Dave Opsahl, CEO at Actify, the leading provider of visualization and program management solutions for the automotive supply chain, is drawing industry-wide attention to deep-seated challenges within the automotive industry that have the potential to extend the production impacts felt in 2020 and 2021.
Also Read: The 2022 Washington, D.C. Auto Show Celebrated Its Future of Mobility
“The entire automotive supply chain, from OEMs to lower-tier suppliers, is in need of a fundamental restructuring because the relationship between cost and risk has gone out of balance,” said Opsahl in his recent article on Forbes.com. “With supply lines that stretch across oceans and continents, and an extraordinary level of interdependency, there is simply not enough resiliency to absorb climate, political, or health disruptions. The relentless drive to remove costs and increase speed has left the supply chain too brittle, and we are seeing the cracks everywhere.”
Actify counts around 1,700 auto suppliers in its global customer base and in his role as CEO, Opsahl hosts formal group meetings, attends on-site visits, and has frequent informal contacts with companies reflecting a broad spectrum of component suppliers.
“I cannot recall a single supplier that is not already stretched to the limit due to the inability to scale their program management team,” Opsahl stated. “Program managers orchestrate each program launch, and it is not unusual for them to be working at 150-200% of planned program capacity. Now, as OEMs ramp their EV model introductions, demand is set to swell but there is no program manager capacity available to supply.”
While the constraint exists in the supplier base, this is a problem that has the potential to impact future OEM production plans. Suppliers can address the problem by developing more program managers and adopting new software tools, including those developed by Actify. But OEMs can act in their own interest by adopting a more collaborative approach to contracts and simplifying decades-old procurement procedures and supplier operations mandates.
As an automotive supplier champion, Opsahl and his team have continued to raise awareness of the opportunity to transform program management, as well as how suppliers can prepare for the future of the automotive industry as the rise in EVs continues to gain steam.