Determinants of Inter-Organizational Performance in Automotive Supply Chain

Activities related to performance are a crucial issue in automotive supply chains. With the scarce resources in highly competitive environment, the first step to improve supply chain performance is to know which characteristics of supply chain’s performance (herein “performance attributes”) are critical and should be specially focused. The performances in this research are structured from the coarser level to the more detailed level as performance elements, performance indicators, and performance attributes. Eighty-eight performance attributes related to the first tier suppliers in the Thai automotive supply chain are determined. They focused on business performance element and intangible elements (namely learning and growth, internal process, external structure, and trust). The critical factor index (CFI) method is used for determining the critical performance attributes. The results were analyzed from the viewpoints of overall responses and three separate management functional groups; namely top management, factory managers, and sales/marketing managers. The results reveal that there are both similarities and differences in critical performance attributes in different functional areas. “Trust” and “business performance” performance elements are the most critical and should be focused on. The largest number of critical performance attributes found in the “trust” performance element, belonging to the “professional-relationship” performance indicator, which is the trust between firm’s representatives and customers’ representatives.