The Future of Mobility and Manufacturing with Game Changers, Presented by SAP

Many businesses are struggling to attract and retain skilled workers, with record numbers resigning or retiring. This is particularly true in the manufacturing sector. The Buzz 1: A Manufacturing Institute [MI] survey found that “The Great Resignation” is really more of a “Great Retirement.” 808,000 manufacturing job openings in February 2022 were down from January’s 859,000 [U.S. Census Bureau]…Manufacturing quits rose from 315,000 in January to 337,000 in February, a new record. [rimanufacturers.com/the-great-resignation-or-great-retirement] The Buzz 2: MI’s February survey of 3,000 Americans: 82% of respondents who left a manufacturing job in the past six months retired due to age or health-related reasons. The remaining 18% resigned or were laid off, but 73% of those are back to work in a different manufacturing job, 7% in a different industry and 20% are still looking. The Buzz 3: The manufacturing sector is increasingly viewed as crucial to economic and pandemic recovery, yet outdated public perceptions could be impacting recruitment of vital new workers [Deloitte–MI news release]. 83% of manufacturers surveyed cited attraction and retention of a quality workforce as top concerns. But most workers prefer retail and services over manufacturing jobs. As manufacturers look to automate their operations, are workers in the field and on the shop floor being left behind? Will digital technologies that inform and engage workers – digital signage, AR, VR – help companies access a wider labor pool and attract new workers? We’ll ask Christophe Justeau, Andy Hancock and Johannes Papst for their take on Does A Digital Factory Attract New Workers?

What’s that up in the sky? … The Buzz 1: “It’s only when you’re flying above it that you realise how incredible the Earth really is.” [Philippe Perrin, Astronaut, stellar-frontiers.com] The Buzz 2: Low Earth Orbit [LEO] satellite production is booming and innovation is accelerating, with billionaires Bezos, Musk, Branson and others investing in this global game-changing opportunity. A LEO is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less, with at least 11.25 orbits per day…Most artificial objects in outer space are in the LEO region, below an altitude of 1,200 miles. [en.wikipedia.org] The Buzz 3: The global LEO satellites market size was expected to grow to $4.13bn in 2022 at an 18.2% compound annual growth rate, and reach $9bn in 2026, due to increasing adoption of LEO satellites in various sectors; rising importance across communications and defense industries; integration of IoT; machine learning; advancements in aerospace; miniaturization of satellites. [globenewswire.com] The Buzz 4: Under a $2m U.S. Space Force contract, Slingshot Aerospace will develop an analytics tool that uses location data from commercial satellites in LEO to identify potential sources of electronic interference on the ground. [spacenews.com] The Buzz 5: To modernize today’s Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation with new technology and advanced capabilities, Lockheed Martin is building up to 32 next-generation GPS III/IIIF satellites. [lockheedmartin.com] How will the Aerospace industry keep booming? Aerospace manufacturers are conquering challenges, creating innovative products that require complex manufacturing with stringent quality levels and compliance. These products must work consistently every time and build strong revenue streams despite global economic variability and turbulence. After all, satellites can’t be returned to a store near you. We’ll ask Russell Bertwell at Accenture, Chris Schrand at Siemens and Michael Edelen at SAP for their take on Accelerating Aerospace Innovation at Supersonic Speeds.

The Buzz: *** “Many supply chains are perfectly suited to the needs that the business had 20 years ago.” [MIT Professor Jonathan Byrnes] *** “Looking at the world through a sustainability lens not only helps us 'future proof' our supply chain, it also fuels innovation and drives brand growth.” [Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever] *** “Supply chains cannot tolerate even 24 hours of disruption. So if you lose your place in the supply chain because of wild behavior you could lose a lot. It would be like pouring cement down one of your oil wells.” [Thomas Friedman] In today’s world, manufacturing companies realize that to be successful they must consider both their profit and their impact on the planet. This means developing more sustainable products and running more sustainable processes – but at the same time, they need to cope with a constant stream of disruptions, such as natural disasters, geo-political events, and resource and talent shortages. How? Manufacturers need to collect and analyze the data to meet all the regulations and make informed decisions and tradeoffs. They also need to operate their production, logistics and business processes to lower emissions, reduce waste and ensure good social business practices – while still having agility to adapt and adjust. And they must develop and produce sustainable products that help their customers meet their own sustainability goals – at a profit. We’ll ask Ed Cone at Oxford Economics, and Andreas Queck and Moncombu Raju at SAP for their insights as we ask the big question, The Sustainable, Resilient Supply Network: A Paradox?

The Buzz 1: A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. [Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup] The Buzz 2: There was a study done in the early 20th century of all the entrepreneurs who entered the automobile industry around the same time as Henry Ford…500 automotive companies that got funded, had the internal combustion engine, had the technology, and had the vision. Sixty percent of them folded within a couple of years. [Eric Ries] The Buzz 3: “The quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.” [Sir Henry Royce] The Buzz 4: “It doesn’t cost any more to make something pretty.” [Jaguar Cars founder Sir William Lyons] Hurray! We’re finally seeing the delivery of new vehicles. Now what? The past 5 years have seen explosive growth in new automotive and mobility startups. Each player has had to launch their company, carve their niche in the market, develop vehicles and get them into initial production – all while establishing a supply chain during a global pandemic. Reality check: The challenges have been immense and they're not over – they’re just coming from new directions and becoming more complex as these companies move towards scale. What’s on the road ahead in terms of the people, processes and capabilities startups will have to establish, scale and refine in an increasingly competitive industry? We’ll ask Jim Davis at SAP and Paul Prehl at MHP for their insights on The New Auto and Mobility Startups: Rolling Along or Stalling?

The Buzz 1: XaaS stands for Everything as a Service or Anything as a Service. It's an acronym for providing any products, tools and technologies that businesses may need as a service instead of on premise or with a physical product.” (givainc.com) The Buzz 2: “Whether you view XaaS (everything-as-a-service) as a dream or a nightmare, it’s here to stay.… XaaS is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Nor must it be a revolutionary one – though it will challenge your business.” (manufacturing.net) The Buzz 3: “The concept of servitization is not new, but it is obtaining renewed interest … Rather than buying the piece of equipment, the customer contracts with the supplier for the result. So, instead of buying paving equipment, the customer might buy x miles of paved road for $x. The customer is assured of getting the final result. The supplier uses equipment sensors and internet of things (IoT) technology to track performance of the machinery on the job site.” (diginomica.com) What does the future hold for XaaS models for industrial manufacturing companies and what will adoption look like in the next five years? Subscription and servitization models are getting a lot of attention, as they typically provide higher margins and more resilience than product-based businesses. This transformation – from selling products to selling services and outcomes – provides manufacturers with needed predictability of revenue and potentially higher margins as they face continuous disruption, commoditization of products and stagnating growth. Although subscription offerings for remote monitoring, equipment diagnostics, predictive maintenance and other digital services are gaining traction, the adoption of outcome- or usage-based models seems to be slowing down. Why? We’ll ask Don Swenson at SAP and Sergey Jermakov at CLARITY for their take on XaaS: Is The Hype Real for Industrial Manufacturing Companies?

The Buzz 1: “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” [Phil Jackson, former NBA professional basketball player and coach] The Buzz 2: “People achieve more as a result of working with others than against them.” [Dr. Allan Fromme, psychologist, teacher, author] The Buzz 3: “It takes both sides to build a bridge.” [Frederik Nael, Indonesian writer of science fiction and fantasy short stories] The Buzz 4: If designing a traditional business model is like planning and building a house, designing an ecosystem is more like developing a whole residential district: more complex, more players to coordinate, more layers of interaction and unintended emergent outcomes.…business ecosystems, similar to residential districts, cannot be entirely planned and designed—they also emerge. [www.bcg.com] Businesses frequently talk about collaboration with their partners as the path to business growth and ongoing success. But is it just talk? Their challenge has been how to successfully execute, addressing top-of-mind concerns over working with competitors, as well as intellectual property rights and protection. Today, collaboration along the value chain as a unified ecosystem – with competitors, customers and suppliers – is increasingly important for staying competitive. Who are the winners in today’s dynamic and challenging marketplace? Companies with broad partner ecosystems, who bundle their products with customized products, financing or more attractive terms, extended services, equipment maintenance services, and even application services – all of which may come from partner companies. This requires a new mindset facilitated by supply chain collaboration, strong business networks, and close customer engagement. We’ll ask Muriel Rakotomalala, David Dunn and Matt Reymann for their insights on how the Chemical industry is benefiting from Cutting-Edge Business Networks: The Future of Collaboration.

The Buzz 1: An Accenture report found that 53 percent of car buyers would consider buying a car online. (www.rd.com) The Buzz 2: Nearly 30% of U.S. new car sales in 2020 were completed online, compared to 2% of vehicles pre-pandemic. Online car retailer Carvana sold 244,111 cars in 2020, a 37% jump from 2019. (www.abcnews.go.com) The traditional in-person automotive purchasing experience has always been alluring, offering shoppers the opportunity to inhale the new car scent, examine the shiny power under the hood, literally kick the tires, ask questions of a human salesperson, and feel the road in a test drive. Indeed, this type of car buying has “liquified” even the coolest showroom visitor! Even as online car sales slowly gained traction in recent years, most buyers still preferred to judge this relatively high-tag item on a seen-it, test-drove-it, loved-it-in-person basis. The pandemic accelerated this shift, replacing the traditional bricks-and-mortar business model with an online version – click it, order it, pick it up, keep-or-return it – for which the automotive industry, for the most part, wasn’t ready. Happily, the industry is still proving its resilience, with year-over-year growth in new vehicle sales, evident once more across Asia, and even in Europe and the US. A modern, action-oriented approach, beyond just data collection and data management, is the best chance car dealers have of improving their understanding of new customer expectations, and even making in-person strengths transferable to online selling. The new approach got accelerated by new players in the EV market as they avoided traditional methods from the beginning and adjusted to a state-of-the-art customer experience. We’ll ask Guenter Lasser, Daniel Grimm and Christos Maglousidis what success strategies retailers are putting in place to win the hearts and minds of the digital online car buyers, on Today’s Automotive Retail: What Will It Look Like Tomorrow?

The Buzz 1: “I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow… it’s cloud illusions I recall… I really don’t know clouds at all.” (Both Sides, Now, 1966 song by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell) The Buzz 2: “Manufacturing companies are often unfairly characterized as Luddites when it comes to the adoption of technolog.…Fast forward to 2021 and manufacturing is transformed.…The cloud computing model fits this dynamic environment better than giant, complex on-premise systems that cost a fortune, take years to implement and can’t adapt to market, organizational or process changes.” (www.forbes.com) Over the last few years, as they have faced continuous disruption and new competition, Industrial manufacturing companies have embraced cloud solutions – a significant turnaround for an industry that was slow to do so, especially on the factory floor. Now they look to industry cloud solutions to help them become more agile and respond faster to new challenges and opportunities across their entire value chain. Not only are they moving core processes to the cloud, they also see modular and industry specific cloud solutions that can be easily implemented and integrated to core processes, as an effective way to innovate and scale quickly, configure complex solutions, move to new service- or outcome-based business models, and manage data from manufacturing assets – all while still running a sustainable, efficient business. We’ll ask Matthieu van Bilsen at IBM and Patrick Lamm at SAP for their take on How Cloud Solutions Help Industrial Manufacturers Transform.

The Buzz 1: “Semiconductors are used in everything from iPhones to fighter jets…Every time you step into a car or send an email, you're using semiconductors… Some blame the global shortage of semiconductors on poor planning, supply-chain complexities, and a tradition of keeping chip inventories low in key industries due to expense…others argue the chip shortage is more a function of the world's growing demand due to 5G developments, the expansion of online gaming and video streaming , and the increasing complexity of modern automobiles.” (markets.businessinsider.com) The Buzz 2: “A survey of more than 150 firms found semiconductor supplies had fallen from an average of 40 days’ worth in 2019 to just five days in late 2021. Sales of devices soared during the pandemic, leaving semiconductor makers struggling to keep up with demand. The shortage has resulted in huge disruptions for major industries.” (bbc.com) The Buzz 3: “Even before the pandemic hit there was tightening…The chip companies actually have to take a different view now of supply entry…how you plan your capacity, your relationships with your suppliers.” (semiconductor company Marvell CEO Matt Murphy (www.cnbc.com) The Buzz 4: “Automakers, chip firms differ on when semiconductor shortage will abate.” (reuters.com) Yes, supply chain shortages of semiconductor chips have already impacted or will impact each of us in our daily lives. How to improve this scenario? Semiconductor manufacturers need better visibility of actionable business and manufacturing data, to determine the true costs and supplies of chips. That will lead to better accuracy of profit and loss data for companies in related markets, better prioritization of wafer lots and ultimately better service levels to customers. We’ll ask SAP’s Jeff Howell and Dave Dunn and PDF Solutions’ David Park and Kimon Michaels for their take on the challenges and potential solutions on Revealing Hidden Yield Costs in Semiconductor Manufacturing.

The Buzz 1: “Historically, the automotive industry has not focused on sustainable practices. Traditional assembly-line manufacturing uses huge amounts of energy, metals, plastics, toxins, and manpower, leaving behind a massive carbon footprint.… most vehicles require fossil fuels to operate, which release harmful emissions.… Attitudes toward sustainability are maturing…big and small players in the automotive industry are increasingly feeling the pressure to rethink the way they operate.” [www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2021/12/01/how-the-automotive-industry-is-driving-toward-a-sustainable-future/?sh=41c08b7f8f1b] The Buzz 2: A November 2021 greenpeace.org report estimated that the 86 million cars sold in just 2018 accounted for 9% of global greenhouse gas emissions. [www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-eastasia-stateless/2021/11/47de8bb4-gpea_auto_environmental_guide_2021.pdf] Sustainability, and delivering on the potential of sustainable mobility, are quickly rising to the top of strategic priority lists across the automotive sector. Accomplishing this objective demands end-to-end, long-term thinking and innovation to ensure sustainability is embedded into every activity, process, and outcome. Sustainability is evolving from being seen as a challenge to an opportunity for automakers and their extended value chains. Technology and data, the enablers of this change, have matured to a point where automotive OEMs are held back only by the level of their ambition. Leaders with the strategy and commitment to succeed will not just elevate their brand in the minds of customers, investors, and regulators – they will also achieve significant cost and productivity benefits. We'll ask Daniel Garschagen at Capgemini and Moncombu Raju at SAP for their take on On the Road to Sustainable Mobility in the Automotive Industry.

The Buzz 1: The United Nations website (sdgs.un.org) focuses on sustainable manufacturing as a form of manufacturing development that meets ‘the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ The U.S. Department of Commerce, on the other hand, defines sustainable manufacturing as ‘the creation of manufactured products that use processes that minimize negative environmental impacts, conserve energy and natural resources, are safe for employees, communities, and consumers and are economically sound.’ (marlinwire.com/blog/what-is-sustainable-manufacturing-2) The Buzz 2: Companies are realizing value from integrating sustainability into their operations and products. Between 2013 and 2020, companies with consistently high ratings for environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance have outperformed their peers, achieving operating margins 3.7x higher than lower ESG performers and generating 2.6x higher annual total returns to shareholders. (Accenture Research Report, Delivering on the promise of sustainability, April 2021) Sustainability is becoming an important consideration for both consumers and employees. And this has significant implications for industrial manufacturing companies in 2022 and beyond, and how they move towards more sustainable products, processes and even outcomes. Will the move towards servitization enable the Circular Economy and its challenges? Are further digitalization and Industry 4.0 (and 5.0) needed? What are the biggest roadblocks to becoming sustainable in the post-Covid world? We’ll ask experts Thomas Rinn at Accenture and Sayan Bose and Lloyd O’Donnell at SAP to share their insights and make bold predictions for the upcoming year and beyond on Manufacturing and Industry 4.0: Looking Towards A Sustainable Future.

The Buzz 1: Electric cars lost their image of being flimsy, slow and perhaps slightly embarrassing a long time ago.…Especially younger generations consider looking after the environment more important than roaring down the freeway, but newer electric cars have speed…Oil and gas companies look set to integrate electric charging points at fuel stations as standard. (roboticsandautomationnews.com) The Buzz 2: As of May 2019, approx. 2–3 million of the 1+ billion cars on the world’s roads are pure battery-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, says the International Energy Agency, which forecasts by 2040 there will be 300-400 million EVs out of ~2 billion vehicles on the road. [roboticsandautomationnews.com] The Buzz 3: EV Level 1 chargers use a regular 110-V outlet and can enable apartment building residents to drive 30–40 miles on an overnight charge. Level 2 chargers use a 240-V outlet, are in shopping malls and parking garages, can top-up an EV in ~5 hours. DC fast chargers [DCFC] use a 480-V outlet, can top-up an EV in under 1 hour, but not all EVs can fast-charge. (www.reuters.com) Yes! The confidence of knowing that you can find a charging station for your electrical vehicle on any journey you take is critical. Only then can drivers and passengers plan their lives and travels around a dependable EV charging infrastructure. Charge point operators – organizations that manage such charging stations – are crucial components of this puzzle. How can they not only provide electrons, but also offer diagnostics, maintenance, price setting and data management services reliably? We’ll ask experts Marcus Fendt at Mobility House and Sebastian Wagner at SAP how these businesses can thrive in a new-mobility world on Charge Point Operations: How Electrical Vehicles Go Mainstream,

The Buzz 1: “Prior generations took pride in owning products, but current and future generations are very different; they just want to use the product.” (Prof. Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffe, Bocconi University School of Management) The Buzz 2: “Servitization remains something of an opaque concept for many manufacturers while for others, it is a journey they are already a long way down…the countdown to widespread adoption of some form of advanced services appears to draw nearer…but it can’t be achieved by simply improving or replacing separate legacy business systems and processes.” (fieldservicenews.com) As margins continue to shrink for traditional equipment sales, manufacturers must embrace new business models. One pathway for greater profitability is offering different types of services for assets. These could be a simple break fix, annual contracts, or providing services based on data collected from the assets such as performance benchmarking, predictive maintenance and even outcome or guaranteed performance. How can manufacturers undertake the journey to embrace these new service offerings? What sorts of intelligent technologies and business processes are needed to ensure that such asset-centric, data-centric businesses will be successful? We’ll ask Torsten Welte at SAP, David Lowson at Capgemini and John Maggiore at Collinear Group for their take on Is Service the Solution? The New World for Manufacturers.

The Buzz: “A business network is a complex network of companies, working together to accomplish certain objectives…The collaborating companies in a business network are not bound by location, size, sector, or number. They are open to new partnerships that help them to stay competitive.” (en.wikipedia.org) As discrete manufacturing continues to become more complex and decentralized, your success increasingly depends on the strength of your network of suppliers, talent, and partners. From running your supply chain to managing supplier relationships and optimizing service delivery, you need to learn how business networks enable greater transparency and resilience. This will help ensure you achieve your sustainability objectives – which you can then show to customers and stakeholders. Business networks are also instrumental in enabling new business models while removing costs from your value chain. Discover how these capabilities and benefits will become even more important in our post-pandemic world. We’ll ask Simon Ellis at IDC and Stefan Krauss at SAP for their take on Why Business Networks Matter More Than Ever.

The Buzz 1: “Gigafactories” [battery factories for electric cars] could one day be churning out millions of electric vehicle batteries in the UK. The government has already committed the country to a ban on selling new petrol- and diesel-engined cars by 2030, so it seems that electric vehicles (or EVs) are likely to replace much of today’s fleet.” The Buzz 2: “Most EVs today use lithium ion batteries, but these have a number of limitations. Luckily, scientists and engineers are exploring a number of ways to overcome these challenges that could help give the drive to convert cars to electricity a boost.” (theconversation.com/electric-vehicle-batteries-what-will-they-look-like-in-the-future-164263) For electric vehicles to become truly mass-market, they will need highly energy-efficient and safe batteries. Good news: Several companies are designing and supplying electric vehicle OEMs and other manufacturers and industries with such power sources. With the limited availability of some raw materials slowing the growth of EV adoption, battery makers are innovating and collaborating to support new business models such as battery swaps, speeding-up charging times and increasing the range of EVs. And they are developing smart battery services to help diagnose battery failures faster and resolve issues earlier, to gain customer trust and loyalty and reduce warranty costs. We’ll ask Marcus Bohlemann at MHP Americas, Bernard Swiecki at CAR Group and Mukund Rao at SAP for their insights on the design, manufacture and sale of batteries and the battery maker’s opportunities and challenges on The Battery Makers are Coming! How Automotive Electrification is Driving Their Rise.

The Buzz 1: “Supply chains are everywhere. From the biggest company in the world to running your household. We all have supply chain experience even if we don’t know it.” (Dave Waters, Senior European Supply Chain Manager, STERIS Corporation) The Buzz 2: “The importance of supply chain in the c-suite is immense. At one time supply chain was an after thought. Now with companies like Amazon, Apple and Walmart showing the importance of supply chain, no one can take the credibility away. Supply chain was discussed in the c-suite constantly in 2020 because of COVID-19.” (www.supplychaintoday.com/supply-chain-leadership-business-quotes/) This past 18 months, with the world disrupted by a global pandemic, have shown us the importance of supply chain management. The results are being felt today in many industries and the consumers who rely on them. To effectively cope with ongoing disruption, your company’s supply chains need to be transparent, connected and resilient. Lesson learned: Industrial manufacturers that had already invested in digitalization and Industry 4.0 were better able to seize the opportunity to reinvent supply chains and respond with agility to new business opportunities – new markets, customers, business models. Good news: By using real-time demand data throughout the supply chain and factory floor, newer and better ways to make and deliver things are now possible. We’ll ask David Dreyer and Chao Yi at SAP for their insights on how digitalization and Industry 4.0 innovation can help make manufacturing and supply chains nimbler and more resilient.

The Buzz: “Spare parts are the engine in the aftermarket. In the interest of your customers you want to make sure that it does not sputter.” (Oliver Bendig, German After Sales & Industrial Manufacturing Lead at Monitor Deloitte) Planning and ensuring that your supply chain has the right aftermarket part at the right time for the right customer is an incredibly challenging logistical challenge. This is especially true in the automotive business, when it involves your customers’ means of transport and the demand is uncertain. How can service parts manufacturers ensure they have the flexibility and visibility to be responsive to variable demand, collaborate with dealers and aftermarket providers, and help get customers back on the road quickly and safely? We’ll ask Ravi Patwardhan at Deloitte, Guada Joseph at SAP and Sundar Chandrasekaran at Deloitte for their expert insights on how to make planning and managing service parts a more reliable process on Automotive Service Parts Planning: Streamline Your Aftermarket for Reliability.

The Buzz 1: Outcome selling is a framework that prioritizes a customer’s desired outcomes, rather than simply pushing the sale of your product. Outcomes are long-term gains that result from a product’s benefits. [blog.hubspot.com/sales/outcome-selling] The Buzz 2: “Suppose you owned an airline and ordered an engine from Rolls-Royce or GE. What are you really looking for? A piece of machinery to meet a product need? Or a powerful, safe, and reliable means to deliver air passengers to their destinations? This question has been top-of-mind among manufacturers aiming to drive profitable growth, triggering a fundamental shift to the way a business operates that increasingly focuses on outcomes. For example, when Rolls Royce or GE provide a “power by the hour” engine solution, they are delivering an outcome and potentially more value to the customer.” [hbr.org/2016/06/manufacturing-companies-need-to-sell-outcomes-not-products] As manufacturing companies shift from selling equipment to selling solutions and outcomes, their sales organizations, processes and technology need to shift accordingly. Only when you achieve deeper collaboration between sales and engineering, as well as the integration of front and back-office functions, can sales teams excite and influence customer decision making. We’ll ask Gustavo Millan at SAP, Henk Meeter at Echelon Solutions Group, and Vishal Chaturvedi at IBM for their insights on how manufacturing companies can shorten sales cycles, increase revenue and boost customer satisfaction, on From Selling Equipment to Selling Outcomes: Intelligent Technology.

The buzz: “Despite the gloom, the auto industry is far from stagnant. The next decade will be one of its biggest yet. 2020 gave automakers the opportunity to reposition themselves as they emerge from the crisis on a new path towards electrification and connectivity.…2021 will see a continuation of trends that have been bubbling even before COVID.” (https://www.automotiveworld.com/articles/whats-next-for-the-automotive-industry-in-2021/ January 22, 2021) Automotive suppliers were severely tested in 2020 as they scrambled to pivot and stay agile in order to deal with the fallout of a global pandemic – including lockdowns, disrupted supply chains, and remote workers. Now in Spring 2021, there is good news. Suppliers can leverage this disruption to emerge stronger and better capable of tackling the accelerating trends of autonomous driving and electrification that confront mobility providers. How will supplier companies that survived perform in 2021? How can they operate profitably and drive new growth? We’ll ask Markus Scherbaum at Capgemini and Rich Lindow at SAP for their take on Rise Better: How Automotive Suppliers Can Thrive Post-Pandemic.

The buzz: “If the events of the past few months have been any indication, manufacturers will need to get comfortable operating in an environment of constant uncertainty and change…to monitor these changes and determine the implications for their business strategy and their relationships with their suppliers and customers.” [www.bdo.com/insights/industries/manufacturing-distribution/what-the-post-covid-19-world-could-look-like-for-m] How can manufacturers manage this “new normal”? They need to ensure research and design efforts are customer-centric and can be brought to market quickly. Industrial equipment and products need to support new as-a-service business models that impact the design process and collaboration across the value chain. And they must continue to design and deliver custom-tailored products and solutions that customers want and need. Hint: Industry 4.0 capabilities can help with these challenges. We’ll ask Joe Bohman at Siemens, and Bernard Meyer and Richard Howells at SAP how the design process is evolving and the importance of having intelligent solutions to streamline and integrate product and solution design, on How Manufacturers Build The Next Generation Products and Solutions.