Modular consortium and its impacts in the supply chain of VW engine plant - São Carlos

• Grant number: 97/13071-9
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• Start date: March 01, 1999
• End date: November 30, 2001
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Production Engineering - Production Management
• Principal Investigator: Alceu Gomes Alves Filho
• Grantee: Alceu Gomes Alves Filho
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this research we seek to identify and discuss the changes that are being implemented in the VW engine plant (in São Carlos) and in its main suppliers. VW is adopting a new production organization model that increases its levels of subcontracting and simultaneously improves its control over some suppliers' attributes such as quality, prices, delivery times, and technology of components. That model of production organization seems to configure a more advanced version of the lean manufacturing (or systemofacture) type of organization and presents features that are similar to the 'Modular Consortium' adopted in the VW Plant located in Resende - RJ. In Modular Consortium some of suppliers' workers do their jobs directly in the manufacturing modules of the assembly plant. In São Carlos, although VW had announced the introduction of the Modular Consortium model, it has implemented a production organization structure in which there is a high degree of subcontracting but not the direct participation of suppliers workers in the assembly line. The method of this piece of research will provide a wide and detailed analysis of VW-São Carlos and its suppliers, including comparisons with VW-Resende and with other assembler-suppliers arrangements shaped by other assembly firms in Brazil. This analysis of production and work organization will also yield an evaluation of the restructuring process of Brazilian automobile industry. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SOUZA, LILIAN CARNEIRO; RACHID, ALESSANDRA. Internationalization and geographical relocation of Brazil's auto parts industry. BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF OPERATIONS & PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT, v. 10, n. 2, p. 10-pg., 2013-12-01. (97/13071-9, 10/07132-1, 11/18292-2)