ABSTRACT

The automotive sector  is widely recognised  as one of  the industries
which greatest importance can assume in the development of a country's
economy. This importance was irreversibly recognised by the Portuguese
Government in 1963 and since then, the sector has experienced a growth
that  currently  gives it the  number two  status in terms of national
exports. Being  relatively  recent in  Portugal this  industry and the
exponential growth it has  experienced in the last decades have yet to
be fully  understood.  This thesis  aims to  contribute  positively to
increasing  the  knowledge  base  of  this  industry  in  Portugal  by
identifying and characterising  the main competitive advantages of the
Portuguese  automotive components  industry, more  specifically of the
stamping subsector.

Notwithstanding  the significant  development  which has characterised
the  sector,   and  the   stamping   companies   in  particular,  core
competencies  are still  generically  restricted to  manufacturing. As
such,  this thesis  will concentrate  on analysing  companies from the
point of  view of  their  manufacturing  competencies and capabilities
through  the use  of technical  cost modeling  which is specially well
adapted to analysing manufacturing processes.

The analysis presented in this thesis points towards two main aspects.
The  first  refers to  the  positive  exploitation  by the  components
suppliers  of  the  Portuguese  exogenous  factors,  the  second,  the
possibility  of introducing  specific  improvements  in  manufacturing
performance   which   will   yield  significant   cost   savings.  The
identification of these areas of improvement was based on the analysis
of   the   exogenous   factor    conditions,   company   and   product
characteristics, as well as product attributes valued by the clients.

Moreover,  these  results  confirm  the usefulness  of technical  cost
modeling   as  an   analysis   tool  to   characterise   and  evaluate
manufacturing  processes, identify  possible areas of  improvement and
help   define   companies'   operations   strategies  and  competitive
positions.  These  results are  possible  when  manufacturing  data is
complemented  with market,  company-wide and  environment information.
Although  only a  reduced  number of  case studies  were undertaken in
Portuguese stamping  companies, the results obtained in this thesis do
not point  towards  substantial  difficulties  in  applying  the  same
methodology to  other companies  in this subsector,  sector or even to
enterprises   from   other   sectors   of  activities  as long  as the
corresponding   technologies   are   conveniently   modelled   and the
researchers have an adequate understanding of the industry being
studied.

KEYWORDS: Competitiveness, Manufacturing Performance, Technical
          Cost Modeling, Automotive Components, Stamping.