Validity and reliability of lean enterprise frameworks in Indian manufacturing industry

Abstract

Lean principles are useful to achieve excellence in all aspects of business processes. In the present global scenario, the implementation of lean principles in Indian manufacturing is essential to compete globally. The purpose of this study is to conduct validity and reliability analysis on existing lean enterprise frameworks while applied to Indian manufacturing organizations. The study used survey questionnaire method to collect data from manufacturing industries. The data were collected against 31 lean enterprise frameworks from 180 middle and top management personnel belonging to 180 Indian manufacturing firms. The survey instrument was developed with a team of 12 members, that is, 6 experts each from academic and industry background and also performed pilot study to improve understanding of the respondents. Reliability and factor analysis has been carried out to measure each framework’s Cronbach’s alpha (a reliability coefficient) and unidimensionality with respect to the constructs, that is, the lean enterprise it measures. Finally, frequency distribution analysis was performed on the selected framework to identify familiar elements of lean enterprise. This research has brought out that a majority of the frameworks exhibit a high level of reliability. When the study has investigated further about unidimensionality with respect to the construct, that is, the lean enterprise it measures, it showed that a few of the frameworks were exhibiting unidimensionality. A frequency distribution analysis illustrates that the majority of the constructs have a high mean score and mode. Finally, the study concludes that there is a need for a new framework to fulfill the requirement of Indian manufacturing industry.