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How Fast Can You Go? Reduced cycle times challenge automotive sector

Aras PLM

"How fast can we possibly go?”  That’s a refrain we hear when talking with today’s automotive OEM and supplier sector.
color-speed

More than at any time in the industry, the automotive product cycle time is shrinking dramatically. According to IHS Automotive, from 2016 through 2018 OEMs will launch a combined 434 vehicles into global markets, nearly 100 more launches than the previous three years’ total.

Even more noteworthy is the accelerated pace of new product launches.

Competitive pressures, legislation requirements, and consumer demand for connected vehicles all work together to drive down the product cycle from the once typical seven- or eight-year cycle to a now accelerated five-year cycle for just about every all-new passenger vehicle.

A Compelling Business Trend

These compelling trends were summarized in an article published by the Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) International entitled Suppliers Struggle to Keep Pace with Faster Product Cycle.

The article highlights how meeting an increasingly accelerated product cycle cadence is proving difficult for the entire supply base. These trends are significant and show no signs of letting up in the years ahead.

To thrive — and survive — the entire sector must work consistently to reduce time to market, increase new product throughput while improving product quality and safety, and ensure complex design and production processes are managed as efficiently as possible. No small matter.

PLM and Time to Market

Many of the leading automotive manufacturers we team with increasingly rely on PLM solutions to enhance the efficiency of their product design and development activities.  Advanced PLM helps the entire product design and development process be more consolidated, streamlined and centralized.

An ineffective  change managementprocess, in particular, has the potential to delay the entire production process. As product complexity increases and automotive producers become more reliant on their supply chains, managing the change process and communicating change status across many groups inside the organization and into the supply chain is an increasing challenge.

Ineffective or poorly managed change processes can leave organizations struggling to reduce time-to-market and meet the challenges of an accelerated produce cycle. Fortunately, innovative PLM systems tackle these challenges head-on.
PLM Delivers Benefits
When used strategically, PLM leads to reduced time to market in a variety of ways, including more efficiently managing the change process and communicating change status across many groups inside the organization and into the supply chain.
Streamlining complex change processes is just one way PLM helps companies meet reduced cycle times. By automating the process, c­­ompanies can:

  • ·         Reduce errors, delays, scrap and rework
  • ·         Avoid delays in product launch
  • ·         Respond faster to customer requirements
Today’s manufacturer can work faster and more effectively with PLM applications that provide complete functionality to support global product development across mechanical, electrical, electronic and software disciplines, complex configuration management, quality compliance and support for global manufacturing and supply chains.
PLM Time to Market: Next Steps
We’ve just scratched the surface on the issues facing the automotive enterprise when it comes to a more accelerated product cycle time.
 For further exploration into the topic, read an informative PLM best practices white paper stressing the benefits advanced PLM can offer in terms of meeting accelerated time to market.
Please contact the Aras team to see how PLM has emerged as an enabling technology in the automotive industry, driving innovation, speeding product development and delivering competitive advantage.

Posted Thu, Mar 10 2016 9:17 AM by jrogier