Supply chain responsiveness through modularity based manufacturing practices: An exploratory study

Modularity based practices have long been said to improve flexibility of firms. This study extends prior research on manufacturing practices by exploring the dimension level and item level relationships between modularity based manufacturing practices and supply chain responsiveness. A large scale web-based survey yielded 294 responses from industry professionals in the manufacturing and supply chain area. The proposed relationship was first tested using structural equation modeling using AMOS, followed by regression analyses for exploring dimension and item level relationships. The study indicates that firms with high levels of modularity based manufacturing practices have high levels of supply chain responsiveness. Key modularity based manufacturing practices that improve various aspects of supply chain responsiveness are identified and discussed.