Abstract:

Automotive industry is strained by its current and future challenges (overall market growth, complexity of fitted electronic equipment, reduction of product life cycle, environmental regulations, etc.) and the constant pressure on quality demands, cost reduction and tight deadlines is shaping the efforts of car manufacturers to maintain their overall operations competitive. The paper conducts a comparative case study upon the operational performance within two car manufacturing plants of the Renault Group, the Renault Douai plant in Northern France and the Dacia plant in Romania, and how the effectiveness of their internal performance has sourced a competitive position for the two factories, their employees and their associated supply chain networks, rendering them as key plants in the development strategy of the French group.