Management Supply Chain
CHAPTER III
3. RESEARCH DESIGN OF THE STUDY
3.1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter is about the primary research phase of the project. It deals with how to find things out of by research rather than discovering things by reading literature. Methodology refers to the theory of how research should be undertaken, the research philosophy depends on the way that you think about the development of knowledge (Saunders and Hill, 2003 p.24). It is basically the way what researcher thinks about the development of knowledge and the way of doing the research.
3.2. RESEARCH APPROACH
This research aims in accessing the supply chain metrics and its performance. Hence accurate measurement is very important. The researcher has used surveys as a means of measurement in this study. Here survey refers to delivered in hand questionnaire rather than a physical survey. The basis of this survey is to attempt in producing a numerical or mathematical representation of the ' research field ' that can be used as a basis for planning and decision making by the management .Thus the researcher has adapted survey approach due to its accurate and generalized representation of this research topic.
3.3. RESEARCH DESIGN
The researcher has adopted a structured design towards his survey approach. Its designed based on questionnaire, which included predetermined questions. Scheduling method was used to collect data .Its adapted because the structure should be able to define the characteristics and properties of the research study to accurately measure and categorize them. Hence mostly closed questions are designed. But still there are few open questions and lots of white spaces for experts to make their responses in their own words. The reason behind this is because the researcher can get different experts views regarding the same topic. While designing the survey, the researcher has focused in pre-planning on what is to be researched and the measuring instruments to be used to be well calibrated.
3.4. RESEARCH PROCESS
Here a set of questions is developed and written into a questionnaire that is given to all members (experts) who actively agreed to take part in this research survey . The questionnaire has been delivered in hand to each expert and collected later .The experts were clearly explained the purpose of which the data were to be collected. The research objectives were intimated to the selected experts .They were appealed to provide the most relevant and complete data as maximum as possible. The questions were mostly related to the following aspects
A) Relating to role of supply chain management in Indian automotive industry
B) Related to structure of supply chain flow in Indian automotive industry
C) Related to various supply chain decisions taken by Indian automotive industry
D) Related to process techniques adapted by Indian automotive industry to fulfill its decisions
E) Relating to recent trends in supply chain management related to Indian automotive industry in improving its process techniques
F) Relating to measurement of supply chain management performance in relation to its trends and techniques adapted.
The experts complete the questionnaire by entering their preferences or their judgments about the probability of each question. The researcher has adopted delivery and collection questionnaire method, method because with this method, the researcher finds it quick to collect data and can do the analysis phase easily. When the questionnaire is returned, the figures given by the experts are summarized as averages.
In this survey, the researcher has utilized experts from various top companies involved in supply chain process. Many of these experts has been associated in this research field for years and has wide knowledge of the conditions of Indian supply chain management and the improvements made in recent years . The experts involved were well planned to answer their questions based on individual views and future of supply chain process in Indian automotive industry.
3.5. DATA SOURCES
3.5.1. Primary data Source
The primary data required for this project was collected by conducting a survey in the automobile manufacturers and auto ancillaries in India. The primary data collected was mainly the values of various supply chain metrics and the supply chain practices carried out in the companies.
3.5.2. Secondary Data Source
According to Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill (2003), the secondary data include both raw data and published summaries. Most of the organisations collect and store a variety of data to support their operations e.g. copies of letters, company literature and articles, minutes of meetings and accounts of sales of goods or services. The secondary data include both quantitative and qualitative data, and can be used in this research
In order to obtain a through and comprehensive insight of the topic the researcher gathered a considerable amount of secondary data. This comprised the use of internet data, books, newspapers and journals. The gathering of secondary data proved to be very successful based on the fact that the literature available in the form of journals primarily and books secondly, was vast. Books provided the researcher with valuable information particularly surrounding Supply chain management, Supply chain metrics, Indian Automobile industry and Trends in supply chain management, whilst journals provided the backdrop of much of the case study surrounding the events leading to supply chain metrics access and performance in Indian automotive industry. Further, a lot of useful information was obtained through the internet.
NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES
The newspaper and Automobile and Business review magazines, helps the researcher to know about the supply chain process and performance in Indian automotive industry. The researcher was able to get the expert's view from these magazines and newspaper about the barriers, developments and trends in supply chain towards Indian automotive industry and compare and analyse their performance. There are different type's newspapers and magazines which are available in the market like Automobile India, Business line, Business India etc by which the researcher was able to get the information and views of Indian automotive industry in relation to supply chain performance.
3.7. BOOKS AND JOURNALS
The books and journals are used for the literature review and for the analysis of the project. The books gave the general idea and overview of supply chain management and its performance and process in Indian automobile industry and the journals helps to give some live reports and updates on trends regarding this topic.
INTERNET WEB-SITES
The most of the secondary data was taken from the internet. The journals used in the project are basically electronic journals. The famous search engines search as Google, ABI, Keynote, and Mintel etc are used to get some important information. Also Indian Automobile Association website, automobile company's website, various websites of Government of India helps to get the information about this research.
3.9. SAMPLING PLAN
3.9.1. Population: In this section, the researcher identifies the sample that's taken from a particular population in order to be analyzed quantitatively. The universe for this study includes all the automobile manufacturers and auto ancillaries in India.
3.9.2. Sampling Frame: It is nothing but a list of all the names and addresses of experts in the research population .The companies which are suitable for the study are to be selected. So, all the major automobile manufacturers in India are considered.
3.9.3. Sampling technique: The sample includes all automobile manufacturers in India and the auto ancillaries were chosen by judgmental sampling, i.e. according to whether they have been recognized by the Automotive Components Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA).
3.9.4. Sample size: The purpose of taking a sample is to obtain a result that represents a whole population being sampled without going through the trouble of asking everyone. In this research, the researcher has utilized 100 companies in India which includes both automobile manufacturers and auto ancillaries.
3.10. DELIMITATIONS AND LIMITATIONS
An important parameter for a research study establishes the boundaries, exceptions, reservations and qualifications inherent to every study whether quantitative or qualitative (Creswell, 1994). The practicalities of the proposed research methodology impose certain restrictions
As a number of companies have been surveyed, there may be a chance that some of the companies are not true representative of the population. Second, in some companies the respondents were unable to provide certain details and third are that the bias cannot be avoided.
3.11. CONCLUSION
Hence the data required for the present study has been obtained from various experts related to Indian automotive industry. The present study is mainly based on primary data. The secondary data is been utilized to support the validity of the primary data.
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