Purpose
As quarterly business reviews (QBRs) remained unexplored in the scholarly community, this paper sheds light on what QBRs are, how they are being used across organisations and provides deep ...insights into the implementation of the QBR at an incumbent car manufacturer’s digital transformation business unit. Particular attention has been paid to decision processes, portfolio management, challenges and success factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Given the explorative nature of the research, a case study is well suited to explore the phenomenon in its real-world context, especially given the dynamic and volatile business environment. This article is based on insights from an incumbent car manufacturer undergoing a business-wide transformation.
Findings
The car manufacturer introduced the QBR process and themes to improve business effectiveness and efficiency through (1) focusing on the biggest issues, (2) concentrating efforts, (3) providing autonomy and stability, (4) building and maintaining strong relationships, and (5) building domain expertise. Through the QBR process, themes were (de)prioritised, resources allocated, financial value (estimates) agreed upon, and key performance indicators (e.g. £m/FTE; FTE, full-time equivalent employees) introduced. Digital product managers’ were assigned to the prioritised themes, and portfolio management structures were presented.
Originality/value
Managing short- and long-term objectives is challenging for most businesses but essential to perform well in uncertain environments. The QBR process can help organisations continuously (de)prioritise work and reallocate resources based on changing environments and aligned with strategic priorities.
Among the current challenges of the global automotive industry include changes in global markets that lead to a variety of products, regulation that drives pressure on new technologies, and ...competition from new competitors. This paper attempts to find answers to the question, how can we capitalize the semi-finished parts of the automotive industry that have emerged from the parameters demanded/imposed by the final customer or which have some visual / design defects, but which retain their functional role. In almost all cases, information and communication technology plays a major role in future strategies to meet the challenges mentioned above, which can stimulate the production process more efficient by using intelligent manufacturing approaches. Thus, this paper proposes to automate and maximize the capitalization of these parts, a Paternoster system for eliminating the logistics/storage space, reducing the handling time, increasing the efficiency and traceability of the scrap.
Over the past few decades, companies have shown growing concerns in relation to the environmental impact of their manufacturing activities. Green supply chain management (GSCM) has been considered by ...the manufacturers as a feasible option to reduce the environmental impact of operations while simultaneously improving their operational performance. The literature suggests that further research on institutional pressures, performance, and environmental practices are needed, especially in the case of developing countries. The present paper explores the GSCM pressures, practices, and performance observed in suppliers of a Brazilian automotive supply chain. The data were treated using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) provided by SmartPLS software. The results show that the economic and environmental performance of the studied supply chain is positively related to the adoption of GSCM practices. In addition, the present research also identified the institutional pressures that influence this supply chain to pursue green supply chain management practices. The results of this study provide managerial and theoretical approaches for different industries in Brazil to focus on environmental awareness by adopting GSCM practices. In addition, this study helps increase confidence among managers and policy makers of Brazilian companies in the adoption of GSCM practices to improve firm performance.
•The paper explores the GSCM pressures, practices, and performance in a Brazilian automotive supply chain.•The structural model based on PLS used a superior-order latent variables.•The research confirmed that institutional pressures are influencing the studied companies to pursue GSCM practices.•The results show that the adoption of GSCM practices positively impacts the economic and environmental performance.•The relationship between GSCM and operational performance could not be proved.
In the context of the automotive sector, production processes are characterized by an extensive variety of products, high and fluctuating production volume and numerous vehicle components. These ...features make internal logistics vastly challenging and prone to perturbations. Traditional control systems for manufacturing processes are evolving to more modular, intelligent and distributed systems. The existing literature reports that Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) is a suitable approach to implement these new control systems. However, the number of reported real world implementations in the industrial field is limited. In addition, no study has been found that considers the application of MAS techniques in the internal logistics of an industrial process. This article presents a MAS-based methodology for reducing the reaction time to a part missing alert triggered by an operator in an assembly line that uses the kitting process. A contract net Protocol was adapted to manage the interaction between the involved agents. With the purpose of implementing the proposed methodology on the industrial field, operators play an important role in the decision-making phase. The proposed MAS-based methodology was tested in a real-case scenario from a Renault Group plant. Historical data collected from the assembly line is used to model the system at the time in which an operator triggered the alert. The MAS-based approach was applied to propose solutions to address this perturbation. The obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by providing solutions that reduce the reaction time in more than 60%, compared to the production plant current approach. Future work will be devoted to the implementation of the proposed methodology on the industrial field.
Research on car dependence exposes the difficulty of moving away from a car-dominated, high-carbon transport system, but neglects the political-economic factors underpinning car-dependent societies. ...Yet these factors are key constraints to attempts to ‘decouple' human well-being from energy use and climate change emissions. In this critical review paper, we identify some of the main political-economic factors behind car dependence, drawing together research from several fields. Five key constituent elements of what we call the ‘car-dependent transport system’ are identified: i) the automotive industry; ii) the provision of car infrastructure; iii) the political economy of urban sprawl; iv) the provision of public transport; v) cultures of car consumption. Using the ‘systems of provision’ approach within political economy, we locate the part played by each element within the key dynamic processes of the system as a whole. Such processes encompass industrial structure, political-economic relations, the built environment, and cultural feedback loops. We argue that linkages between these processes are crucial to maintaining car dependence and thus create carbon lock-in. In developing our argument we discuss several important characteristics of car-dependent transport systems: the role of integrated socio-technical aspects of provision, the opportunistic use of contradictory economic arguments serving industrial agendas, the creation of an apolitical façade around pro-car decision-making, and the ‘capture’ of the state within the car-dependent transport system. Through uncovering the constituents, processes and characteristics of car-dependent transport systems, we show that moving past the automobile age will require an overt and historically aware political program of research and action.
•AHP applied to decision making of automotive industry supplier selection.•Use of AHP in supplier selection gives decision maker confidence of consistency.•Sensitivity analysis to check the ...robustness of the supplier selection decision.•Proposed approach divides complex decision making into simpler hierarchy.
The purpose of this paper is to propose a decision support model for supplier selection based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) using a case of automotive industry in a developing country of Pakistan and further performs sensitivity analysis to check the robustness of the supplier selection decision.
The model starts by identifying the main criteria (price, quality, delivery and service) using literature review and ranking the main criteria based on experts’ opinions using AHP. The second stage in the adopted methodology is the identification of sub criteria and ranking them on the basis of main criteria. Lastly perform sensitivity analysis to check the robustness of the decision using Expert Choiceۛ software.
The suppliers are selected and ranked based on sub criteria. Sensitivity analysis suggests the effects of changes in the main criteria on the suppliers ranking. The use of AHP in the supplier selection gives the decision maker the confidence of the consistency and the robustness throughout the process.
The AHP methodology adopted in this study provides managers in automotive industry in Pakistan with the insights of the various factors that need to be considered while selecting suppliers for their organizations. The selected approach also aids them in prioritizing the criterion. Managers can utilize the hierarchical structure of adopted supplier selection methodology suggested in this study to rank the suppliers on the basis of various factors/criteria.
This study makes three novel contributions in supplier selection area. First, AHP is applied to automotive industry and use of AHP in the supplier selection gives decision maker the confidence of the consistency. Second, sensitivity analysis enables in understanding the effects of changes in the main criteria on the suppliers ranking and help decision maker to check the robustness throughout the process. Last, we find it important to come with a simple methodology for managers of automotive industry so that they can select the best suppliers. Moreover, this approach will also help managers in dividing the complex decision making problem into simpler hierarchy.
Potential Cyberattacks on Automated Vehicles Petit, Jonathan; Shladover, Steven E.
IEEE transactions on intelligent transportation systems,
04/2015, Letnik:
16, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Vehicle automation has been one of the fundamental applications within the field of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) since the start of ITS research in the mid-1980s. For most of this time, ...it has been generally viewed as a futuristic concept that is not close to being ready for deployment. However, recent development of "self-driving" cars and the announcement by car manufacturers of their deployment by 2020 show that this is becoming a reality. The ITS industry has already been focusing much of its attention on the concepts of "connected vehicles" (United States) or "cooperative ITS" (Europe). These concepts are based on communication of data among vehicles (V2V) and/or between vehicles and the infrastructure (V2I/I2V) to provide the information needed to implement ITS applications. The separate threads of automated vehicles and cooperative ITS have not yet been thoroughly woven together, but this will be a necessary step in the near future because the cooperative exchange of data will provide vital inputs to improve the performance and safety of the automation systems. Thus, it is important to start thinking about the cybersecurity implications of cooperative automated vehicle systems. In this paper, we investigate the potential cyberattacks specific to automated vehicles, with their special needs and vulnerabilities. We analyze the threats on autonomous automated vehicles and cooperative automated vehicles. This analysis shows the need for considerably more redundancy than many have been expecting. We also raise awareness to generate discussion about these threats at this early stage in the development of vehicle automation systems.
The increasing demand for greener and biodegradable materials leading to the satisfaction of society requires a compelling towards the advancement of nano-materials science. The polymeric matrix ...materials with suitable and proper filler, better filler/matrix interaction together with advanced and new methods or approaches are able to develop polymeric composites which shows great prospective applications in constructions and buildings, automotive, aerospace and packaging industries. The biodegradability of the natural fibers is considered as the most important and interesting aspects of their utilization in polymeric materials. Nanocomposite shows considerable applications in different fields because of larger surface area, and greater aspect ratio, with fascinating properties. Being environmentally friendly, applications of nanocomposites offer new technology and business opportunities for several sectors, such as aerospace, automotive, electronics, and biotechnology industries. Hybrid bio-based composites that exploit the synergy between natural fibers in a nano-reinforced bio-based polymer can lead to improved properties along with maintaining environmental appeal. This review article intended to present information about diverse classes of natural fibers, nanofiller, cellulosic fiber based composite, nanocomposite, and natural fiber/nanofiller-based hybrid composite with specific concern to their applications. It will also provide summary of the emerging new aspects of nanotechnology for development of hybrid composites for the sustainable and greener environment.
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