08: Enhancing Competitiveness for a Global Automotive Group
in the role of an "Executive Business Consultant"
Global Automotive Group
- Leading automotive supplier whose product portfolio for the mobility sector includes components and systems such as electrification, semiconductors and sensor technology, vehicle computers, driver assistance systems, driving dynamics control, as well as software and service offerings.
- In the 2024 fiscal year, the company generated revenues of approximately 90 billion euros.
- Globally, the group employed over 400,000 people at the end of 2024.
Executive Business Consultant
- Consulting for the “Automotive Components” Business Unit to enhance the competitiveness of a new sensor product platform.
- Management of the “Competitive Cost Program”.
- Implementation of strategies and methods for product cost reduction, as well as increasing efficiency in product development through optimized organizational structures and lean processes.
Initial Situation & Tasks:
- New ADAS sensor product platform and the associated key OEM project with significantly excessive product costs, leading to a massive profitability problem for the business case.
- Very high, uncompetitive costs for product platform and customer development. Accordingly, efficiency in product development had to be significantly increased.
Activities / Measures:
- Stakeholder analysis from the Executive Board/Management to department head level.
- Definition of the “Competitive Cost Program” involving the management team (department head level) in the project.
- Project structure with 2 workstreams, for 1.) Unit cost optimization and 2.) Efficiency improvement in product development and project management.
- Definition of a roadmap for project implementation.
- Idea workshops for measure generation, including benchmarking.
- Weekly measure tracking for unit cost optimization.
- Analysis and evaluation of the product development process and platform development with derivation of hypotheses.
- Interviews with standardized questionnaire to confirm or adjust hypotheses.
- “Deep dives” followed by the formulation of strategic measures to increase efficiency in product development and project management.
- Implementation planning for measure execution.
Special Achievements/Results:
- Optimization of planned unit costs by approx. 20%.
- Significant EBIT increase exceeding the planned target level.
- Definition of strategic measures to increase efficiency in product development to ensure restructuring with personnel adjustments for the planned development cost reduction of approx. 15%.
- Concept for an optimized setup of the Business Unit and product area.
- Concept for sustainable cost management in the product area, considering organization, process, mindset, and leadership.
- Effectiveness of measures for optimizing product development process and project implementation evaluated using a reference project.
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