SUPPLIER EYE

Sustaining business in the 2020s

Does your company have a sustainable business model for the 2020s? The disruptive realities of Electrification and Automated Driving will only accelerate during this decade, bringing pressures unimaginable to suppliers in the last few cycles. Recent bankruptcies in the stamping and casting sectors as well as re-sourcing actions in other areas were driven by unfavorable product mix, exposure to tariffs and labor disruptions, a high cadence of product launches and structural shifts within the industry.

Financial and technical upheaval in the supply base typically has occurred during times of substantial industry volume decline. Given that North American Light Vehicle Production volumes have varied less than 5% from 2017's 17.1 million tally to last year's labor-disrupted 16.3 million units, it's clear there are other factors driving supply base pressure.