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
A heavy engineering company, working in Four plants in Western India. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A heavy engineering company
- Sector
- Manufacturing
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Quantitative research, Qualitative research, Reporting & insights
Client challenge
Despite safety training, near-miss reporting was low and minor incidents continued. Leadership wanted an honest view of how workers felt about safety and reporting.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: measuring safety culture on the shop floor.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of workers.
- Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 7 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 2,200 workers.
- workers2,200
Audiences we typically reach in manufacturing
Procurement and plant headsDistributors and dealersOEM buyersService engineersFinance and operations teams
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Four plants in Western India. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.
- 1Brief
- 2Anonymous worker survey
- 3Supervisor focus groups
- 4Insight
We ran an anonymous survey on tablets in Hindi, Marathi and English, including contract workers who were often left out of internal surveys. Focus groups with supervisors explored production pressures.
Quantitative researchQualitative researchReporting & insights
Sampling strategy
- workers
- 2,200
- Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.
Data collection
- 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
- Contract workers felt less able to stop unsafe work and feared consequences of reporting.
Including contract workers changed the picture completely.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: including contract workers changed the picture completely.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: contract workers felt less able to stop unsafe work and feared consequences of reporting.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The company introduced a no-blame near-miss reporting system and included contract staff in safety committees.
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
- 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.