Surviving the global economic crisis in the automotive industry through sustainable supplier management

Mario J. Binder, Ben Clegg

Research output: Chapter in Book/Published conference outputChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

This chapter looks at how the current global economic crisis has impacted upon the global automotive industry from an operations and supply chain perspective. It presents an empirical and theoretical background to help long and short term planning for organisations experiencing adverse trading conditions. The empirical research study (conducted between 2004-07 primarily in Germany) revealed that organisations are able to make short term improvements to performance by reducing costs and making process and structural improvements, but in the long term the deeper rooted causes of the industry can in part only be dealt with by improving interfirm R&D collaborations based upon competencies rather than cost related issues. A new approach known as Collaborative Enterprise Governance is presented which supports the design and management of competitive sustainable enterprises; it consists of a data capture tool, a body of knowledge and a dynamic reference grid to show how many part-to-part company relationships can exist simultaneously to make up productprocess focused enterprises. Examples from the German automotive industry are given, impact upon the overall product development lifecycle and the implications for organisational strategists are discussed. © 2010 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAutomotive industry
Subtitle of host publicationtechnical challenges, design issues and global economic crisis
EditorsGordan A. Maxwell, Stuart K. Drummond
Place of PublicationNew York (US)
PublisherNova science
Pages1-58
Number of pages58
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-61761-565-8
ISBN (Print)978-1-60876-143-2
Publication statusPublished - 2010

Publication series

NameTransportation issues, policies and R&D
PublisherNova Science

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