For BMW, SAP S/4HANA is at the center of its multiyear project COSMIC, an ambitious new way that its finance IT team is developing to track data on its vehicles. The company’s decision to implement SAP S/4HANA in 2016 also made it one of the earliest adopters of the ERP system.
On Thursday, September 13, SAP announced the winners of the first annual Excellence in Automotive Awards at the Best Practices for Automotive conference. The three awards; Breaking the Mold, Digital Disruptor and Excellence in Operational Performance were hotly contested. Each nomination was evaluated by a panel of industry experts on how they meet and exceed the pre-defined standards listed in each category, as well as ranked against their competitors.
Dan Mahlebashian – Global Business Solutions, Executive Director, General Motors
Stefan Krauss – General Manager, Discrete Industries, SAP
Andreas Mueller – Director IT & Innovation Management in Manufacturing, Robert Bosch GmbH
“The auto industry will change more in the next five to 10 years than it has in the last 50,” General Motors CEO Mary Barra notably mentioned at the World Economic Forum two years ago.
The speed of change can certainly be seen with leaders like Tesla beginning to charge for their connected cars premium internet and therefore establishing a revenue stream. As well as outsiders like Waymo (Google’s autonomous car development company) making huge strides in producing reliable and safe driverless cars.Continue reading
Today’s automotive business is vast and complex. Particularly for supply chain leaders, these industry complexities represent several challenges unique to the complexities of the automotive industry:
The automotive manufacturing world is experiencing a rapid business transformation. While some say this is due to the change in manufacturing of vehicles themselves, it really has to do with the way people use and want to use their vehicles. Consumers want more than to just head to a dealership and purchase a car. As consumers have seen many other aspects in life becoming connected, they want their automotive experience to be connected as well. This means manufacturers are becoming involved at a customer level to ensure everything is working seamlessly, from reminding customers to come in for an oil change, to notifying them when a connected part reports it needs a service upgrade.
With innovation available in nearly every aspect of the automotive industry, many organizations are left wondering, what they should prioritize to stay on the cutting-edge? What areas of focus will provide the most opportunity for growth, and what should they invest in to improve their bottom lines?
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Randy Urban – Vice President, Digital Office, Adient
Megatrends in the digital technology space are starting to converge and create opportunities that are going exponential. When trends go from linear to exponential, the change in ability or cost performance is transformational and leads to significant disruption. This can be seen in many industries today. The accelerating capabilities of digital coupled with a creative start-up mentality give people the ability to re-think just about any product or service. As these innovators re-imagine how to serve an industry or create a completely new one, those of us who are already operating in the business need to move onto the exponential curve or risk being disrupted. It is time for the automotive industry to transform.
The third annual Best Practices for Automotive conference brought together hundreds of industry professionals and SAP users to learn how to improve business performance in today’s digital and connected enterprise. Over the course of three days, attendees heard case studies and thought leadership on how to succeed over disruptive trends like workforce dynamics, autonomous technologies, IoT and connected cars, big data, increasing consumer demands, and more.
