Managing IT for world-class manufacturing: the Indian scenario

The success of Indian manufacturing in meeting global competition will depend on its speed to move itself from a protected domestic to a world-class global manufacturing status. This paper analyses a survey conducted for the purpose of determining world-class status of Indian manufacturing companies and identifies important issues that need to be addressed in order to be a world-class manufacturer. The analysis compares the manufacturing intent to be an agile manufacturer and their information technology (IT) infrastructure in terms of scope of use, extent of use and integration of IT-based systems. The findings of the analysis are somewhat alarming as they show that most of the companies have fragmented (rather than integrated) information management systems which may not enable them to deliver superior value to their customers and lead them to world-class status. They must, therefore, align their IT initiatives towards facilitating agile manufacturing rather than introducing IT to merely automate their conventional operations.