Supply-Chain Synchronization: Lessons from Hyundai Motor Company

One of the challenges of supply-chain management is developing ways to effectively integrate activities across organizations on the supply chain. Hyundai Motor Company developed mechanisms to coordinate production planning and scheduling activities among supply-chain members. Hyundai Motor's production-and-sales-control (P/SC) department uses regularly scheduled cross-functional meetings and scheduling policies to coordinate supply-chain activities. When implementing this process, the P/SC department overcame structural, environmental , and behavioral problems. Although Hyundai management concedes that the process is not perfect, communication among supply-chain members has improved, and the P/SC group has successfully promoted mutual understanding and respect among functional areas. The primary benefit, ultimately , is improved customer satisfaction through better integration of functional activities. D uring the last decade, many firms dramatically improved their internal operations, their product quality, their responsiveness , and their efficiency, and reduced their costs by following the precepts of such philosophies as total quality management, process reengineering, and just-in-time production. However, managers still face increasing competitive pressures to continuously improve. Orga