Manufacturing Industry Research | Centers & Institutes| Indiana Kelley

Kelley faculty members are engaged with several manufacturing companies to better understand their strategies, needs, and goals. These findings generate knowledge to help companies make calculated decisions that help them stay ahead of the curve.

Because Indiana is home to more than 8,000 manufacturers, researchers here are in a unique position to observe and empower businesses on this journey. By monitoring and chronicling decisions, we make discoveries that propel this industry into the future.

Current research

Business Sustainability Lab

Amrou Awaysheh, Assistant Professor of Operations Management at the Kelley School of Business, founded the IU Business Sustainability Lab in 2021. Its goal is to offer “years of research and on-the-ground business experience to firms seeking sustainability strategies.”

Learn more about the lab

Technology adoption in Indiana

Conexus Indiana, in partnership with Indiana University Kelley School of Business Center for Excellence in Manufacturing, set out to measure Indiana’s manufacturing and logistics industries’ readiness and early adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies. Understanding where Indiana companies are positioned on the technology adoption curve is a first and necessary step in developing strategies to support Indiana’s successful journey into and through the digital. “Charting Indiana’s path from Early Adoption to Widespread Application of Industry 4.0 Technologies” is available online.

Read the report

Annual Indiana Manufacturing Surveys

Each year, Kelley supply chain faculty collaborates with Katz, Sapper & Miller and the Indiana Manufacturers Association to conduct a detailed survey on manufacturing in Indiana, providing insights into the management strategies of companies across the state.

COVID-19 special edition

In a year of unpredictable outcomes and business projections, the manufacturing industry took a hit early in the COVID-19 pandemic but is bouncing back.

Download the 2020 survey

Labor shortages hit home

Companies across the state report a serious shortage of skilled and unskilled laborers as they move rapidly towards smart manufacturing, or “Industry 4.0.”

Download the 2019 survey

Industry 4.0 has arrived

Indiana’s largest industry sector is enjoying continued growth in revenues and profits, its employers are investing heavily in automation, welcoming a movement that, nationally, has been dubbed “Industry 4.0.”

Read the 2018 survey

Employers are upgrading for growth

With ready capital and an appetite for expansion, Indiana manufacturers are poised to invest in a strategy that will fuel growth and help them address the ongoing workforce shortage: automation.

Read the 2017 survey

Research publications

“Lean Six Sigma Techniques to Improve Ophthalmology Clinic Efficiency,” RETINA

—Ciulla, T. and Mohan V. Tatikonda

“The role of dependence and information sharing on governance decisions regarding conflict,” The International Journal of Logistics Management

—Eckerd, Stephanie and K. Sweeney

“Empirical Research in Operations Management: Learning from the Past, Looking toward the Future,” International Journal of Production Research

—Flynn, Barb and Steven A. Melny

“Survey Research Design in Supply Chain Management: the Need for Evolution in Our Expectation,” Journal of Supply Chain Management

—Flynn, Barb, M. Pagell, and B. Fugate

“The best of times and the worst of times: empirical operations and supply chain management research,” International Journal of Production Research

—Melnyk, S. A., Barb Flynn, and Amrou Awaysheh

“Coordination of Autonomous Healthcare Entities: Emergency Response to Multiple Casualty Incidents,” Production and Operations Management

— Mills, Alex, Jonathan E. Helm, Andres Fernando Jola Sanchez, Mohan V. Tatikonda, and B. A. Courtney