Improving competitiveness in a manufacturing value chain: issues dealing with the automobile sector in Argentina and Mercosur

This paper describes the challenges being faced by different participants in the automobile sector value chain during Mercosur market consolidation. This is an extended case study that analyses in depth, actions that the different companies carried out both in their operations management and with their customers and suppliers. The research highlights several aspects of the Argentine automotive value chain: difficulty in managing relative development speeds within the value chain; uncompleted regulatory framework development in order to gain synergy in a regional context; different operation strategies followed by assemblers to cope with market pressures (“green field” versus resources improvement); and weak links in the value chain, especially suppliers and dealers. Future efforts by assemblers should be oriented to work in the calibration of the development speeds of all the value chain in order to improve their competitiveness.