Collaboration in customer-supplier relationships: strategy, operations and the function of rhetoric

This article describes a case study undertaken as part of a wider project concerning the emergence of collaborative customer-supplier relationships in the United Kingdom, and looks at the Rover Group automobile manufacturer and component supplier TRW. It illustrates how effective integration at the operating level does not of itself remove other areas of potential conflict, particularly in the area of costs and pricing. This may mean that the rhetoric of “partnerships” may require some degree of decoding. However, the case also illustrates that such issues can be overcome with appropriate managerial attention.