Major Problems and Improvement Approaches in Indian Batch Manufacturing Firms: Inferences from an Exploratory Study

Abstract

Manufacturing plays an important rule in the economic and industrial development of a country. Effective planning and control of manufacturing is the key to developing a good production base. The objectives of this paper are to (i) highlight the problems of manufacturing planning and control (MPC) in batch manufacturing firms in India (ii) identify improvement approaches considered by them to reduce effectiveness of these problems. A questionnaire was developed and distributed, and the respondent firms were classified into four categories of batch manufacturing firms, namely, mechanical, electrical, electronic and chemical. The three most severe problems of MPC in Indian batch manufacturing firms found as the lack of timely availability of raw materials, fluctuations in demand and meeting the due date of delivery. Among generic approaches, materials requirement planning (MRP) is popular, just in time (JIT) is being implemented and optimized production technology (OPT) is almost unknown. Among the specific approaches considered by them are vendor development, predictive/preventive maintenance programs, total quality management, and technology including new processes and equipment.