Indian automotive industry has increasingly adopted global supply chain best practices including supplier relationship as a management imperative, in the last two decades. Increased competition, globalization, wide-spread outsourcing, use of information technology and rapid technological advances have contributed in supplier relationship development with the objective to achieve competitive advantage and a high level of performance. It is evident that only if mutual benefits accrue to both Vehicle Assemblers (VA) and their suppliers, the partnership between them would be meaningful and effective. Also, VAs have necessarily, to invest considerable resources and effort in achieving collaboration with their suppliers and cost-effectiveness becomes an issue which leads to supply base rationalization and a segmented approach. Therefore understanding the issues involved and identifying focus areas for successful supplier relationships becomes an imperative. This paper, based on an exploratory study, delves into the VA-supplier interface in Indian automobile supply chains, examines various theoretical and practical dimensions, in order to identify strategic imperatives (key impact drivers), Supplier Management Orientation (SMO) of VAs, adoption of Supplier Development Practices, extent of VA-supplier partnerships and mutual benefits accruing to both entities. Based on this a framework for holistically studying the VA-supplier interface is proposed.
