Instrument Development for Supply Chain Integration and Product Quality Relationship in Automotive Industry

• Published in: Journal of applied sciences (Asian Network for Scientific Information) Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 58 - 68
• Main Authors: Lotfi, Zahra, Mukhtar, Muriati, Sahran, Shahnorbanun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Automobiles; Automotive components; Automotive engineering; Automotive industry; Design engineering; Markets; Suppliers; Supply chains
• ISSN: 1812-5654; 1812-5662
• DOI: 10.3923/jas.2015.58.68

The automotive industry is one of the most important industrial sectors in the world. Therefore, consideration must be given to the development of collaborative activities between the automotive industry and supply chain partners to survive and succeed in recent world market. Supply chain integration can collaborate between a manufacturer and its supplier and costumer which enables firms to work together and improve product quality which is an important key competitive capability. This is why, the relationship between supply chain integration and product quality in automotive industry should receive sufficient attention from the research community. Hence, the purpose of the study is to develop and validate the supply chain integration and product quality instrument in the automotive industry. The research methodology for this study was devised based on the literature in general and survey instrument in the automotive industry in particular. The instrument were examined by using a survey conducted in Malaysian Automotive and Supplier Industry for empirical analysis. The study identified indicators of each dimension of supply chain integration; particularly customer integration supplier integration and internal integration and each dimension of product quality in supply chain; specifically design quality and conformance quality and validated a supply chain integration and product quality survey instrument. This questionnaire instrument can be used effectively in any manufacturing firm.