| This research is an investigation of the role of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in automotive supply chains. It presents the analysis results of 180 cases relating to EDI, 97 questionnaire surveys to first-tier suppliers in the United States, and 3 in-depth case studies regarding future directions of EDI in the automotive industry.; We address the effects of EDI on the automotive supply chain, specifically addressing first and second-tier suppliers. We also examine the reasons for suppliers not using EDI. Our analyses show: (1) the size of a firm does not affect the degree of EDI integration, (2) firms with high corporate performance have a high level of EDI integration, (3) firms with high corporate performance have a high level of information sharing with suppliers, and finally (4) U.S. automakers are directing first-tier suppliers to use EDI, yet first-tier suppliers have not been able to enforce its use by their suppliers.; Our suggestions include: (1) top management should establish project teams that involve functional representatives from various departments to work on implementing EDI, (2) firms should pay more attention on how to integrate EDI with the current business processes in order to utilize the full benefit of EDI, (3) firms should develop closer relations with key suppliers to gain the benefits such as sharing information resulting in closer business relations which allow more interactions among organizations and increase synergism and technological innovation opportunities, and finally (4) the Big Three should assist not only their first-tier suppliers, but also lower tier ones in developing an overall EDI practice throughout the automotive supply chain. |
