Automotive suppliers are part of a constantly changing business environment that is subject to oscillations in the economy. Automobile assemblers, the major influence over the rest of the supply chain, have adopted some Japanese management practices (JIT, lean production etc) in order to achieve higher efficiency and lower inventories. This work aims to identify how suppliers along the chain have adjusted to this new situation concerning, mainly, production and inventory planning as well as control. A research was conducted showing that, nonuniformly, suppliers fulfill demand requests satisfactorily in spite of the poor coordination of their nearest clients, low inventory accuracy, and high stock level of raw materials and finished goods. It was also detected that there are no significant performance differences between first and second tier suppliers. It is particularly noteworthy to highlight a special need for production scheduling tools and the huge gap between theory and practice.
Automotive supply chain; Manufacturing planning and control; Inventory management
