Topic: “Industry 4.

0, customer experience and Sustainability initiatives in the

selected Indian automobile organizations”: A survey-based study of status of
preparedness ,initiave & correlation among Industry 4.0 ,CX and Sustainability.

Abstract:

Industry 4.0, Customer experience and sustainability initiatives have got a good
traction not only in automobile industry but other industry verticals, not only in india
but around the world. The aim of our research was to understand the status and
preparedness of Indian automobile industry with respect to the abovementioned
three areas in the context of Indian 4-wheeler (passenger car) industry.

We have studied the existing literature and carried out an online survey through
Google form on the topic “ Out of the 180 respondent ,119 responded out of which 9
responses were incomplete so omitted from the study; leaving behind a total of 110
responses for review and analysis

The results of the survey indicates that automobile industry is all set to embrace the
industry 4.0 and sustainability is also one of the strategic agenda point, The
customer experience is another area besides the industry 4.0 and Sustainability ,
which is also getting a high attention from the business, The survey reveals that
government regulations and consumer pressure are the two levers which are driving
this sustainability agenda besides the levers of brand image ,social angle and
competitive edge. Industry 4.0 is in different stage of adoption and it was found that
though there is correlation between Industry 4.0 and sustainability, it is not the sole
reason for adopting industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 is adopted from perspective of large-
scale automation, adaptive manufacturing and overall manufacturing efficiency and
excellence which is achieved through industry 4.0 but it also helps to achieve certain
sustainability goals like energy conservations, health and safety and resource
conservation. Besides industry 4.0, special projects on sustainability which are going
in automobile industry are Green SCM, water conservations, waste recycling to
name a few. The Automobile sector is found to be concentrating on economic and
social angle of sustainability and the initiave are in the form of incremental initiave
rather than “Big bang” or “All at a time”. Another most significant finding was that
“Digital technologies” are used for sustainability in a big way and includes modern
ERP, Big data, social analytics, cloudification, Cyber-physical collaboration to name
a few.

Keywords: Industry 4.0, Sustainability, Digitalization; Automation, Conservation,

Consumer Pressure

Objective: The research objectives of this project were:

(1) To understand the Preparedness and status of Industry 4.0 in Indian
Automobile industry.
(2) To understand the initiatives and status of various Sustainability
initiatives in Indian Automobile industry.
(3) Gather insights into Customer experience as a focus area in Indian
Automobile industry.
(4) Analyse the current situation based on the data collected and
recommend the next steps.
(5) Preliminary data analysis with Pearson Coefficient of Correlation to see
the degree of relationship.
(6) In next phase use other statistical techniques like Chi square and T test
to further advance the preliminary research,

Review of literature:

Mittal et tal (2018) found that the Auto component sector -mainly Medium and small
component manufacturers are still at very preliminary level as per industry 4.0
adoption is concerned. The team found that the status can be best described as
“Level 1-basic level”. They have gone to the extent that for Medium and small sector
current industry 4.0 can be defined as “Level-0-Primitive”. The industry sector lacks
end to end digital processes or even concept like smart factory. They commented
that moving from primitive (“Level 0) to even basic level (“Level1” basic0 will involve
significant amount of awareness, training, preparing roadmap and starting to move in
phases to “Industry 4.0” and “Smart manufacturing”.
Hidayanto et tal (2019) team tried to find out “conceptual relationship” between the
“Industry 4.0” and “Industrial sector sustainable energy.” The study was conducted
for Indonesian industrial sector. Their study was based on “UN sustainability
development” goals namely goal 7 and 9, which prescribes digital interventions
including “Industry 4.0” can lead to enhancement of industrial sustainable energy
consumption in Indonesia. The study found a positive linkage between these two
variables.

Lack of motivation from main stakeholders’ holders of SME companies including

partner, owners and higher management is the greatest challenge in adoption and
implementation of “Industry 4.0” in sector due to various technical and financial
reasons. The reasrch team of Ravinder kumar et tal (2020) also found that “ Fear of
failure” is also one of the impending factor in SME industry in adopting the digital
way including “ Industry 4.0”.The team stressed that the study suggests that SME
sector has a lot of potential to achieve “ Ethical and sustainable operations.

47 Main barriers to adopt and implement the “Sustainability “ related aspect for
supply chain (“Green supply chain” are found in the study conducted by Kannan
Govindan et tal (2014).The main barriers included financial position , technology
availability and skills , knowledge within the Supply chain ,outsourcing ,support and
involvement of multiple stakeholders are acting as a barrier for converting supply
chains sustainable or green. The team admitted that overcoming all these barriers
may not be easy, but industry bodies and government help can help for these SCM
companies to break main barriers in their journey to green supply chain.

Henning Kagermann (2015) in his research found that “IOT”, Data and services
elements play significant roles in conservation of resources including energy in
industrial sector. He also found that this also helps to create “Sustainable mobility
and logistics” atleats in Germany, where study was carried out. He pointed out tha
the operations between the various digital technologies and platforms and “Dual
innovation” can create lot of intrinsic value for the manufacturing as well as other
sectors of industry. He is of the opinion that this will give various businesses a
competitive edge in the marketplace.
Aniruddha Anil Wagire, Rohit Joshi, Ajay Pal Singh Rathore & Rakesh Jain. (2020) in
their study of Indian production units to come out with “Industry 4.0” maturity model,
found out seven main dimensions and various 38 maturity elements are important.
They have validated this model in an auto component company. Their study reveals
that the company studies is in “Digital novice” maturity with a score of 2.88 against
the highest score for maturity of 5.

Customers are ready to pay the extra premium or price for cars and automobiles if
green alternatives are offered by the Automobile companies noted Phatak Samir and
Dople Vinod (2018). They also stressed that brand equity and social performance
are important for automobile companies. Their study has identified many barriers
some of them are technology, infrastructure, expertise as well as stakeholder’s
willingness and investment from the company stakeholders and higher-level
management.

Ejsmont Krzysztf et tal (2020) in their bibliometric study on “ Industry 4.0” & “
Sustainability” using dynamic method “ Systematic network analysis” found that there
are ample “ Sustainable industry 4.0” reference and with current knowledge and
proper applications to realize the sustainability with Industry 4.0.However the author
trio found that any of research papers lacks the detailed insights into implementation
or realization of “ Sustainability with industry 4.0” and there are no proven framework
yet available on this.

Precedence relationship existence of various elements or functions of sustainability

is found to be associated with “Industry 4.0”.Morteza Ghoakhloo(2020) in his paper
also indicated that efficiency of the business process can be significantly improved
using ‘Industry 4.0” and further pointed that this is one of the most prominent
outcome of “ Industry 4.0” adoption. The Author further states that conservation of
energy, emission reductions in the plants and some social benefits and welfare
measures will be an additional benefit to the company (Sustainability aspects). Thus,
this initiative not only help companies economically but also socially improving the
brand image.
In another Bibliometric performance and network analysis done by L.B.Furstenau et
tal (2020) , it has emerged that the existing research papers has categorically
pointed that “ Smart factory” ,”IOT” and “ Industry 4.0” are three important pillars but
noteworthy observation was that sustainability is common pillar among all these
They further pointed out that current academic and industrial research is
concentrating on enhancing the economical as well as environmental aspects but
there is less stress on social aspect directly.
In a research paper , which concentrated on identifying ,classifying the critical
challenges in the application and implementation or adoption of “Industry 4.0” ,Sanjiv
Narula et tal (2020) ,carried out a Delphi study/survey among the experts which was
followed by “Interpretative structural modelling” so as to construct the hierarchies
and Interdependcies among these challenges. Some of the critical challenges
included lack of industry standards for “Industry 4.0”, Innovative business models,
security aspects to name a few. Based on this the authors have come up with “Mind
Map” for “Industry 4.0” as an extra output.
Indian government and the industry bodies are also working on creating awareness,
infrastructure, and incentives for Indian industries for moving towards “Industry 4.0”.
Dilip Chenoy et tal (2019) in their research paper narrated the efforts of Indian
government and various chambers of commerce & Industry , who are engaged in
creating a national environment and ecosystem which will work on various initiatives
right training to implementation not only on “ Industry 4.0” but other “ New
technologies”. This is being supported by industry and labour reforms by government
of India.
Kamlesh Tiwari & Mohammad Shadab Khan (2020) in their research article
acknowledged the contribution “Industry 4.0” towards “Sustainability”. Using
methodology of focus group discussion and interviews, they mapped attributes of
“Industry 4.0” to the “Global reporting initiatives (GRI).”. They have divided “Industry
4.0” in three different levels based on the maturity starting from base level and then
mapped these levels to various elements under Global reporting initiatives. It was an
attempt to establish a framework of relationship between “Industry 4.0” and
“Sustainability “elements.

“Industry 4.0” and “New age technologies” are significantly contributing to

“sustainability” in developed nations as compared to the developing and
underdeveloped nations. Gunjan Yadav et al (2020) in their research paper
highlighted that developed nations are clearly ahead in reaping the benefits. Their
research further came out a with a framework which identifies the enabling or
supporting factors or elements which helps in enhancing the adoption of
sustainability.

“Industry 4.0” denotes a decentralized and personalized /customizable

manufacturing or production system with an opportunity for new business models
based on various types of technologies under the banner of “Internet of things). This
was the essence of the research paper by Gabriel M. & Ernst PESSL (2016) ,in
which they have also pointed that this type of system can be a boon especially for
small and medium businesses to create a value by adopting “ Industry 4.0”
technologies by creating innovative products in international market.

Ocident Bongomin et tal (2020) in their research paper carried out a survey to
estimate where the developed world and other regions stand as per as the “Industry
4.0” adoption is concerned. Their research finding found Europe leading with almost
37 % of the total initiave, followed by US with 28% Initiave, PAC with 17 %; Latin
America 10% and MEA with 8% initiatives. They have estimated that worldwide
percentage of “Industry 4.0” stands at an average of 25 % and African countries an
uphill task of catching with the rest of the world. This study corroborates with the
finding of Gunjan Yadav et al (2020) in their research paper.

India needs to encourage and offers incentives to the various sector of the industries
for embracing the digital technology, create a digital ecosystem and help to enhance
the competitiveness of Indian industries by adoption of “Industry 4.0” technologies.
T.P. Bhat (2020) in his report further stress that with “Industry 4.0”, Indian industries
needs to enter leagues with the other counterparts in developed countries. The
author further echoes that policies and reforms under “Make in India” can help in
boosting the adoption.

Raffaele Breschi et tal (2017) for McKinsey & company carried out a study on design
to customer experience and they found that the barricades or borders among
product ,services and environments are getting more and more obscure and
integrated view from design to end to end customer experience has become a need
of the time. This is converging various streams enabled by digital technology and
sustainable initiave, making customer experience more and more enhanced and
unique. The reasrch paper stresses on convergence of digital, sustainability and
other new technologies to make customer experience, a rewarding one.

Digital interface alone is not enough for customers, there must be some human
element in the overall processes. In his opinion paper Steven Van Belleghem (2015),
warns that emotional angle needs to be considered even digitizing the processes
and adopting new technologies. The Author feels that the human angle in the end to
end digital process will help to increase the customer experience.

Albert Bollard et tal (2017) in their report cited that a new operating model is required
by the companies. They observed that two major interventions required for creating
this new operating model. First intervention is an end to end operational
improvement program, which is weaved around customer journey. The second
initiatives need using individual digital technologies in an integrated manner for the
entire company. The research paper emphasizes on digital technology and new
operating model with integration across the company.

In their research, Shital Chheda et al (2018) points out that companies need to adopt
new operating model by first knowing and validating first, what customers value in
their product or services. This can be followed up simplifying and streamlining
processes and digitizing them. The operational drivers of the company then need to
be linked to customer value. The Authors feel that digitization alone is not enough,
but it need to be accompanied by new operating model. They believe that such an
evolved operating model will increase customer experience and value.

Antonique Koning and Monique Cohen (2015) in their study found that inspite of
digitization and easy mobile based applications, many of the customers are not
utilizing the digitalized mode for financial services. The authors put up and tested the
hypothesis that empowering, enabling, and listening to customer voice will result in
good customer experience and that can cause customer to use digitalized financial
services on regular basis. We have observed that some of these papers are talking
about digitization and customer experience only, but silent on direct mention of
sustainability.

Supply chains has a very strong influence or impact on sustainability and as such
making supply chain green has become a global priority .Nada R. Sanders et tal
(2019) further commented that green supply chain journey was made easy due to
recent advances in digital technologies including but not limited to “ Industry 4.0” ,
Artificial intelligence and big data , but many more. They however agreed that digital
is important factor in making the supply chain green or sustainable.
Wail El Hilali & Abdellah El Manouar (2019) in their article proposed a framework
regarding use of digitization to reach the sustainability goals. They have tried to
explain the framework by narrating a journey of an electrical company.
Companies need to work on customers, data, and innovation during the digital
transformations as these factors positively impact the sustainability. EI Hilali et tal
(2020) in their research paper further stated that competition do not play any
significant role in increasing companies’ commitment to sustainability.
Firms or companies tha are doing sustainability initiatives or activities are likely to
gain competitive edge in the market place, Dalia Streimikiene et tal (2016) in their
research further states that such firms believes that sustainability actions create
stronger brands ,premium pricing, increase resources conservations and efficiencies
in business processes. They further cited that such firms have ability to introduce
new products or services, new markets, and new revenue streams.

There are complex measurements involved due to multi-dimensional nature of the

sustainability. Mariana Strenitzerová & Ján Gaˇna (2019) further states that it really
becomes difficult to assess the overall impact of sustainability in the corporate
context. They further state that it is better to consider overall sustainability (sum of
economic, environment and social impact). Due to such complexities in
measurement, authors suggested use of customer based corporate sustainability as
a measure.

Electronic word of mouth od’s publicity (EWOM) is a good publicity concept. Sven-
Olaf Gerdt et tal (2019) who tried to explore the relationship between the
sustainability and customer satisfaction. They found that there is positive relationship
between sustainability orientation and customer satisfaction which depends on star
classification on electronic media.

Michael Sony (2020) in his reasrch article on “Industry 4.0” benefits and losses
mention that competitive advantage, Innovation, efficiency, effectiveness,
profitability, increase product and safety are main benefits of “Industry 4.0”. while on
negative side he mentions data sharing, unions, investments, and implementation
hurdles including cyber security. However, he is strongly advocating “Industry 4.0”
adoption.

Methodology: India have 10 major Automakers in 4-wheeler car segment. We

decided to randomly collect feedback from 7-8 business executive in Manufacturing,
Supply chain, Business managers, logistics, Information technology and sales and
marketing. Alogwith this we have randomly selected 8 Major Auto component
suppliers including axles; Gears, Press shops, foundry, electrical harness, and
others and selected 5-6 random executive from the above area. Considering that the
response rates are not always 100%, we have sent Google form-based
questionnaire to around 180 executives. Email, WhatsApp, Twitter is also used for
following up and getting the responses as there is tendency to either forget or
laxness in responding to survey. The main things which worked in favour of good
response is that disclaimer and undertaking given that the company name and
individual names will be kept confidential. However, many responses included
company name and individual respondent name. WhatsApp helped us in finding out
the right respondents including some network individuals which helped us for
random selection as well as getting responses.

Sample Size

As described above sample size was decided 180 based on 10 Automobile and 8
components industry considering only senior executives and managers. Workers,
support staff, services, subcontractors, entry level engineers were not considered for
this population count. Further the number of executives were selected from
Production, supply chain management, Logistics, general management, and IT and
estimated to be between 1500 to 2000 in numbers,
Out of 180 questionnaires sent, we got inputs from 119 responded out of 180
questionnaires sent. Out of the 119 responses received 9 were found to be
incomplete so they were excluded. So total 110 responses were considered for
analysis. (61%) of the total questionnaire sent.

Distribution of the sample

Company No. of Responses received
companies
Automobile – 4-wheeler 10 78
passenger cars
Top Auto component 8 32
Total 18 110

Functional /Business area wise distribution of sample.

Area No. of responses Seniority level
Production/Manufacturing 28 Senior and Mid senior
Supply chain 22 Senior and Mid senior
Management
Sales & Marketing 15 Senior and Mid senior
Process engineering 10 Senior and Mid senior
Sales 15 Senior and Mid senior
IT 10 Senior and Mid senior
Others 10 Senior and Mid senior

Designing of questionnaire

The 24-question survey list is enclosed as an annexure A. The questionnaire was

sent to main automobile manufacturers as well as auto component manufacturers
and included executives in production, supply chain, corporate, quality and
information technology.
The Questionnaire was designed as a combined instrument consisting of:

• Five-point Likert scale (1 strongly disagree ,2 disagree, 3 neutral ,4 agree ,5

strongly agree)
• Closed ended questions to get the status and initiatives,
The reasoning behind this mixed questionnaire was to get input for testing the
hypothesis regarding the relationship (Likert scale questions), while closed needed
questions were inserted to get geographic, demographic, and other status
information.

24 different questions related to Industry 4.0, Sustainability and Customer

experience elements, their status, skills availability, awareness in the organizations,
gauging to what extent various initiatives are going on in various Automobile
organization. The Questionnaire is designed with a combination of 5-point Likert
scale as well mixing “Yes/No” questions to get answers in some important areas.

Hypothesis:

Likert scale questions were fielded to the respondents to check the following 2
hypotheses.

H0 Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between sustainability initiave

and customer experience.

Ho Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between industry 4.0 and

Sustainability.

Preliminary Analysis of the Data.

The ethnographic, demographic and status related analysis is summarized below.

• 13.6 % of respondents are Diploma holders in engineering (Production, Auto

and others).50% of engineering graduates most mechanical but also include
electrical ,electronic and other braches.22.7 % are post graduate in
engineering’s while balance 13.6 % are either IT or other professionals like
MBA ,CA and others.(Refer education profile in Pie chart below 1.
• 79 % of respondents are above 40 years of age, while 12.7% of them are age
bracket of 30 -40 years and only 8.2% are in age group of 25 to 30 years.
 Indirectly this means we have got feedback from engineers who have seen
Pre and Post Industry 4.0, sustainability and CX world. (Chart 2)
• Maximum respondents are from Automobile companies and Auto components
companies in west India (50%0 which mostly includes Maharashtra, Gujrat &
Goa, while 30 % of them are from south India including Chennai as prominent
and balance 10 % each in North and South India. (Chart 3).
• 45.5% of the respondent are from Manufacturing profession, while 22.7 % are
from SCM .15.5% are from sales, service, and marketing while 16.4 % are
from IT, R&D and Process engineering. (Refer chart 4). This means we are
getting all-inclusive representative view.

Chart 1 Chart 2
Education profile respondent in % Expereince of persons responding (Age)
Other Professionals,
13.6 Diploma engineering, in %
13.6
Above 50 38.2
experience

Post 40-50 YRS 40.9

gradtuate
30-40 yrs 12.7
engineering,
22.7 25-30 yrs 8.2

Graduate 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0

engineering, 50.0
% Of total

Chart 3 Chart 4
RESPONDENT'S FUNCTIONAL DEPARTMENT
Geographical distribution of comapnies
of respondents
IT& Others ,
16.4
10 10

Manufacturin
30
g , 45.5
SCM , 22.7
50

East India North India

Sales Marketing
West India South India
, 15.5
Alogwith the questions for hypothesis testing for arriving at co-relation among
Industry 4,0 ,sustainability and customer experience ,we have fielded some more
questions to know about the status of industry 4.0 adoption ,preparedness, internal
talent as well as sustainability initiatives which are in place and which are the top
priority among them.. The analysis of the data collected gives us following insights.

On the question of perceived benefits of adopting industry 4.0 & Digital technology,
there was a mixed response. While 54.5 % said that it increased the efficiency while
8.2% said it reduced the overall manpower (Total 62.7%), while 37.3 % were not so
much sure that it happened due to digital technology and industry 4,0. (Chart 5). Our
analysis revealed that the awareness and benefits may not be either understandable
or visible or they may be affected by this change. However, fact remains that
majority of the respondents accepts that Industry 4.0 and digital technology helped to
increase the efficiency and reduction in manpower.

Chart 5: Improvement in Business due to Industry 4,0 & Digitalization

Indystry 4.0 Inititaives and Perceived Benfits

No Major impr 5.5

Initiative

Less manpower 8.2

Difficult to say 31.8

Eff.incresae 54.5

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0

Pecrentage

On the question to “what are the main sustainability initiave going in the company,
the response was on 3 major initiatives namely:

Alternate energy: 45%

Waste reduction: 32 %
Water compensation: 11%
The charts 6 shows the details. Main concern here is that 12 % respondent do not
know the either strategic direction or they purposely ignored it.

Chart 6: Sustainability initiave on in the companies

Sustainability inititives which are currently on

Not aware , 12%

Water
Use alternate
conservation
energy 45%
11%

Waste
redutcion ,
32%

Use alternate energy Waste redutcion Water conservation Not aware

,
On internal capability for industry 4,0, sustainability and Customer experience
projects, though the score is relatively high as 57% still 43 % depends is on external
vendors and experts, Barring the bias in the scoring, it appears that , Indian
automobile industry still needs external help on industry 4,o,sustaibility and customer
experience area. (Chart7)

Chart 7: Internal skill/capability for industry 4.0, sustainability & customer experience,
 INTERNAL CAPABILITY FOR INDYSTRY 4.0 & SUSTAINABILITY

Very low 10

Partail 20
Capabilityy

Ext.vendor 13

Medium 57

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
percentage

Chart 8: Digitization and Industry 4.0 initiave

Digitilzation &IT 4 Inititaives

Not aware , 7%

Less than 50% More than 50 to 70 %

41% 52%

More than 50 to 70 % Less than 50% Not aware

The survey results indicate that more than 52 % companies in Indian Automobile and
Auto components sector have /had/is undergoing transformation under Industry 4,0
/Digitization/Technology initiave while remaining 48 % of the companies are probably
in explorations or imitation phase.

67 % of the total respondents agree that , Indian Automobile and Outcompetes

industry is still in early adoptions or infancy phase when it comes to adoption of total
industry 4,0 ,sustainability and customer experience, This is obvious when the
review of literature itself commented that worldwide average of Industry 4,o and
related things stands at 25% only except EU and US which has much better
averages, (Chart 9)

Chart 9: Indian Auto industry: Industry 4,0 & sustainability adoption

Indian Auto industry : I.4.O & Sustaibaility phase

strongly disagree 4.5

Disagree 6.4
Respons

Neutral 21.8

Agree 60.0

Strongly agree 7.3

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0

%

Preliminary statistical analysis of data

The two-null hypothesis for testing under this survey was to ascertain the degree of
correlation between variables as described below. We have carried out Pearson
correlation coefficient analysis and p Test to validate the null hypothesis,
H0 Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between sustainability initiave and
customer experience.

Ho Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between industry 4.0 and

Sustainability

Based on analysis of the data collected and analyzed with the statical package find
below are the result of analysis.
 1. H0 Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between sustainability
initiave and customer experience.

Based on the data and analysis with Pearson coeffective of corelation the null
hypothesis stands rejected,
The corelation coefficient value of 0.8313 represents a strong and positive
relationship between sustainability initiative and customer experience, Hence the null
hypothesis is rejected.H1 Alternate hypothesis of strong and positive relationship
between sustainability and customer experience is accepted. The statical
calculations are given below.

2. Ho Null Hypothesis: There is no relationship between industry 4.0 and

Sustainability

Based on the Data analysis using Pearson coefficient of correlation and p Value, the
null hypothesis stands rejected
The Coefficient of co-relationship was found to be 0.8413 which shows a significant
positive relationship between the Industry 4.0 and Sustainability. The p Value at 0.05
significance level is 0.002281 and is less than 0.5, further corroborating the
significant relationship.

Conclusions:

• There is a positive and statistically significant relationship between

sustainability initiatives and customer experience.
 • There is also a positive and statistically significant relationship between
Industry 4.0 and sustainability.
• We found that industry 4.0, customer experience and Sustainability enabled
by Digitization seems to the right way forward in the current situation.
• Indian Automobile industry has started adopting Industry 4.0 as per the survey
analysis but still it is in early deployment phases in nearly 50 % of the
companies.
• Indian Automobile industry have internal talents and skills to the tune of 50-
55% for industry 4.0, Sustainability and customer experience initiatives but
still balance 45 % is dependent on external consultants and third-party
vendors. Need to augment skilled manpower in these areas.
• In Sustainability areas, Alternate energy, waste reduction and water
conservation were found to be areas, where Most of the Indian automobile
companies are working on.
• In customer experience, almost all the companies are working for a better
customer experience.
• Digitization levels are differing while all the OEM’s have high degree of
digitization while auto components are lagging in it and needs to invest more
in it.
• Awareness levels and knowledge about new technologies, their use and
benefit to the company, current projects and their significance for company is
varying from senior management to junior engineer. Organization wide
training on continuous basis and regular communication needs to be a
compulsory for top to bottom alignment on these aspects which will ensure
alignment of personal and company objectives.

Limitation of the research undertaken:

• The study was limited to 4-wheeler passenger cars and top 10 Automobile
and 8 major auto component companies only. SME sector was thus not part
of the study.
 • The random survey was stratified consisting majority of the Production,
Supply chain, sales, and marketing & IT Professionals. The supporting
functions and workmen were not part of the survey.

• Phase-2 of the deeper statistical analysis is underway going beyond

establishing relationship to gather more insights into these 3 areas namely
digitization, customer experience and sustainability.

Future reasrch:

• Use of new digital technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality,

personalized e-experience have potential to increase customer experience
and action and lab research, in this area is one of the promising areas.

• Sustainability research is mostly concentrating on economic benefits to the

companies and to some extent the environmental benefits. The social angle of
the sustainability is also one of the further research candidates.

• Digital world is coming out with newer and newer technology and business
models to adopt it with proper return on investment is another area to be deep
dive into.

• Measurement of sustainability impact, digitalization impact and Custom

experience impact, there needs to be integrated framework which can be
used to measure the contribution of these to the company and society in both
monetary and non-monetary terms. This is another complex research area for
further research.

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