Critical performance attributes of Thai automotive supply chains

The Thai automotive industry has been ranked one of the top ten of the Thai export products for several years. Effective supply chain management has become a key strategy for the industry to stay competitive. Performance measurement has thus become a crucial issue in automotive supply chains. The purpose of the research is to gain insight into the relevant performance attributes that affect the automotive supply chains. The critical factor indexes (CFIs) are calculated in order to determine which of the performance attributes are considered to be the strength and which ones need to be specially focused, so that precautions could be made in developing the performance measurement system. Based on the CFIs, companies in Thai automotive supply chains can support their decision making under scarce resources with valid data. A set of questionnaires with different performance attributes is used comprising of two separate parts, one intended for the first tier supplier companies and the other for the automakers. Each performance attribute in the questionnaires is assessed on how important the company sees them from their perspective, how well the tasks measured by each performance attribute have been carried out in their companies, how they see themselves compared to their competitors, and how they see each performance attribute developing compared to the situation 1 to 2 years before. The results provide a guideline to the companies in Thai automotive supply chains to measure the right performance attributes for making the right decision in a competitive environment.