Supply Chain Strategies for the Indian Automotive Sector

The Supply Chain Management has received a great interest during the last few years. There is a concurrent view that a ‘save all’ strategy applicable to all circumstances is available to industrialists. This paper challenges the view and puts forward supply chain strategies in the automotive sector. The effect of the global economic meltdown increased the pressure on automotive executives to make right decisions about their supply chain for better performance. In a highly challenging and competitive environment such as today, where supply chain is a popular tool for improving the organizational competitiveness, an efficient and effective supply chain strategy is a must for automotive manufacturers and their component manufacturers so as to meet the changing consumer demands. The paper explores the concept of supply chain strategies for the automobile industry as a possible strategy to respond to changing consumer demand. Each strategy is explained in depth and the study concludes with a design to match different alternatives with different customer requirements. Thus, a tool is provided for selecting the right supply chain strategy given any type of customer requirements.