Automotive

Strong competition and cost pressure characterize the automotive industry, and especially the vehicle manufacturers.

In addition, there are challenges such as the rapidly increasing product diversity, the growing complexity of parts and the almost unmanageable variety of variants, as well as end customers who want to configure their car individually until shortly before production starts and expect short delivery times.

The automotive industry can only meet these requirements with efficient processes and permanent optimization measures.

The implementation of Industry 4.0 in production and logistics is therefore a key issue in this industry.

The sustainable expansion in new core markets, such as China, Vietnam or India, and the successful introduction of future key technologies in drive technology and infotainment in vehicles are important for the future viability of companies in this industry.

In this respect, however, hardly any other industry has experienced such growth over the past two decades as the automotive suppliers.

An increase in the number of units, greater complexity of parts, new technologies and a sharp increase in the share of value added have massively favored this development.

At the same time, competition and price pressure have increased.

The reason for this is the sourcing of automobile manufacturers and large suppliers (TIER-1 / TIER-2) in a global market, rising raw material prices and, in particular, the permanent cost-cutting programs across the entire industry. Shorter product life cycles, a high degree of part variance with decreasing quantities and the almost unpredictable requirements require the industry to be highly flexible in production and logistics.