As the auto industry moves into its second century, it suffers from low margins and a sclerotic value chain that cannot evolve with customer desires. Inventories of many weeks pile up on dealer lots and at distribution centers around the world while executives applaud marginal improvements in...

Growing the UK auto supply chain is seen as an issue of the highest priority by the Automotive Council. This ‘sourcing roadmap’ provides an overview of current and prospective sourcing patterns in the UK automotive industry. It serves as the empirical grounding for determining and...

The Automotive Council last year published a ‘sourcing roadmap’ (http://www.automotivecouncil.co.uk) to provide an overview of current and prospective sourcing patterns in the UK automotive industry. The aim was to serve as the empirical basis for determining and prioritising activities by...

The report was commissioned by the NAIGT Steering Group to provide an empirical basis of the UK’s competitive status and the key challenges the industry faces. More specifically, the remit of this report was to inform the work of the NAIGT with regards to (a), the contribution of the UK...

Time as a source for competitive advantage has been widely acknowledged, yet the motor industry struggles to provide quick response to customer demand. Current new vehicle supply is still based on large inventory in the market-place, and customers are left with the choice of either taking a...

Purpose: This paper contributes to the understanding of the context of major projects and their management from an Operations and Supply Chain Management (OSCM) perspective; we provide a foundation for exploring how the body of work on lean thinking (our ‘old’ theory) can contribute to the...

Companies struggle to define the value proposition 3D printing brings: While the opportunities for improving products are obvious, how to generate value from it is not. Firms need to first examine its potential and risks along three dimensions: product innovation, customisation, and complexity....

Direct digital manufacturing, or ‘3D printing’ as it is more commonly known, offers a wealth of opportunities for product and process innovation, and is often touted to ‘revolutionize’ today’s manufacturing operations and its associated supply chains structures. Despite a growing...