Industry overview
What is shaping manufacturing
Manufacturers sell to distributors, OEMs and industrial buyers, and compete on quality, delivery and service as much as price. Many are also digitising plants, sales and finance processes.
- Distributor networks remain central to reach
- Buyers expect consistent quality and on-time delivery
- Digitisation of operations and reporting is accelerating
Client background
An industry association, working in Tamil Nadu & Karnataka. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- An industry association
- Sector
- Manufacturing
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Quantitative research, Qualitative research, Government research
Client challenge
Members reported difficulty hiring job-ready workers, while training institutes claimed high placement rates. The association wanted evidence to guide its skills programme.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: understanding skills gaps among new factory recruits.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of employers.
- Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 8 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 200 employers.
- employers200
Audiences we typically reach in manufacturing
Procurement and plant headsDistributors and dealersOEM buyersService engineersFinance and operations teams
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Tamil Nadu & Karnataka. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.
- 1Brief
- 2Employer survey
- 3Worker interviews
- 4Insight
We surveyed HR and production heads on skills gaps and retention, and interviewed recent recruits about training, expectations and reasons for leaving.
Quantitative researchQualitative researchGovernment research
Sampling strategy
- employers
- 200
- Business respondents were screened on role, company size and involvement in the decision before being invited.
- Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.
Data collection
- worker interviews
- 60
- Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.
Data quality & validation
- Recordings and transcripts for every session
- Re-screening of qualitative recruits
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
- Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
- Journey and decision mapping
Key findings
- Technical skills were less of a problem than workplace readiness, safety awareness and expectations about shift work.
Hearing from new workers explained high early attrition that employer data alone could not.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: hearing from new workers explained high early attrition that employer data alone could not.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: technical skills were less of a problem than workplace readiness, safety awareness and expectations about shift work.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The association added short induction modules with training institutes.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Interview summaries and key verbatims
- Evaluation findings with programme recommendations
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: why do industrial buyers switch suppliers?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.