The automotive industry was severely hit by the 2008 crisis, leading to the closure of production plants and hiring freezes. After a short period of growth, the sector is again facing uncertainty due to a significant decrease in diesel vehicle sales as a result of changes in public policies, the difficult shift towards electric vehicles and the global trend towards car sharing. These evolutions tend to decrease anticipated sales but bring new business opportunities.
Challenges
Facing these events is challenging for car manufacturers and auto parts suppliers. Recent initiatives, such as the acquisition of Kapten by Daimler and Michelin’s strategy of investing in mobility services, especially in digital technologies, demonstrate the massive shift that is coming in the future.
The impact on operations is significant. A complete change of the industrial tools, the need for agility in a traditionally cost-focused industry where fast adaptation of production capacities or mix is a huge problem and the management of spare parts in a circular economy including electric batteries have all changed the operational landscape.
How we can help
We support manufacturers and suppliers in the necessary transformation of their operations with a particular focus on agility, from identifying issues to the implementation of performance levers:
- Procurement and optimization of the upstream supply chain: sourcing strategy, supplier collaboration and performance, reduction of procurement delays, stock optimization and procurement performance
- Industrial strategy: optimizing footprint and allocation of products to sites based on demand uncertainty
- Vehicle sales forecasts and S&OP
- Supply chain planning of final assembly lines and spare parts plants: demand management, multisite planning, capacity planning and optimization of the vehicle film, scheduling optimization, management of synchronized flow and just-in-time flow
- Industrial performance and lean management, maintenance of industrial infrastructures
- Optimizing the distribution of vehicles. Real-time flow follow-up thanks to IoT solutions
- Optimization of the spare parts supply chain: service strategy and logistics strategy, optimization of assortments in the network and sales forecasts with machine learning technologies, supply chain planning, inventory reduction, logistics process efficiency for transportation and warehousing services
