Virtual Team Working in the European Automotive Industry: User Requirements and a Case Study Approach Andrew May, Chris Carter, and Sue Joyner HUSAT Research Institute, Elms Grove, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 1RG, UK ABSTRACT The globalization of the automotive industry and increasing competition from U.S. and Asian- Pacific firms are forcing the European automotive industry to introduce information technology and telecommunications that enable more efficient collaboration along the supply chain, and hence a reduction in the time to market for new vehicles. This paper illustrates the nature of the automo- tive supply chain and summarizes current barriers to collaborative working between European au- tomotive manufacturers and suppliers. To achieve a greater degree of concurrent engineering, organizational and user requirements are outlined, drawn from a series of collaborative European automotive projects. Finally, a case study is presented, based on the development, demonstration, and evaluation of a heterogeneous computer-supported cooperative working platform to support working between virtual teams during the product introduction process. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Global Supply Chain The automotive industry is the world’s largest industry, with 15 million people directly, and 50 million indirectly, employed worldwide (Curtis, 1997). The European automotive industry is currently facing a fight for survival. Head-on product to product competition from U.S. and Asian-Pacific companies, coupled with permanent over-supply of the au- tomotive market, mean that automotive manufacturers must produce the right products as cost-effectively as possible, and must launch them into the marketplace with minimum development time. The pressures to reduce continuously the time-to-market are consid- erable: It was estimated that an automotive manufacturer in Europe lost US$ 1.8 billion in profit alone (before regaining its market share) by being one year behind its compet- itors in introducing a new model to the market (Holberton, 1991). 1.2. Supply Chain Performance and Concurrent Engineering European automotive manufacturers are turning increasingly to their key suppliers to take responsibility for the design, development, and supply of components and systems to Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing, Vol. 10 (3) 273–289 (2000) © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 273