Validity and reliability of lean product development frameworks in Indian manufacturing industry

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of the article is to identify suitable existing lean product development (LPD) framework that is useful to implement in Indian manufacturing industry. The number of successful products is one of the most deciding factors in any organization revenue. Lean principles can be applied across product development processes to eliminate waste activities. Thus, to fulfill the objective, the present study has performed validity and reliability analysis on the existing LPD frameworks with the help of empirical data collected from Indian manufacturing sector through a survey questionnaire methodology. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data was collected from 180 manufacturing organizations from Indian manufacturing sector. The study has gathered the empirical data from respondents from top and middle level personnel. Factor analysis was conducted on the collected empirical data to find the unidimensionality of the each framework. Reliability of each individual framework was determined through Cronbach’s alpha value. Finally, the frequency distribution analysis was performed to find familiar constructs in the selected frameworks sorted on the basis of validity and reliability analysis. Findings – The present study found that only eight LPD frameworks have displayed unidimensionality with respect to the construct, i.e. the LPD it measures. The study also found that those eight frameworks have displayed a high level of reliability. Further, the study tried to find the most familiar constructs from the selected eight frameworks by applying frequency distribution analysis. The frequency distribution analysis has identified that most of the constructs have showed a high value in terms of mode and mean. The study also concluded that there is a need to develop a new LPD framework, which is suitable to fulfill the requirements of Indian manufacturing industry, as well as global manufacturing industry. Research limitations/implications – The study collected empirical data from 180 organizations and all of the respondents were restricted from Indian manufacturing industry. Hence, the study believes that there is a chance some more amplification before being generalizes over across the sectors and countries. Originality/value – The main objective of the present article is to find out the suitability of the existing LPD frameworks to Indian manufacturing sector. The study also anticipates that the products development managers and executives may collect complete information on the existing LPD frameworks and also a chance to executing proper suitable framework in the respective manufacturing organization.