Collaborative logistics practices: the case of a supply chain in the automotive industry

Abstract

The evolution of management methods at organizations had led many companies to choose concentrating their efforts on their core business. The suppliers are in charge of supplying these companies with complementary products and services, resulting in a logistic array that is called supply chain. However, this logistic array establishes a dependence relation between customer and their suppliers, which start acting as a part of the customer company. In order to increase the gain with this array is necessary to establish a partner relationship between the members of the supply chain. The collaborative management shows itself like an appropriate approach for exploration of gaps in the supply chain array and increase the effectiveness and efficiency of business process. This paper shows how a diesel engine company applies logistics practices and quality tools in order to achieve collaboration in a complex industrial scenario such as the automotive industry. The study reviews pertinent questions in the literature and presents a case study with the obtained results.