This 70 page paper presents an analysis of supply chain management in China. The essay begins with an overview of the automotive industry and the automotive industry in China, where it is growing by about 30 percent per year. This section concludes with four exploratory questions for the research study. The methodology is explained next - qualitative, exploratory, and case study. The literature review includes sections on supply chain management, automotive supply chain management, automotive supply chain management in China, and technology used in supply chain management. Analysis of the material follows the literature review. Both the Methodology section and the Analysis section explain how each question came to be a focus of the study. The last section is a list of conclusions based on the readings. The automotive industry is soaring in China; in 2003, China displaced Germany as the third largest market in the world. The country is expected to pass Japan within two to three years. The automotive supply chain is very fragmented in China with more than 2,000 auto parts companies listed. Joint ventures have led to some domestic companies adopting more effective management strategies. The tenth Five-Year Development Plan released by the government addresses the need to consolidate the auto parts industry and the government intends to support these kinds of consolidations. China represents the next large market for all major automotive companies in the world. Statistical data are included. Bibliography lists 30 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: MM12_PGchnaut.rtf
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a significant impact on the automotive industry (Veloso and Kumar, 2002). The drivers of the industry are many and include performance standards, reliability, and consumer preferences in styles and functions
(Veloso and Kumar, 2002). Environmental regulations, trade regulations, safety regulations all combine to act as other factors that influence the decisions made in auto companies (Veloso and Kumar, 2002). Globalization
has had a significant impact on the automotive industry (Veloso and Kumar, 2002; Morcott, 2000). Add to these factors the intense competitive nature of the industry and the result is
the need for every automaker to develop strategies that support flexibility and innovation (Veloso and Kumar, 2002). The pressure is intense because automakers are constantly under pressure to not only
identify but to anticipate changes in the market (Veloso and Kumar, 2002). These factors, in turn, have implications for automotive industry supply chains (Veloso and Kumar, 2002; Morcott, 2000).
Consider just one auto industry supplier, Dana Corporation. Dana is a Tier I, multi-national supplier corporation (Morcott, 2000). In the early 1990s, Danas sales outside of the U.S. accounted for
only 25 percent of its total revenue but by 1999, that figure jumped to 42 percent (Morcott, 2000). An even more dramatic change can be seen in the fact that
in the mid-1960s, the "Big 3" in Detroit accounted for 80 percent of all Danas sales but by 2000, that was reduced to less than 33 percent (Morcott, 2000). The
situation becomes even more complex when one realizes that the market in the triad regions, which consist of the United States, Western Europe and Japan, have experienced "stagnant demand, product
proliferation, and stiff price competition" (Veloso and Kumar, 2002). For the last decade, growth in new car sales has been only about 1 percent per year (Veloso and Kumar, 2002).