Six Change Management Techniques for Automotive Suppliers

Changes initiated by customers provide major upside potential for automotive suppliers, but half are unable to increase their margins during the product lifecycle. What are the typical challenges linked to managing changes, and how can suppliers maximize profitability? The recipe for success is change management excellence.

How do you manage change?
All products undergo changes during their lifecycle. Technical changes, deviations from the agreed volume and variant mix, changing exchange rates, increasing material and energy costs, production transfers – the list is endless. For suppliers, these changes introduced by customers present considerable additional effort that should be remunerated accordingly. In reality, half of suppliers are unable to increase their margins during the product lifecycle, and many sustain margin losses.

A Simon-Kucher study shows there is another way. In a survey on product change management in…