Supply Chain Resilience within the Automotive Industry - A single-case study on the importance of Supply Chain Resilience practices for an automotive MNC as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war

Abstract

Background: The automotive industry is a complex industry and sensitive to the business environment surrounding it. This has been shown by the last years, which have been dominated by disruptions and economic turbulence due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine. This did not only challenge the daily operations of automotive companies by turning their businesses upside down, but the problems highly affected their suppliers as well putting severe pressure on Automotive Supply Chains (ASCs). Purpose: The purpose of this Master thesis was to investigate how an automotive MNC handled the challenges of Supply Chain (SC) disruptions in recent years with the help of Supply Chain Resilience (SCR) practices and how this has influenced their current practices. This study aimed to look at how ASCs have been affected by the various crises it has endured, while also investigating how the trajectory of SC disruptions compare with the theoretical suggestions. Method: A single-case study was conducted to investigate the importance of SCR in the automotive industry. To determine this relation, an automotive MNC was the subject of interest, namely Volvo Cars-Polestar, which was complemented by their suppliers and an automotive expert. In total, 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to gather the relevant data to make this study feasible. Previous to this, a systematic literature review of SCR research was made to guide the theoretical direction of the study. Lastly, an analysis was made to draw synergies between the theoretical findings and the empirical insights. In turn, this allowed the authors to identify some gaps in the existing SCR research and add dimensions to these. Conclusions: This study concludes that there was a clear connection between theory and practice in several aspects. Actively working with the four phases of SCR in the automotive industry leads to a better resilience when dealing with SC disruptions. However, this study found some aspects of SCR which were either overlooked or downplayed, namely internal collaboration in the form of cross-functional working methods and business strategy adaptation which is closely related to the flexibility element of SCR practices.