Supply Chain Management as the Company Engine in Automotive Manufacturing

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to define how to create a supply chain management (SCM) organizational structure with roles and responsibilities in a multinational company with a big part of the supply chain inside of the company. SCM means having under control the complete supply chain to decide the global optimal instead of summing up the optimal of each node independently. We propose, based on the systems thinking concept, how to develop an organizational structure where the SCM acts as the engine of the organization. There must be a strategy to create this structure starting from the bottom to the top of an organization. An illustration example is given in a first tier supplier of an automotive supply chain.