Enhancement of an implemented rating model and impact on existing risk management processes: A hands-on approach from financial supplier risk management within the automotive industry

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a methodical drawback analysis of a financial supplier risk management approach which is currently implemented in the automotive industry. Based on identified methodical flaws, the risk assessment model is further developed by introducing a malus system which incorporates hidden risks into the model and by revising the derivation of the most central risk measure in the current model. Both methodical changes lead to significant enhancements in terms of risk assessment accuracy, supplier identification and workload efficiency.

Biodegradation of Coir and Sisal Applied in the Automotive Industry

This paper discusses the results of biodegradability tests of natural fibers used by the automotive industry, namely: coir, coir with latex, and sisal. The biodegradation of coir, coir with latex, and of sisal fibers was determined by monitoring the production of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) (IBAMA-E.1.1.2, 1988) and fungal growth (DIN 53739, 1984). The contents of total extractives, lignin, holocellulose, ashes, carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen of the fibers under study were determined in order to ascertain their actual content and to understand the results of the biodegradation tests. The production of CO(2) indicated low biodegradation, i.e., about 10% in mass, for all the materials after 45 days of testing; in other words, no material inhibited glucose degradation. However, the percentage of sisal fiber degradation was fourfold higher than that of coir with latex in the same period of aging. The fungal growth test showed a higher growth rate on sisal fibers, followed by coir without latex. In the case of coir with latex, we believe the fungal growth was not intense, because natural latex produces a bactericide or fungicide for its preservation during bleeding [1]. An evaluation of the materials after 90 days of aging tests revealed breaking of the fibers, particularly sisal and coir without latex, indicating fungal attack and biodegradation processes.

Application of Design of experiments on the simulation of a process in an automotive industry

The objective of this article is to apply the Design of experiments technique along with the Discrete Events Simulation technique in an automotive process. The benefits of the design of experiments in simulation include the possibility to improve the performance in the simulation process, avoiding trial and error to seek solutions. The methodology of the conjoint use of Design of Experiments and Computer Simulation is presented to assess the effects of the variables and its interactions involved in the process. In this paper, the efficacy of the use of process mapping and design of experiments on the phases of conception and analysis are confirmed. © 2007 IEEE.

MERCOSUR as an export platform for the automotive industry

Includes bibliography

International competition and globalization challenging the Brazilian automotive industry

Includes bibliography

Technical and industrial aspects of regional integration and specialization in the Latin American automotive industry

Information Paper, No 13

Industrial location and sectoral linkages: the case of the Brazilian automotive industry

The aim of this article is to analyse the spatial distribution of the automotive industry in Brazil in terms of its various economic categories between 1995 and 2011, and to shed light on its sectoral linkages through inter-regional input-output matrices. By calculating the coefficient of localization (QLij) for that period, it was found that the third wave of investments, which began in the second half of the 1990s, actually caused a slight spatial deconcentration of this sector in the national economy. The coefficient of geographic association (CAik)calculated for different years revealed a slight reduction, while maintaining a high level of concentration, which suggests that vehicle production is closely integrated with other economic activities. This integration was corroborated particularly in terms of input purchases (backward linkages) in all of the analysed regions.

MICROSTRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF DUAL AND MULTIPHASE STEELS APPLIED TO AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

TRIP (Transformation Induced Plasticity) and DP (Dual-Phase) steels are written in a new series of steels which present excellent mechanical properties. As for microstructure aspect, TRIP steels consist on a ferrite matrix with a second phase dispersion of other constituents, such as bainite, martensite and retained austenite, while dual-phase steels consist on martensite dispersion in a ferrite matrix. In order to identify the different microconstituents present in these materials, microstructure characterization techniques by optical microscopy (using different etchants: LePera, Heat-Tinting and Nital) and scanning electron microscopy were carried out. This being so, microstructures were correlated with mechanical properties of materials, determined by means of tensile tests. It is concluded that steels assisted by TRIP effect have a strength and elongation relation higher than the dual-phase one. With microstructure characterization, it was observed phases present in these materials microstructure.

MICROSTRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF CP STEEL USED IN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

This study aims to characterize the microstructure of the complex phase steel (CP). Using the conventional and colored metallographic analysis with 3% Nital etchant, sodium metabisulfite 10% and LePera. Techniques were applied in this work of optical microscopy, using, besides the lighting in bright field, dark field illumination of the reverse contrast in bright field illumination, the method of polarized light, which generates colorful contrast, providing a complementary identification phases present in the microstructure, and the system by differential interference contrast (DIC). The results obtained by metallography CP indicates that the steel has a microstructure composed of ferrite, retained austenite, bainite and martensite and precipitates arranged in a refined and complex morphology. Besides bright field illumination others' optical microscopy's techniques such as dark field illumination were applied.

Drivers of RFID adoption in the automotive industry

The automotive industry is confronted with increasing competition, leading to higher cost pressures and the demand to optimize production processes and value chains. Here the RFID technology promises to improve a range of processes in logistics and manufacturing. Despite its promising potential in the automotive industry, RFID has not yet made a decisive step from pilots to real-life implementations in the supply chain. Building on existing models of technology adoption, we analyze RFID adoption dynamics in the automotive industry. Building on existing IOS adoption models tailored to RFID specifics and based on ten semi-structured interviews with OEMs and suppliers, we evaluate main drivers of RFID adoption in the automotive industry. Our key findings are that the use of a coercive approach by the OEM could be redundant because of the market-driven RFID adoption among many suppliers. Furthermore, suppliers implementing RFID can now gain an early mover competitive advantage by developing higher trust in their relationship with the OEM as well as accumulating unique expertise in this area.

Service needs forecasting: an approach for the automotive industry using analogies with medical ER management models.

During the past years, the industry has shifted position and moved towards “the luxury universe” whose customers are demanding, treating individuals as unique and valued customer for the business, offering vehicles produced with the state of the art technologies and implementing the highest finishing standards. Due to the competitive level in the market, car makers enable processes which equalizes customer services to E.R. management, being dealt with the maximum urgency that allows the comparison between both, car workshops and emergency rooms, where workshop bays or ramps will be equal to emergency boxes and skilled technicians are equivalent to the health care specialist, who will carry out tests and checks prior to afford any final operation, keeping the “patient” under control before it is back to normal utilization. This paper establishes a valid model for the automotive industry to estimate customer service demand forecasting under variable demand conditions using analogies with patient demand models used for the medical ER.

Desintegración vertical en la industria del automóvil en España: un caso de estudio = Vertical disintegration in the automotive industry in Spain: a case study

En los años recientes se ha producido un rápido crecimiento del comercio internacional en productos semielaborados que son diseñados, producidos y ensamblados en diferentes localizaciones a lo largo de diferentes países, debido principalmente a los siguientes motivos: el desarrollo de las tecnologías de la información, la reducción de los costes de transporte, la liberalización de los mercados de capitales, la armonización de factores institucionales, la integración económica regional que implica la reducción y la eliminación de las barreras al comercio, el desarrollo económico de los países emergentes, el uso de economías de escala, así como una desregulación del comercio internacional. Todo ello ha incrementado la competencia a nivel mundial en los mercados y ha posibilitado a las compañías tener más facilidad de acceso a potenciales mercados, así como a la adquisición de capacidades y conocimientos en otros países y a la realización de alianzas estratégicas internacionales con terceros, creando un entorno con mayor incertidumbre y más exigente para las compañías que componen una industria, y que tiene consecuencias directas en las operaciones de las compañías y en la organización de su producción. Las compañías, para adaptarse, ser competitivas y beneficiarse de este nuevo escenario globalizado y más competitivo, han externalizado partes del proceso productivo hacia proveedores especializados, creando un nuevo mercado intermedio que divide el proceso productivo, anteriormente integrado en las compañías que conforman una industria, entre dos conjuntos de empresas especializadas en esa industria. Dicho proceso suele ocurrir conservando la industria en que tiene lugar, los mismos servicios y productos, la tecnología empleada y las compañías originales que la conformaban previamente a la desintegración vertical. Todo ello es así debido a que es beneficioso tanto para las compañías originales de la industria como para las nuevas compañías de este mercado intermedio por diversos motivos. La desintegración vertical en una industria tiene unas consecuencias que la transforman completamente, así como la forma de operar de las compañías que la integran, incluso para aquellas que permanecen verticalmente integradas. Una de las características más importantes de esta desintegración vertical en una industria es la posibilidad que tiene una compañía de adquirir a una tercera la primera parte del proceso productivo o un bien semielaborado, que posteriormente será finalizado por la compañía adquiriente con la práctica del outsourcing; así mismo, una compañía puede realizar la primera parte del proceso productivo o un bien semielaborado, que posteriormente será finalizado por una tercera compañía con la práctica de la fragmentación. El principal objetivo de la presente investigación es el estudio de los motivos, los facilitadores, los efectos, las consecuencias y los principales factores significativos, microeconómicos y macroeconómicos, que desencadenan o incrementan la práctica de la desintegración vertical en una industria; para ello, la investigación se divide en dos líneas completamente diferenciadas: el estudio de la práctica del outsourcing y, por otro lado, el estudio de la fragmentación por parte de las compañías que componen la industria del automóvil en España, puesto que se trata de una de las industrias más desintegradas verticalmente y fragmentadas, y este sector posee una gran importancia en la economía del país. En primer lugar, se hace una revisión de la literatura existente relativa a los siguientes aspectos: desintegración vertical, outsourcing, fragmentación, teoría del comercio internacional, historia de la industria del automóvil en España y el uso de las aglomeraciones geográficas y las tecnologías de la información en el sector del automóvil. La metodología empleada en cada uno de ellos ha sido diferente en función de la disponibilidad de los datos y del enfoque de investigación: los factores microeconómicos, utilizando el outsourcing, y los factores macroeconómicos, empleando la fragmentación. En el estudio del outsourcing, se usa un índice basado en las compras externas sobre el valor total de la producción. Así mismo, se estudia su correlación y significación con las variables económicas más importantes que definen a una compañía del sector del automóvil, utilizando la técnica estadística de regresión lineal. Aquellas variables relacionadas con la competencia en el mercado, la externalización de las actividades de menor valor añadido y el incremento de la modularización de las actividades de la cadena de valor, han resultado significativas con la práctica del outsourcing. En el estudio de la fragmentación se seleccionan un conjunto de factores macroeconómicos, comúnmente usados en este tipo de investigaciones, relacionados con las principales magnitudes económicas de un país, y un conjunto de factores macroeconómicos, no comúnmente usados en este tipo de investigaciones, relacionados con la libertad económica y el comercio internacional de un país. Se emplea un modelo de regresión logística para identificar qué factores son significativos en la práctica de la fragmentación. De entre todos los factores usados en el modelo, los relacionados con las economías de escala y los costes de servicio han resultado significativos. Los resultados obtenidos de los test estadísticos realizados en el modelo de regresión logística han resultado satisfactorios; por ello, el modelo propuesto de regresión logística puede ser considerado sólido, fiable y versátil; además, acorde con la realidad. De los resultados obtenidos en el estudio del outsourcing y de la fragmentación, combinados conjuntamente con el estado del arte, se concluye que el principal factor que desencadena la desintegración vertical en la industria del automóvil es la competencia en el mercado de vehículos. Cuanto mayor es la demanda de vehículos, más se reducen los beneficios y la rentabilidad para sus fabricantes. Estos, para ser competitivos, diferencian sus productos de la competencia centrándose en las actividades que mayor valor añadido aportan al producto final, externalizando las actividades de menor valor añadido a proveedores especializados, e incrementando la modularidad de las actividades de la cadena de valor. Las compañías de la industria del automóvil se especializan en alguna o varias de estas actividades modularizadas que, combinadas con el uso de factores facilitadores como las economías de escala, las tecnologías de la información, las ventajas de la globalización económica y la aglomeración geográfica de una industria, incrementan y motivan la desintegración vertical en la industria del automóvil, desencadenando la coespecialización en dos sectores claramente diferenciados: el sector de fabricantes de vehículos y el sector de proveedores especializados. Cada uno de ellos se especializa en unas actividades y en unos productos o servicios específicos de la cadena de valor, lo cual genera las siguientes consecuencias en la industria del automóvil: se reducen los costes de transacción en los productos o servicios intercambiados; se incrementan la relación de dependencia entre fabricantes de vehículos y proveedores especializados, provocando un aumento en la cooperación y la coordinación, acelerando el proceso de aprendizaje, posibilitando a ambos adquirir nuevas capacidades, conocimientos y recursos, y creando nuevas ventajas competitivas para ambos; por último, las barreras de entrada a la industria del automóvil y el número de compañías se ven alteradas cambiando su estructura. Como futura línea de investigación, los fabricantes de vehículos tenderán a centrarse en investigar, diseñar y comercializar el producto o servicio, delegando el ensamblaje en manos de nuevos especialistas en la materia, el contract manufacturer; por ello, sería conveniente investigar qué factores motivantes o facilitadores existen y qué consecuencias tendría la implantación de los contract manufacturer en la industria del automóvil. 1.1. ABSTRACT In recent years there has been a rapid growth of international trade in semi-finished products designed, produced and assembled in different locations across different countries, mainly due to the following reasons: development of information technologies, reduction of transportation costs, liberalisation of capital markets, harmonisation of institutional factors, regional economic integration, which involves the reduction and elimination of trade barriers, economic development of emerging countries, use of economies of scale and deregulation of international trade. All these factors have increased competition in markets at a global level and have allowed companies to gain easier access to potential markets and to the acquisition of skills and knowledge in other countries, as well as to the completion of international strategic alliances with third parties, thus creating a more demanding and uncertain environment for these companies constituting an industry, which has a direct impact on the companies' operations and the organization of their production. In order to adapt, be competitive and benefit from this new and more competitive global scenario, companies have outsourced some parts of their production process to specialist suppliers, generating a new intermediate market which divides the production process, previously integrated in the companies that made up the industry, into two sets of companies specialized in that industry. This process often occurs while preserving the industry where it takes place, its same services and products, the technology used and the original companies that formed it prior to vertical disintegration. This is because it is beneficial for both the industry's original companies and the companies belonging to this new intermediate market, for various reasons. Vertical disintegration has consequences which completely transform the industry where it takes place as well as the modus operandi of the companies that are part of it, even of those who remain vertically integrated. One of the most important features of vertical disintegration of an industry is the possibility for a company to acquire from a third one the first part of the production process or a semi-finished product, which will then be finished by the acquiring company through the practice of outsourcing; also, a company can perform the first part of the production process or a semi-finish product, which will then be completed by a third company through the practice of fragmentation. The main objective of this research is to study the motives, facilitators, effects, consequences and major significant microeconomic and macroeconomic factors that trigger or increase the practice of vertical disintegration in a certain industry; in order to do so, research is divided into two completely differentiated lines: on the one hand, the study of the practise of outsourcing and, on the other, the study of fragmentation by companies constituting the automotive industry in Spain, since this is one of the most vertically disintegrated and fragmented industries and this particular sector is of major significance in this country's economy. First, a review is made of the existing literature, on the following aspects: vertical disintegration, outsourcing, fragmentation, international trade theory, history of the automobile industry in Spain and the use of geographical agglomeration and information technologies in the automotive sector. The methodology used for each of these aspects has been different depending on the availability of data and the research approach: the microeconomic factors, using outsourcing, and the macroeconomic factors, using fragmentation. In the study on outsourcing, an index is used based on external purchases in relation to the total value of production. Likewise, their significance and correlation with the major economic variables that define an automotive company are studied, using the statistical technique of linear regression. Variables related to market competition, outsourcing of lowest value-added activities and increased modularisation of the activities of the value chain have turned out to be significant with the practice of outsourcing. In the study of fragmentation, a set of macroeconomic factors commonly used for this type of research, is selected, related to the main economic indicators of a country, as well as a set of macroeconomic factors, not commonly used for this type of research, which are related to economic freedom and the international trade of a certain country. A logistic regression model is used to identify which factors are significant in the practice of fragmentation. Amongst all factors used in the model, those related to economies of scale and service costs have turned out to be significant. The results obtained from the statistical tests performed on the logistic regression model have been successful; hence, the suggested logistic regression model can be considered to be solid, reliable and versatile; likewise, it is in line with reality. From the results obtained in the study of outsourcing and fragmentation, combined with the state of the art, it is concluded that the main factor that triggers vertical disintegration in the automotive industry is competition within the vehicle market. The greater the vehicle demand, the lower the earnings and profitability for manufacturers. These, in order to be competitive, differentiate their products from the competition by focusing on those activities that contribute with the highest added value to the final product, outsourcing the lower valueadded activities to specialist suppliers, and increasing the modularity of the activities of the value chain. Companies in the automotive industry specialize in one or more of these modularised activities which, combined with the use of enabling factors such as economies of scale, information technologies, the advantages of economic globalisation and the geographical agglomeration of an industry, increase and encourage vertical disintegration in the automotive industry, triggering co-specialization in two clearly distinct sectors: the sector of vehicle manufacturers and the specialist suppliers sector. Each of them specializes in certain activities and specific products or services of the value chain, generating the following consequences in the automotive industry: reduction of transaction costs of the goods or services exchanged; growth of the relationship of dependency between vehicle manufacturers and specialist suppliers, which causes an increase in cooperation and coordination, accelerates the learning process, enables both to acquire new skills, knowledge and resources, and creates new competitive advantages for both; finally, barriers to entry the automotive industry and the number of companies are altered, changing their structure. As a future line of research, vehicle manufacturers will tend to focus on researching, designing and marketing the product or service, delegating the assembly in the hands of new specialists in the field, the contract manufacturer; for this reason, it would be useful to investigate what motivating or facilitating factors exist in this respect and what consequences would the implementation of contract manufacturers have in the automotive industry.