NEW CONCEPTS OF ORGANIZATION IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY SQUEEZE COMPONENT SUPPLIERS

The competition with car manufacturers in Japan und USA and the requirements of the EEC market 1992 will push the European automotive industry into radical structural alterations in the nineties. Three aspects have to be considered: The customers' demands for technical perfection, better handling comfort, and minimum environmental hazards; the must to improve productivity (e.g. by relocation of the production sites or by reducing the production range); changing the firm's organization scheme, i.e. giving up the hierarchic structure and establishing a new relation of capital and labour. The activities of the automotive industry will exert a strong effect on the rubber component suppliers. They'll have to face these problems: Competitiveness within the EEC-market, increasing quality requirements, closer co-operation with the car-manufacturer in developing vehicle components, "Just-in-time" delivery, car and environment. Not all component suppliers will be able or even want to take the necessary measures, and consequently contractors and subcontractors will exist side by side. There is no doubt, however, that the rubber industry will remain a reliable and irreplaceable partner of the automotive industry.