Manufacturing Talk

Top 5 trends in Automotive Industry of 2010

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:09:02 +0000

The writing is clear on the wall…. Toyota at the helm of automotive industry has been bitten large by the recall bug. And that’s not just because of being at the top, but unforeseen to most admirers, because of the forced diversion from its basic tenets of lean. And the other warlords like GM and Ford has its back against the wall still scouting for buyers for Pontiac , while literally surrendering to lesser mortals like Sichuan Tengzhong and Zhejiang Geely of China to shed its overladen baggage of Hummer and Volvo cars respectively, having tasted bitter pills with its deals with Magna for Opel and Vauxhall, Roger Penske for Saturn and Spyker for SAAB. VW, the European biggie had to tie-up with Suzuki Motors through a 20% stakes and Engineering collaboration for next-generation mini-car, possibly Alto, to capture Indian market. Renault has similar plans of shrinking European market and wants to enter China with Nissan’s help to reach the 1 million magic figures in China. Chrysler which has a close relationship with Fiat has planned its product plan till 2014 with amalgamation of Fiat platforms in Chrysler’s brands like Dodge and Jeep by 2013. With these far reaching changes sweeping the industry there are some converging trends which emerge in the automotive industry in 2010

Do variety wishes of shoppers always corner the manufacturers?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:09:32 +0000

Shoppers across the world, whether they are buying toys from roadside hawkers or investing in capital goods to be shipped from abroad, always look for variety! They cherish variety in products, variety in prices, variety in delivery of goods and of course variety in service. The customers always want that the choice should reside with them. In the wake of such variety-prone world, manufacturers are forced to adopt “variety” to a large extent to meet the market forces. But these manufacturers would not leave a chance to sneak in “variety” in certain other quarters to manage their efficiencies. The manufacturer is thus not just driven by variety, but also drives variety. The classical economic theory of supply and demand “match-point” being the price decider …… has to be rewritten. In today’s economy it is the driven-to-driver variety intersection which determines price of the manufactured products.

Five Questions Facing European Manufacturing CIOs

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:57:50 +0000

Finally the summer has come to an end. Traffic is back in Parisian roads and the early morning London-Frankfurt flights are full again. It was a different summer in many ways. First England won back the Ashes. Then there is more hope about economy in general and General Motors in particular in comparison to last summer when Lehman folded. On a more mundane note, in my 10 years in Europe, this was the most hectic August. Over a span of 6 weeks, I had the privilege of meeting several senior IT leaders across automotive, aerospace, chemicals, machine manufacturing, high tech and defence companies in Europe. I am going to share some of the exciting discussions I had in this space, starting with the five questions that I heard CIOs are asking as they cautiously prepare for post-recession economy.

Innovation imperative. Risks in supply chains. Mitigate with caution (and actionable intelligence)

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:07:00 +0000

Despite all the doom and gloom in the economy, the mood in this year’s AMR Research Executive Conference was notably upbeat. And so was the message around innovation. Former Disney boss Michael Eisner’s “creativity in a box” expression summed up the prescription for this economy: organizations need to think about creative combination of physical products, content and IP to survive and thrive in this new economy.

Demystifying Global Engineering - The right concoction is key to cutting the flab...

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:31:50 +0000

"Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration", this famous quote captures the essence of Edison’s illustrious career, full of inventions. The process of transforming creative ideas (inventions) into larger utility can be one of the definitions for “innovation”. It is interesting to note that engineering – that involves varying degrees of systematic innovation - is not too far from aforementioned Edison’s insight!

Global sourcing - what's a mid-market process manufacturer to do?

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:56:01 +0000

The last couple of years have shown an increased awareness of global sourcing from mid-market process manufacturers. Yet few have fully embraced the benefits to the extent that Hercules did in 2006 when it outsourced and offshored large portions of its infrastructure, IT and back office operations. Given the inherent value of lower overall cost, a reduced fixed cost ratio and increased operational flexibility - especially in a highly cyclical industry - it begs the question why.

Two main concerns have become apparent; 1) difficulty in showing significant cost reduction with a smaller operation, and 2) a concern that mid-market customers will not receive high levels of customer service from large offshore service providers.

Strides have been made to address the need for a stronger cost benefit to smaller operations through shared services offerings - but for large service providers who are serious about the mid-market the challenge remains to convince prospective customers and advisory firms that they will not be treated with less care and attention.

Double-dipping: social media delivers the marketing 2-in-1

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:48:40 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk about social media. A Q3 Forrester report showed inquiries about Web 2.0 and social media on the rise among B2B marketers, with a sharp spike in interest in the last 6 months of the report (January to July 2008). Many marketers are still finding their way around utilizing tools such as blogs and social networks in their marketing efforts, let alone making these efforts payoff with real business benefit. Now, the economy has put social media on the back burner for many B2B companies. Yet, this is just the time to take a more serious look at social media in marketing. Why? Social media lets marketers double-dip.

Seizing the pot of gold on the rainbow behind the tornado

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:15:00 +0000

Got your attention, huh - before you dismiss the pursuit of the myth, at least admit that we are in a tornado or a perfect storm or your favorite metaphor for the mess the U.S. economy is in, in general, and manufacturing in particular. Hi tech OEMs are suffering with cut backs in Enterprise and Consumer spending hurting the whole value chain, Discrete mfrs are caught between high local manufacturing costs in the face of slumping demand vs high cost (of hedging) fuel costs if they choose to manufacture elsewhere, auto manufacturers ..well .. There's plenty to talk about gloom and doom, but the U.S. Manufacturing sector will recover sooner than we brave to predict - a combination of federal spending, fiscal policies, lower material costs, potentially lower labor costs all work in its favor.