Strategies of Production in the Automobile Industry: a Multi-Case Study in Spain and Brazil

Abstract

<p>The aim of this paper is to identify and to analyze the manufacturing<br />strategies of two supply chains of the automobile industry and the assemblers&rsquo;<br />influences on the other participants in each chain. Two plants of the same<br />assembler, one in Brazil and the other in Spain and their suppliers, were<br />analyzed, using questionnaires and interviews. It was observed that the<br />competitive priorities of the suppliers are strongly conditioned to the strategy<br />of the assembler, and the ordination of these priorities in the Brazilian case is<br />different from that in the Spanish case. One of the reasons of this difference in<br />the ordination of priorities of the Brazilian and the Spanish companies can be<br />explained by the traditional competitive capabilities for exporting of the Spanish<br />automotive industry, which inserts in the world market a larger percentile of<br />production than the Brazilian industry. Even so it can be confirmed that in<br />Brazil and Spain the inter-business relationships are suffering a transition of<br />mass production, with conflicting relationships supplier-manufacturer, for a<br />relationship of larger cognitive density, characteristic of the presuppositions<br />of organization of supplies based on the model flexible production or lean<br />manufacturing.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

Keywords

• Manufacturing strategy, Automobile industry, Competitive priorities, Supply chain