed personally or through mail to the employees of 32 industries and they were supported for any query about the questions. Descriptive statistical analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis and ANOVA were used to analyze the data with SPSS statistical software.

The research uncovers the fact that the current status of lean implementation and awareness in Indian industries is not so encouraging and the reason for that is, the human-related issues are not tackled properly. Quality and process technology, are the two key areas where industries are indicating inadequate efforts and poor insight.

The study conducted was limited to 32 industries situated in the eastern and western region of India. The data collected for few industries rely on only one respondent.

The study identifies the lean implementation status based on nine lean assessment key areas and uncovers the major roadblocks for lean practices in Indian industries. It provides key insights to lean practicing industries and lean practitioner about the major barriers and key areas for the improvement.

The paper reports comprehensive insights on current awareness and implementation of lean manufacturing (LM) in India. It also highlights the initiatives taken by Government of India to increase the competitiveness of the Indian industries, specifically of manufacturing sector, through the adoption of LM techniques. This would provide a platform for carrying out a detailed research in LM in Indian context.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and address various wastes in the supply chain of the edible cottonseed oil industry (specifically the processing side) using a value stream mapping (VSM) approach to improve productivity and capacity utilization in an Indian context.

Critical observations and interviewing techniques were used with open‐ended questions to understand the processes involved in the value chain of the cottonseed oil industry. Different chain links/members were investigated through personal visits and discussions. VSM is applied as an approach to the industry to identify and remove non‐value‐adding (NVA) activities.

Major findings obtained from the study are as follows. There is an excess cumulative inventory of 244 days in the whole supply chain. The industry is highly fragmented with a large number of small players present, which hampers the use of economies of scale. There are NVA activities present in the supply chain such as the moving of cottonseed oil from expeller mill to refinery. The industry still uses outdated technology which hampers the productivity.

Attention needs to be given to boosting the productivity of the oil sector. Waste removal from the oilseed‐processing sector is one key to improving the productivity of the sector.

The paper addresses the various wastes in the processing side of the supply chain of the Indian cottonseed oil industry, using VSM as an approach which was hardly ever attempted before. Wastes are then individually attacked to reduce or eliminate them from the system. Suggestions to make the whole chain more productive can be generalized and can be replicated in the context of other developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the Malmquist Productivity Index and its different components such as technological change, technical efficiency change and the change in scale efficiency in the Indian food industry during the period spanning 1988‐1989 to 2004‐2005. Further, it examines the variation in productivity and its components with respect to the factors internal to the firms.

The technique of data envelopment analysis has been used to measure productivity index and its different components under the assumption of variable returns to scale. Further, log‐linear regression model has been used to explain the variation in productivity and its components with respect to certain factors internal to the firms.

In spite of a strong agricultural base and being the third largest producer of food products in the world, India's food processing industry is far from tapping its full potential as a result of a low rate of technological progress/regress on the one hand and increasing inefficiencies of the firms on the other hand. It is necessary to encourage imports along with R&D to ensure faster technological progress in the Indian food industry. However, the technological possibilities depend on the mode of organization and various economic and institutional factors. Therefore, bold institutional changes are to be made side‐by‐side in order that inefficiency is substantially reduced.

The present study evaluates the contribution of technological change, technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change to total factor productivity growth in the Indian food processing industry by using the firm‐level data, collected from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). It further examines the impact of some common factors internal to the firms on their performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the status of lean manufacturing in Indian automotive sector, component manufacturing industries in terms of lean adoption, benefits, motivation, and challenges of implementing lean manufacturing practices.

The research objectives were achieved by conducting a qualitative multicase study approach. Fourteen Indian automotive component manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were chosen based on their different product offerings as well as differing approaches to the introduction and implementation of lean initiatives. Data were collected through in-depth, semistructured interviews supported by shop-floor observations.

The findings from the present study suggest that some of the participating automotive component manufacturing SMEs have a relatively good understanding of lean concepts and philosophy. However, there is room for further improvement for most SMEs. Major top five lean practices being implemented were found to be cellular manufacturing, total productive maintenance, 5S, work standardization, and quality management practices. Also, leadership and organizational culture were found to be crucial factors for the success of lean manufacturing.

The fact that the data collected for the research study is based on subjective business evidence obtained from company representatives comprises the main limitation of the present study. So, the results should be considered with caution, as far as the lean adoption in Indian automotive component manufacturing sector is concerned.

Based on the present study, suggestions can be made regarding the successful adoption of lean principles, not only for the participating SMEs but also for the whole of the automotive component manufacturing sector. More specifically, by determining the strength and weakness of automotive component manufacturing SME's effort to adopt lean, suitable managerial initiatives can be undertaken by these companies as well as the whole sector to fully adopt lean and derive the respective benefits.

This paper explores the status of lean adoption in Indian automotive component manufacturing SMEs. Considering the unique characteristics of the automotive component manufacturing industry, the present research would be helpful for making strategies to implement lean in automotive component manufacturing industry setups.

The paper underpins an advanced domestic manufacturing that comes with some advanced employment specialization status of individual industries as the key determinant of foreign direct investment (FDI) and considers how FDI in the food processing industry in India relates to this focal point.

This paper investigates how inward FDI inflows relate to domestic investment and revival in the industry using Auto Regressive Distributed lags (ARDL) model over the period 2000–2017. The model allows for different specifications to study whether FDI is responsible for the revival or the prior revival induces the FDI.

The results show the lack of proper advanced specialized employment status of the food processing industry. FDI in food processing is mainly guided by exports and imports opportunities and FDI plays no role in the revival of advanced growth in the industry. This finding explains why FDI in the industry is predominantly service sector oriented.

The paper underlines (1) the proper conceptualization of human capital as an important determinant of FDI; (2) reinterpretation of Kaldor's technical progress function that uncovers how employment dynamics embedded in intermediate goods specializations play a key role in supporting a higher pace of investment (and FDI); (3) labor costs' importance should involve not only the wage rate but also the advantages that a specialized employment base and (4) FDI in manufacturing demands a greater policy focus on developing domestic bases of intermediate goods specializations.

Presented work gives comparative review of food supply chain (FSC) under various notions related to its conceptualisation, operationality and technological advancements in lieu with Industry 4.0 revolution. In Indian scenario, the impression of FSC seems in a scattered way that cannot be directly useful for an organisation, to overcome this scattering, a framework has been developed to consolidate the previous research works and exploration of new trends in food supply chain management (FSCM) in context to Indian scenario.

This article encapsulates the essence of various research articles and reports retrieved from databases of Emerald and Elsevier's Science direct, clustering the various notions related to FSC in Indian context. To visualise the one-sight view of related works, a pictorial representations have also been appended.

This article explains the general aspect of FSC and its linkage in context to Indian system. Presented work outlays both empirical and theoretical approaches trending from last 15 years. As research count in context to Indian FSC is lacking, so this work will be a road map for expedition in direction of FSCM, in era of research.

Findings and suggestion in this work can expanded in various industries related to food, helping to turn their fortune and enrichment of Indian FSC.

Food is binding word for all the commodities, and its effective supply chain management is a big boon for economy of country along with large employment generation for people directly/indirectly associated with this industry. This article covers a generalise approach from ground level framework to a level of advancement which fulfil technological aspects, future needs and upcoming trends in lieu to need of developing nation.

As limited research is done in Indian FSCM, this work to bridge this gap along with a well-defined framework which going to explore FSC. This work is going to be facilitation for researchers of this area as no major review for Indian context has not been published.

The purpose of this paper is to aim for the development and analysis of green manufacturing (GM)-based framework on the identified critical success factors (CSFs) and performance measures (PMs) in the context of the Indian cement industry.

The research follows survey method for data collection. For framework development, it uses factor analysis on the identified CSFs and regression along with the appropriate measures for checking statistical consistency and validity.

This is the first research towards GM framework for the Indian cement industry. Till date, no framework is available which could guide researchers and practitioners of this environment unfriendly industry. Study exposes lack of connectivity between CSFs and PMs for a GM framework and highlights weaknesses of cement industry in this regard. It offers a generalised GM framework linking PMs with top management, human resource management, organisational culture, green practices, process management and supply chain management.

The framework is expected to help both researchers and practitioners from cement, construction and other industries who are serious towards GM implementation and are looking for appropriate mechanism. This framework if implemented properly will result in enhanced productivity.

This work is one of the few and pioneering efforts to investigate GM linking CSFs and PMs in Indian manufacturing sectors and the first in cement industry. Not many studies are available in the context of cement industry, which is the lifeblood of infrastructure and construction sectors. The importance of the work increases as it is conducted in the Indian context, which is undeniably an important economy of the world.