The transportation industry is being forced to change at a rate that it has not seen in decades
Equally as challenging as the rapid pace of change is the perceived uncertainty around the drivers of that change. They include several factors, ranging from implementation of new tailpipe emissions and fuel economy standards around the globe, the shift in the role of the internal combustion engine (ICE) in the powertrain mix — thanks to developments in energy-storage technology and regulatory structures requiring electrification. Most recently, there have been advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and sensor technology, bringing the future of autonomous vehicles into our daily conversations.
Needed: Strategies to Mitigate Risk
We must be able to effectively interpret today’s trends and develop strategies to mitigate the risks they pose to business, while at the same time carving out potential growth opportunities that they present. While in some cases these changes are reducing the barriers to adoption of new technology, in others, the barriers are increasing, and in some cases new barriers are being created. Changes are impacting familiar areas such as development, demonstration and validation of new materials and processes, design and simulation predictability, legacy manufacturing processes, labor force readiness, sustainable manufacturing and recyclability. In all these areas, there is a common focus on overcoming barriers to the adoption of new technologies to meet the demands of the rapidly changing automotive market. Why does it take so long for new technology to find a place on the vehicle? Holistically speaking, the common denominator is risk.
Balancing Design and Performance with Risk
Beginning with automotive OEMs and tier supplier manufacturers, they are faced with pushing the limits of design and performance while at the same time managing the risk of introducing new technologies. The various kinds of risk include performance, repair, design, manufacturing, and recycling. The more innovations we as an industry endeavor to introduce, the more variables OEMs and tier manufacturing suppliers must consider. Ultimately, it becomes a question of bandwidth, which in turn leads to prioritization or at a minimum, some form of selection process. How do we make it easier for OEMs and tier suppliers to adopt new technologies? How do we help mitigate their risks, which in turn translates to overcoming barriers?
Advancing Technologies through a Value Chain that Presents Barriers
A quick review of the industry barriers, sharing success stories from industry leaders, including insights as to how they successfully overcame those barriers: One of the key take-aways from these success stories, which will quickly become clear, is the collaboration required to advance new technologies in the automotive industry. Ironically, the complex and highly developed value chain that makes up the automotive manufacturing industry, which is at the heart of the industry’s ability to produce complex vehicles with such high quality and efficiency, also presents one of the greatest intrinsic barriers to innovation. Ultimately, to develop a commercially viable innovation for application on a vehicle, the design, material and manufacturing processes must all come together and provide a complete, capable and validated package. This requires industry stakeholders to collaborate to realize success. While challenging, the right collection of partners can yield exceptional results. Another key take-away from these success stories is the importance of understanding product development cycles, both the vehicle product development cycle and the upstream product (material, manufacturing process, etc.) development and commercialization cycle. Combined, we refer to this as the automotive activity cycle.
The Product Development Cycle and the Automotive Activity Cycle
While each OEM has a traditional vehicle product development cycle, each aspect of the upstream products and processes being developed have their own unique development and commercialization cycle. For an innovation to gain traction, it is imperative to understand where a given product or technology is in its development cycle, relative to the vehicle product development cycle. Understanding this is particularly important relative to ensuring a successful collaboration. By calling attention to these barriers and strategies used to overcome them, we can all benefit from these lessons learned, and more effectively and efficiently accelerate the adoption of innovative new technologies.
Adam Harms – Managing Partner, Ruhl Strategic Partners
As appeared in Lightweighting World.
To further forward conversations regarding Lightweighting and accelerating the adoption of Advanced Materials and Technologies into the complex automotive and next generation mobility markets, please join and participate in the LinkedIn Lightweighting Barriers group.
