E-Business Standardization in the Automotive Sector: Role and Situation of SMEs

Successful cooperation between large manufacturers and their suppliers is a crucial aspect, especially in the automotive industry. Such mutually beneficial cooperation requires at least a certain level of integration and interoperation of the partners’ IT and e-business systems. This chapter looks at two approaches in order to achieve this goal: sector-specific harmonization (in the form of electronic marketplaces) and international, committee-based standardization. This chapter shows that SMEs are facing a severe disadvantage in both cases. This is, however, less pronounced in a formal standards setting, in which capabilities of the individual representatives are more important, at least at the working level. IntroductIon The automotive industry is facing a number of challenges to the established relations among its players. Issues to be addressed include, for instance, shorter product life cycles, increasing cost pressure in stagnant markets, and higher complexity of the embedded electronic systems. In order to meet the associated production requirements, standardization of processes, systems, and data is inevitable. This industry is characterized by vertical integration in terms of the business relationship structures between OEMs1 and suppliers (Adolphs, 1996; Lamming, 1993). A current trend in manufacturing is that OEMs attempt to cooperate with fewer suppliers but on a worldwide scale. As a result, small and medium-sized suppliers become suppliers to tier 1 or tier 2 suppliers rather than directly to the OEMs.