An empirical examination of advanced manufacturing technology and sourcing practices in developing manufacturing flexibilities

Manufacturing flexibility is widely recognised as a critical component to achieving a competitive advantage in the marketplace and improves an organisation's capability to respond to customer demands without incurring excessive time and cost penalties. The objective of this paper is to understand and explicate the interaction between Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) sourcing practices and manufacturing flexibilities at tactical and strategic levels and assess the first two's relative impact on different flexibilities. This research reports the findings of an exploratory study of North Indian medium‐ and large‐scale manufacturing organisations, which are in the process of achieving manufacturing flexibilities at various levels by acquiring, developing or utilising AMT or by the use of specific sourcing practice. The statistical results suggest significant relationships between sourcing practices and manufacturing flexibilities at different levels of manufacturing flexibility. The results also suggest that an organisation could deploy specific sourcing practices or AMTs to target specific manufacturing flexibilities in pursuit of agility‐based competitive advantages.