The effect of engineering in supply chain management systems in the South African automotive services industry.

Abstract

This study examined the level of E-Supply Chain Management Systems application in the South African Automotive manufacturing industry. The objective is to have more transparency in the supply chain between the various segments, and methods being applied to integrate E-SCM systems and ERP platforms to discover a standard. In addition, the model required or available to encourage awareness of this systems and how they can assist in cost saving initiatives and improve quality and services rendered. NAAMSA an organization for automobile manufacturers was contacted to understand which manufacturers classify component manufacturing and supply chain development as their core business. Three companies were contacted and they responded by granting permission for their members to participate. A total of 60 members partook in the survey. The participants drawn consisted of (86.7%) from Toyota, 8.3% from Nissan and lastly, 5.0% from BMW manufacturing service firms, in order to determine the impact of Esupply chain management on their key supply chain operations. The data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Science to evaluate the degree to which the respondents knew about E-Supply Chain Management Systems and its application in the business. The results of the research revealed that e-supply chain management systems have a positive effect on the automotive manufacturing industry, as there was an improvement in the level of focus employed towards sustaining customer needs through quality of data for internal communication and data relevance. The research further showed that e-supply chain management systems have many technical issues such as the remote access capability and Extranet for communication with external parties. In order to overcome these challenges there are methods that can be applied to accomplish, firstly, world class performance by calculated partnerships between suppliers and the system to co-ordinate data and communicate effectively. Through the use of Internet of things as one form of system, companies have real time information iv which enables the planning of resources more precise and accurate product development. Several recommendations were made to overcome these challenges, such as areas of developments for the industry, specifically the requirement for employee training to utilise E-SCM to its full extend and the requirement to better synchronise E-SCM with Enterprise Resource Planning systems by re-engineering the business processes for better system integration.