The strategic adoption of information standard to increase competitiveness in the automotive industry in Thailand

Automotive industry has one of the most complex supply chain operations. To efficiently manage an automotive supply chain, information technology (IT) is the most crucial part in supporting the whole operations. Over the last few decades, Electronics Data Interchange (EDI) has been used in the automotive industry to exchange information between business partners. However, the technology is used mainly by multinational companies, while small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have not been able to enjoy the benefits of EDI. One of the main reasons for this is the cost and the complexity of the EDI system. Since, 1998, ebXML, an XML-based standard for information exchange between trading partners in e-business environment, was created with supports from the United Nations. Over the past decade, the adoption of ebXML by industries has grown steadily. Several governments in Asia have formal programs to support the adoption of ebXML standard by local SMEs. It is perceived that ebXML standard can bring local SMEs to be able to integrate seamlessly with global supply chain. This study examines the case of ebXML adoption by companies in automotive industry in Thailand. The automotive industry is the second largest contributor to Thailand's GDP with hundreds of local companies taking different parts of the industrys supply chain. The government strategically supports the adoption of information standard such as ebXML by the local SMEs with an aim to improve the way local SMEs in automotive industry manage the supply chain and thus increase their competitiveness overall.