Automakers and suppliers tend to spend their time and talent on the customer-facing side of their business, where much of that focus has been on connected technologies. However, believes Dassault Systèmes’ Fred Thomas, DELMIA worldwide marketing director, this same thinking needs to be applied within the company, creating a connected organization that can innovate and change the market faster.
A recent interview of Thomas by AutoBeat Daily Editor-in-Chief Bill Hampton explored the topic of bringing connectivity to the shop floor. According to this interview, legacy mentality can hold companies back from achieving their potential.
The automotive industry today is being challenged by growing product complexity, globalization, mass customization, and supply chain expansion. At the same time there is a huge opportunity to gain competitive advantage using social applications, Big Data/analytics, mobile, and cloud with the right infrastructure in place.
Solutions implemented 20 or even just 10 years ago are neither up to the task of handling this increased complexity nor leveraging new opportunities. Yet, rather than investing in the new, many companies try and achieve the lowest cost solution by stringing together a bunch of point solutions in hopes that they gain some efficiency. But, with the pace of technological change, this just isn’t good enough. And, automakers know this. A 2014 Center of Automotive Research study Automotive IT Solutions: Engine of Innovation found that virtually every automotive company notes the use of in-house legacy systems as a challenge to their business operations.
Companies need to establish a long-term vision that can accommodate the inevitable change that the future will bring. And, according to Thomas, they should seek out a long-term technology partner with a similar vision, who can establish an infrastructure built upon a platform that is flexible enough to integrate various legacy IT applications.This platformization can achieve a “single source of truth,”, helping to create a cohesive collaborative environment that leverages the existing know-how and enables innovation.
This kind of change doesn’t happen overnight. But, there are strategies and tactics that can be employed to make achieve this transformation without totally disrupting the corporate operations. You can find out more here regarding how a centralized ‘single source of the truth’ can help continuously improve product and process quality in a global manufacturing environment, leading to faster innovation.
