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Case studies

Automotive

Description

Perimeter

The automotive sector can be divided between automobile manufacturers and equipment suppliers. Even if they exist in similar contexts and are highly interdependent, they are faced with different operational issues.

Context

Four recent events have helped to transform this industry on an unprecedented scale:

  • The crisis at the end of 2008 and the start of 2009 completely changed the positioning of the players. A deep crisis for US manufacturers, some of whom are already recovering, a slowdown for Japanese manufacturers, and in particular Toyota, strong resistance by the European industry, in particular the German makes and Fiat, and strong growth of new players in emerging countries (Tat, FAW).
  • The move of demand from traditional consumers (United States, Europe) to emerging countries (China, India and South America in particular) will lead to a significant shift of industrial resources, not to produce at low costs, but to come closer to the demand
  • The need to adapt the automobile to the demands of sustainable development has prompted manufacturers to take technological gambles that are very different from one another and very risky too.
  • Finally, increasingly demanding Western consumers have brought about ever higher levels of vehicle customization and a gradual shift from product sales to the sale of services, such as long-term total warranties, specific services for electric vehicles, pay by use, etc.

Manufacturers’ stakes

These four major trends have left manufacturers facing numerous operational challenges. By way of example:

  • The performance of innovation has become a strategically important factor, both in terms of strategic options, speed and efficiency. The management of innovation, development and industrial manufacturing resources on a worldwide scale is a key lever affecting this performance. Which skills in which geographical region for which product development strategy? How to assign resources and projects? How to rapidly redeploy critical resources on priority projects? How to make teams that are spread all over the world cooperate effectively?
  • The management of manufacturing capacity on a global scale has become even more complex. Which investments must be made in which emerging zones, for which market and which product family? What can be done with overcapacity in the West? Reduction, flexibility, productivity? Which balance between localization and relocation, in view of the rise in transport costs and service restrictions?
  • The supply chain of new vehicles needs to be optimized furtherif increasingly complex products, globalization and control of customer lead times, which are still long in spite of overcapacity, are to be reconciled. How is added value to be shared with suppliers? Where is the decoupling point between stocks and the allocation of orders? Which compromise between costs and flexibility on the assembly lines?
  • After-sales service is now a differentiating factor, but remains an important source of profitability. How is globalization impacting after-sales, and in particular the spare parts distribution logistics networks, which have always been continental in scale, and their management in order to improve availability and efficiency?

Equipment suppliers’ stakes

The challenges facing equipment suppliers in terms of innovation and industrial strategy are similar to those facing the manufacturers, even if their industrial strategy is highly dependent on that of their customers.

The performance of the supply chain remains very inconsistent from one supplier to another. Even if the industry is mature, some of them still have significant room for improvement, in terms of stocks, of components in particular, or of production costs.

How can Argon Consulting assist you ?

We assist our manufacturer and equipment supplier customers in the transformation needed to rise to these challenges, from the assessment of the issues they face to the application of a range of operational performance levers:

  • control and optimization of engineering resources (R&D supply chain), efficiency of  innovation processes, Lean engineering,
  • purchasing and optimization of the upstream supply chain (sourcing strategy, control of supplier performance, reduction of component stocks, deployment of VMI and the performance of procurement in general),
  • supply chain planning of the final production plants (forecasts, multi-site planning, capacity planning and optimization of the vehicle schedule list, optimization of re-scheduling resources) or the component factories (management of demand from the assembly plants, capacity planning, etc.),
  • control of just-in-time and synchronous flows,
  • industrial performance and Lean management (shorter and more reliable cycles, cost reductions),
  • maintenance of industrial systems,
  • optimization of vehicle distribution logistics,
  • optimization of the spare parts supply chain: spare parts service offer, target spare parts logistics plan, spare parts supply chain planning, reduction of stocks, efficiency of transport and warehouse logistics processes.

Argon Consulting’s customers include Valeo, Michelin, Hutchinson and the Fiat group.

Team

Yvan Salamon – President

The founder and President of Argon Group, Yvan has managed and been directly involved in many assignments to improve operations (costs, cash flow), as well as industrial and logistics strategy assignments, in particular for Valeo, Michelin Iveco and Euromaster. Before creating Argon Group, Yvan Salamon was a member of the European Board of Hays Logistics Group (Kuehne & Nagel), where he was in charge of production methods and organization. Prior to that, Yvan Salamon spent four years as the Production Plants Manager with CGC, and five years with the strategy consultancy bureau, Mars & Co. Yvan is a graduate of the Ponts & Chaussées engineering school.

Fabrice Bonneau –  Managing Director

Before becoming Managing Director of Argon Consulting, Fabrice was in charge of the Manufacturing Distribution Retail sector at Capgemini Consulting, and a member of the management committee. Before that, he was one of the founders of PEA Consulting.  Fabrice has worked on numerous performance improvement (cost cutting, stock reductions, improvement of service) and supply chain change projects. He has managed assignments for PSA, Renault, the Fiat Group, Michelin, Plastic Omnium, etc. Fabrice is a graduate of the Ponts & Chaussées engineering school and a qualified mathematician. Fabrice is also President of the Industrial Engineering department of the Ponts & Chaussées engineering school.

Fabrice Corbière – Associate Director

Fabrice Corbière has more than 20 years of experience in supply chain consulting. He has managed numerous supply chain transformation projects for automobile manufacturers and equipment suppliers, from the initial diagnostic to change management support, covering cost reductions, reduction of working capital requirement and improvement of customer services. He has managed assignments for PSA, Renault, Michelin, Plastic Omnium and FCI. Before joining Argon Consulting, Fabrice was an Associate Director with PEA Consulting, then with Cap Gemini Consulting, where he was in charge of the supply chain practice. Fabrice is a graduate of Centrale Paris.

Dominique Hondermarck – Associate Director

Dominique Hondermarck has more than 15 years of experience in consulting. Prior to that, he occupied operational positions for 15 years as Director of Manufacturing and as Design Office Director. He has supervised numerous projects in the automotive sector (PSA, Volvo Trucks, Française de Mécanique, Valeo, Michelin, etc.) in the following fields: Lean manufacturing and manufacturing performance, Lean Office and the performance of support functions, R&D efficiency and new vehicle launches, while always paying close attention to the change support methods. Dominique is one of the French experts in Lean manufacturing. Before joining Argon Consulting, Dominique was an Associate Director with Cap Gemini Consulting, then with Ineum, where he was in charge of the manufacturing activity. Dominique is a graduate of Centrale Lille and of INSEAD. He is also qualified in manufacturing information technology.

Thierry L. –  Director

Thierry L.has 12 years of experience both in supply chain consulting (PEA Consulting and Capgemini Consulting), but also in operations with Arcelor (manager of the service offer for automotive customers). He has accomplished several projects for leading automotive equipment suppliers (Michelin, etc.). Thierry has a broad experience of supply chain planning in international environments, from the diagnostic phase, through to the design of the target and implementation support, in the complete range of processes (service offer, forecasting, S&OP, DRP, deployment, MPS, scheduling, stock management, logistics strategy, supplier performance, etc.). Thierry is a graduate of Polytechnique and of Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon.

Eric T. – Director

Eric T. joined Argon Consulting after 10 years with BearingPoint, where he worked on logistics strategy projects, and on logistics and manufacturing performance. Before that, he worked for Productive Edge Associates. He has managed numerous projects in the automotive sector: optimization of spare parts logistics (Renault, Valeo Service, AD) and manufacturing productivity of equipment suppliers (Visteon, GKN, Valeo). Eric is a graduate of Polytechnique and of Ponts et Chausées.

Isabelle H. – Senior Manager

Isabelle H. is a Senior Manager in the supply chain and manufacturing practice, with more than 10 years of experience in consulting. A graduate of the Arts et Métiers school, she started her career with Sylea (Valeo), in the field of industrial planning. She formed the interface between the sales force and the plant managers, and was responsible for the consolidation of sales forecasts, the long-term workload of the factories and the transfer of production between factories. Isabelle has managed a number of performance improvement projects (warehouses, transport) for Valeo, Michelin and Hutchinson spare parts. She also took part in the transformation of the Michelin supply chain organization, which aimed at establishing customer / supplier type relations with the business units.

Donatien M. – Senior Manager

Donatien M. is specialized in supply chain. He has worked with both manufacturers and distributors on issues of logistics strategy and industrial planning and scheduling and operational improvement programs. He has worked for Getrag Ford. Donatien is a graduate of Centrale Paris in industrial engineering, production management and logistics.

Mathieu de N. –  Director

Mathieu de N. is a Director in the supply chain and manufacturing practice. Over the last few years, Mathieu has acquired outstanding expertise in the issues of logistics strategy, logistics and supply chain performance and industrial planning. He has completed around ten missions in the automotive sector for equipment suppliers, including Michelin and Valeo. Mathieu de N. is a graduate of Mines  Paris.

Luigi C. - Senior Manager

Luigi is a Senior Manager at Argon Consulting. He has 12 years of experience in Supply Chain. He worked on Supply Chain Planning, Continuous Improvement, and Inventory Management subjects for customers such as: Fiat Group, Faurecia, Michelin, Ford France. Before joining Argon Consulting, Luigi was Manager at Capgemini Consulting. Luigi is a graduate of LUISS Guido Carli Business school in Rome.

Emmanuel S. - Manager

Emmanuel S. is a Manager specialized in Distribution and Logistics. He has worked on Supply Chain organization and process optimization (purchasing, warehousing, transportation) and on IT implementation for the Supply Chain (assistance for solution choice, blue print, validation of solutions, change management), for Retailers (Department Store Le Printemps, Nespresso) and for Industrial Distributors (Yves Rocher, PSA, Gefco, EDF). Emmanuel is a graduate of Centrale Lyon in industrial engineering, production management and logistics.