Buyer-supplier relationships in the Brazilian automotive industry

Abstract

New forms of relationship and transaction between companies participating in the same supply chain have been applied to improve competitive conditions in the chain. The auto industry is a striking example of an industry in which the relationships between companies have been deeply renewed, motivated mainly by the influence of automakers in the primary suppliers, which in turn work with their own suppliers; forming a competitive alliance. This article aims to study the relationship between customer-supplier in the Brazilian automobile industrial park, to realize a relational typology, from case studies. Technical visits were made in fourteen supplying companies to achieve informations about the main structural features and the relationship between manufacturer and supplier in the Brazilian automotive industry. Interviews were conducted with managerial level professionals of industrial areas-production, logistics and supplies, product and process development, purchasing and human resources. The results showed that the relations depend on institutional characteristics of the supplier, the complexity of the technology components, the productive capacity and the history of relations between customer and supplier. It could be concluded that the relationship between customer and supplier companies surveyed are in the closest of the characteristics of an associative model, with contractual relations and long-term high interdependence, but the price is still used as the main criterion for winning automakers’ selection of suppliers. Key words: Customer-supplier relationships, auto industry, supply chain.