The Multidisciplinary Automotive Industry
The automotive industry is a global industry. It's dominated by the international structures of the most globally active motor vehicle manufacturers and their component suppliers. Already today, only 35 percent of the development and construction of automobiles is done by the manufacturers themselves. The complex framework of customer and supplier relationships is being constantly expanded by a network of diverse partners. Engineering service providers, contract manufacturing, spin-offs, and system and production joint projects are all modern forms of cooperation within the automotive industry as ways of keeping up with global competition. In the pure price-competition, European vehicle manufacturers can't compete with South Korean competitors nor, increasingly, with Chinese competitors. Quality is also no longer a unique selling point. All experience suggests that even Germany will only have a long-term chance as a location for automotive production and employment if it reflects on its area of expertise: innovation.
In this time of a global showdown within the automotive industry, most manufacturers have already established clearly defined "interfaces" to cooperation partners to introduce new model and innovation cycles with the least possible friction. Choosing the right partners early on is critical. Vehicle manufacturers need to identify and expand promising business models in their networks. Logistics and communication play a supporting roll. As a comprehensive technological consulter within the automobile network,
SALT AND PEPPER strengthens innovation management in the automotive industry with both coordination and operations. Because the worldwide history of success of automotive development in Germany has shown one thing: It lives, just as it was organized itself, from momentum coming from outside - multidisciplinary.