Towards Lean Supply Chains: Case Studies on Organizational Interaction and Trust Relationship of Taiwan Machinery Industry

When demand fluctuates rapidly and significantly, manufacturers and their supply chain partners address market challenges by establishing resilient lean supply chains with lean production mechanisms. This study explores the impact of organizational interaction and trust establishment on the construction of lean supply chains. Data collection and semi-structured interviews from Taiwanese fitness equipment manufacturer REXON and its 22 suppliers identify four trust and interaction types of supply chain by demand information sharing level and organization interaction dependency. The four trust and interaction types are Contractual Trust, Learning-based Trust, Relational Trust, and Competence-based Trust, which have applicable conditions and context. From the 22 suppliers’ case studies, we find the representative firms for each type and discover how organizational interaction factors aid in building lean supply chains. The theoretical framework developed in this study can used for analyzing the supplier’s trust relation and feedback to manufacturers, and we hope to make practical contributions to the lean supply chain establishment.