IntroductionA successful automotive industry is often seen as a symbol of a country's economic success and the automotive industry plays a key role in the economic well-being of Southern South Africa Africa has its own original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as BMW, Nissan, Ford, Volkswagen, Daimler-Chrysler/Mercedes, General Motors and Toyota, and automotive component manufacturers (ACMs), which are located in three of the nine provinces of South Africa (Naude, 2009:10). An important and efficient tool used by the South African automotive industry is buyer-supplier collaboration, in line with the objective of this assignment to identify and discuss the factors that influence buyer-supplier collaboration in the South African automotive industry. This assignment will first define the automotive industry and the industry's buyers and suppliers, as well as the relationship between the two. Factors include pressure from the OEM to reduce prices, lack of advanced communication between buyer and supplier, trust, geographic location, product design, technology, interdependence, supplier inflexibility/ reliability of delivery and rapidly changing demand in terms of quantity from buyers. The impact of globalization on the South African automotive industry will also be highlighted. Much emphasis has been placed on globalization in the automotive industry as a result of the rapid increase in automotive exports. Background to the South African Automotive Industry The automotive industry has existed for decades in South Africa, since the introduction of Ford and GM assembly plants in the 1920s the sector has seen tremendous growth in recent years to become one of the largest contributors. .. middle of paper… users could engage in continuous communication and change from senior management to the same ERP systems for easy access to information this could improve communication between OEM and ACM. Negotiating a discount or setting a high cancellation fee could avoid canceling orders whenever shoppers face an economic crisis, opting instead to reduce the previously requested quantity. Conclusion From the above-mentioned factors it has become clear that there are some of the significant factors that negatively affect the cooperation between buyers and suppliers, such as pressure from OEMs to reduce prices, lead to a decline in total sales and employment in the long run and put pressure on management to reduce costs to regain market share. Order cancellations have resulted in inventory movements being excessively slow for ACMs.