Implications of globalisation and new product policies for the suppliers from developing countries

The paper addresses the challenges of supply chain management in the electronics sector influenced by the trends of globalisation, production outsourcing and emerging product-related environmental policies. The trends have forced the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to take eco-design and supply chain management (SCA4) initiatives, which pose challenging demands on the suppliers in developing countries, who increasingly become important actors in the supply chain of electronics sector. This is likely to be a challenge for the OEMs to maintain competitive, reliable and high quality supply chains without compromising the environmental targets raised by the government policies or their own initiatives. For the suppliers it means to be able to satisfy the environmental requirements from OEMs at a competitive price and to maintain or expand their market position. Communication, data gaps and information standardisation are the major challenges for both groups of actors. For illustration, the Indian electronic component industry has been taken as a case study.