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During the last two decades, the Western automobile industry has undergone significant changes. These changes have affected not only the internal organization of firms, but also their vertical limits and relationships with suppliers. This paper proposes an analytical model based on the concept of relational intensity, which allows us to characterize and analyze the current relationships maintained between automakers and direct suppliers, using the Japanese model as a frame of reference. The proposed model is applied to the case of the Spanish automobile industry. The automobile assemblers located in Spain maintain relationships of varying intensity with different groups of suppliers. There are four variables that explain this relational intensity: the technical complexity of the part/component, the human capital and locational specificity, and the market power of the supplier.

In this paper, the authors study the production and pricing decisions of a remanufacturing supply chain composed of a supplier, an assembler and a remanufacturer, in which the remanufacturing of components requires patent licensing from the supplier.

The authors consider three different models with government subsidy for remanufacturing: (1) no government subsidies; (2) the government subsidizes the remanufacturing behavior of the supplier and (3) the government subsidizes the remanufacturing behavior of the remanufacturer and use the Stackelberg game model to solve and analyze the equilibrium wholesale prices of components and the equilibrium outputs of new and remanufactured products under three subsidy modes.

The results show that the equilibrium wholesale prices of two kinds of components decrease with the unit patent licensing fee and the unit government subsidy, and the equilibrium quantity of the remanufactured products under the three modes is obviously higher than that of the new products.

Finally through numerical simulation, it is found that the equilibrium profits of the supplier, the manufacturer and the supply chain increase monotonously in relation to the unit government subsidy, while the optimal profit of the assembler in relation to the unit government subsidy tends to decrease first and then increase.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a solution for greening the supply chain of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by minimising the vehicular pollutant emission in the logistics network.

The paper proposes an optimisation model to reduce the pollution emission in the logistics of supply chain network in SMEs. The work considers vehicle routing and selection of suppliers, manufacturers and assemblers according to the availability of various Bharat Stage Emission Standards type vehicles. Introsort sorting based selection algorithm is used to solve the problem. The proposed solution is implemented using C++ on an experimental data set for analysing the model.

The outcome of the study is a pollution optimisation model for logistics of SMEs. The finding shows an approach to reduce total vehicular pollution emission in the logistics network in meeting the demand. The model is tested over an experimental study, and the result findings show which supply chain entities, type of environmental standard vehicles and vehicle routes are selected for the specific demand.

The proposed model is confined to pollution optimisation with limited parameters only and does not consider cost and other factors that can be included in future work.

The work can be used for limiting pollution in logistics system as the corporate social responsibility of enterprises.

Proposed work presents a sustainable and green solution for pollution control in logistics activities of the SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to provide quantitative evidence of natural disasters’ (NDs) effect on corporate performance and studies the mechanisms through which the supply chain moderates and mediates the link.

Using two major NDs as quasi-experiment, namely the 2011 Japanese earthquake-tsunami (JET) and Thai flood (TF), and data over the period 2010Q1-2013Q4, effect of these events on end assemblers’ performance is studied, with a focus on the personal computer (PC) supply chain. The moderating influence of delivery and sourcing – as supply chain flexibility and agility – are examined through end assemblers’ and suppliers’ inventory. The suppliers’ mediating role is captured as disruption in obtaining PC components through their sales.

Only JET had any negative effect, further quantified as short-term and long-term. The TF instead portrays an insignificant but positive aftermath, which is construed as showing learning from experience and adaptability following JET. Inventory matters, but differently for the two events, and suppliers only exhibit a moderating influence on the assemblers’ disaster-performance link.

NDs, as catastrophic vulnerabilities, are distinct from other vulnerabilities in that they are hard to predict and have significant impact. Since little is known about the impact of NDs on firm performance and how supply chain mechanisms moderate or mediate their impact, they should be distinctly modelled and empirically studied from other vulnerabilities. This paper sheds light on supply chain resilience to such events with the role of dynamic capabilities.

The impact of schedule stability on supplier responsiveness is investigated by comparing schedule and calloff quantities for two automotive assemblers who both use the same supplier. Components for the two assemblers are manufactured by the supplier in cells which are focused by customer. The world class assembler (a Japanese transplant) operated a stable, long‐term schedule policy whereas the non‐world class assembler (a Western mass producer) operated a schedule policy which is relatively highly uncertain. It is argued that the strategy of the world class assembler is likely to out‐perform the non‐world class assembler in the quest for lean distribution (build to customer order within short time cycles).

The “robust networks” concept of Ferdows is examined and related to other key theories from the manufacturing strategy literature, resource‐based and other conceptualisations of the organisation of innovation in international networks, and the international business debates on “operational flexibility”. The cases of seven international automotive assemblers with operations in Brazil are then considered in the light of Ferdows’ framework and the external factors bearing on the country and the sector within it. It is evident that, among the global assemblers, the “world” car strategy is dominant, leading to a concentration on the “source” and “lead” roles for individual plants, often combined with radical logistical arrangements. This seems in turn to support the argument for “robustness” rather than “operational flexibility”. Suggestions are made for further work to study the luxury car assemblers and other sectors where economies of scale are less important and where there is a greater degree of global dispersion of production facilities.

Noting moves towards just‐in‐time production methods in the UK passenger vehicle industry, the impact of such moves at the retail and distribution end of the supply chain is considered. Based on interviews with a number of vehicle retailers selling cars manufactured both in the UK and overseas, it appears as if little progress towards true just‐in‐time (as practised by Toyota in Japan) is occurring.

This paper describes the challenges being faced by different participants in the automobile sector value chain during Mercosur market consolidation. This is an extended case study that analyses in depth, actions that the different companies carried out both in their operations management and with their customers and suppliers. The research highlights several aspects of the Argentine automotive value chain: difficulty in managing relative development speeds within the value chain; uncompleted regulatory framework development in order to gain synergy in a regional context; different operation strategies followed by assemblers to cope with market pressures (“green field” versus resources improvement); and weak links in the value chain, especially suppliers and dealers. Future efforts by assemblers should be oriented to work in the calibration of the development speeds of all the value chain in order to improve their competitiveness.

This paper is concerned with UK‐based automotive component suppliers that have commenced the supply of a “complete system” to a vehicle assembler (VA) in recent years. The wider restructuring of VA‐supplier relations occurring in the UK automotive industry is taken asthe context for this research – reference is made to the requirements of lean and agile manufacturing. We investigate if these suppliers differ in any systematic way from their counterparts who have not moved into systems supply. This was done using a questionnaire survey and series of follow‐up interviews. Significant differences between systems and non‐systems suppliers were found in the areas of firm size, products, customers, design input and VA‐supplier relationship strategies. Both parties were typically found to gain from systems supply. The nature of these benefits is then explored. Overall, it is intended that this research should serve to inform management, and in particular that of suppliers seeking to achieve or to maintain and develop their first tier status.

The paper presents some results and conclusions of a two‐year research project encompassing ten interacting companies belonging to the Brazilian automotive supply network. The goal of the research is to explore current practices in terms of the commercial relationship between them. Specifically, the attention was focused on identifying whether there are relevant imbalances in terms of bargaining power so that the overall performance of the supply network as a whole is jeopardised. Some interesting conclusions could be drawn from this exploratory study. Perhaps the most important is the clear indication that the issue of supply network management is neglected among the analysed companies. The emphasis has almost exclusively been placed on the relationship with immediate customers and suppliers. This can run important risks for the competitiveness of the Brazilian automotive industry. Some causes of the negligence with the theme are discussed and some simple corrective measures are proposed, based on some more contemporary contributions found in the recent literature and in some practices identified in Brazil outside the automotive industry.