Suppliers and environmental innovation: The Automotive paint process

Abstract

Automobile assembly plants worldwide face increasing pressures in the environmental area. How a plant responds to these issues has significant implications for the cost and quality of plant operations. This paper uses three cases studies of US assembly plants to examine the role of improving the environmental performance of manufacturing operations. We find that strong element of the successful application of innovative environmental performance improvements while maintaining production quality and cost goal. The management factors influencing the extent and nature of supplier involvement are identified. The results of this work point to the importance of suppliers in addressing the manufacturing challenges of the future.