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OSAT and Roland Berger undertook a joint effort to analyze e-Business opportunities
for Automotive Systems Integrators. Two critical components of Systems Integrators
were selected to diagnose the potential benefits and risks of proactively and
strategically implemented e-Business tools. Product Development (up and down the
supply chain) and Relationship Management (towards OEM customers) were examined for
the following reasons. First, both the quantity and the value of the interactions
are high. Also, the uncertainties of the key industry tensions are particularly
evident, especially in how they will influence the lower tiers. Finally, the direction
taken by the Systems Integrators will clearly influence their competitive advantage,
as well as the shifts in the power balance.
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Sponsored by the Automotive Composites Consortium, this report identifies the barriers to wider implementation of structural composites
in the automotive industry, and offers some strategies to address those barriers effectively. The research process involved targeted
interviews with relevant platform, materials, and manufacturing engineering managers within the Big Three.
Authors: Michael S. Flynn and Bruce M. Belzowski. Sponsor: Automotive Composites Consortium/ Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation. Download Report ( Acrobat, 6.5MB)Return to selections
Historically the relationship between U.S. automakers and their suppliers has been
frequently antagonistic, often making cooperation difficult. This 2005 article discusses
this relationship and how different factors affect it. Moreover, this article explains
how understanding the role of these factors is important in assessing the current
state and likely futures of U.S. industry relationships and competitive health
Download Report (  Word, 185 KB)Return to selections
Sponsored by Baan USA and Hewlett-Packard, this 1998 report analyzes critical challenges to a key
set of suppliers—the integrators—as they take on major technical and managerial responsibilities
from the vehicle manufacturers. Building on both mail surveys and face-to-face interviews with
system integrator CEOs, CFOs, and CIOs, the report explores the implementation and successful
exploitation of IT technologies in the context of globalization, the restructuring of manufacturer
and supplier, responsibilities, and relationships.
Download Report ( Word, 515 KB)Return to selections
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration, this 1993 report
identifies and measures key structural changes in the automotive parts industry. Focusing on, the parts
industry experienced important changes in location, employment, firm characteristics and ownership during
the 1980s, the report also provides information on the most rapidly growing portion of the industry,
Japanese-affiliated vehicle and parts production.
Author: Sean P. McAlinden. Download Report ( Acrobat, 5.4 MB)
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Sponsored by A.T. Kearney, Inc., this 2000 report examines industry change in the automotive distribution
system, exploring and documenting the developments and challenges at the dealership level and issues in the
manufacturer-dealer relationship. Building on in-depth interviews with industry thought leaders and a large
sample survey of dealers and manufacturers, the report covers a wide range of executive and dealer views.
These include the role of the dealership in consumer decisions, how the dealership role is changing, and
what the dealership of the future will look like, as well as how the balance of power, dependence, and
responsibility may shift between dealers and manufacturers. This study examines many of the relationship
issues addressed in 1996’s The 21st Century Supply Chain: The Changing Roles, Responsibilities,
and Relationships in the Automotive Industry.
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Sponsored by the Michigan Automotive Partnership and Michigan Jobs Commission, this 1995 report includes a
forecast of Big Three hiring needs through 2003, as well as the views of industry participants on a wide
variety of human resource issues, including technical labor needs, hiring criteria, the performance of
Michigan educational institutions, and directions for state-level human resource policies.
Download Report ( Word, 645 KB)
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Two broad trends currently dominate the automotive industry’s reorganization: consolidation
and globalization. Despite the ongoing, if slow, growth of the industry, the number of
independent assemblers and suppliers is decreasing. In addition, assemblers and, to some extent,
suppliers are establishing a manufacturing presence in nations beyond their home countries.
This 2004 report was designed to examine the impact of these trends and investigate how new
entrants approached the challenges they faced in establishing U.S. operations.
Download Report ( Acrobat, 2 MB)Return to selections
Funded by Cap Gemini, this 1997 report draws on interviews and focus groups to identify and map both internal and external
forces of change affecting the industry. The report reviews and discusses a wide range of the major change challenges identified
by industry thought leaders, including globalization, customer desires and needs, technological innovation, and competition.
It also treats other challenges, such as economic factors, human resources, societal issues, governmental policy, and environmental
factors.
Authors: Michael S. Flynn, Barbara C. Richardson, and Jeffrey M. Davis. Download Report ( Acrobat, 15.7 MB)
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In the 1980s, four Japanese automotive manufacturers established transplant production
facilities in the United States. Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Toyota all came here for
shared reasons as well as reasons specific to each company’s strategies and constraints.
They found an industry profoundly different from what they had experienced in Japan,
but in many ways one much better than they expected it to be. Nevertheless they faced
enormous challenges and decisions. What is perhaps most surprising about their experiences is the extent to which quite varied approaches yielded similar results. Of course, the results were not identical, and some of that variation in outcomes was undoubtedly tied to the different approaches they adopted. A fundamental question about the experiences of these transplants is what lessons they learned about how to establish an assembly operation in the United States. This article discusses their experience in transplants. Download Report ( Acrobat, 1 MB) Return to selections
High oil prices are a key driver in the U.S. Vehicles Market. Profits from Big 3 will shrink by $7-$11 billion if gas goes to $2.86 or $80 a barrell. Automakers, Investors and Lawmakers should act now. Make Fuel efficiency job one. Recognize fuel efficency's role in protecting shareholder value. Raise fuel economy through incentives and standards.
Download Report ( PDF, 596 KB)Return to selections
Sponsored by the Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO), this 2001 report describes sourcing
relationships in North America and which model, if any, is becoming dominant. It also explores
supplier selectrion criteria, industry consolidations, power shifts, and the implications of emerging
e-exchanges for automotive parts and components.
Download Report ( Word, 331 KB)
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In late 2001 OSAT joined with EDS Automotive Solutions Group to explore how vehicle manufacturers determine the various combinations (trim levels, colors, options) of the vehicles that they sell. The project concentrated on the set of processes the industry calls “Order-to-Delivery,” or OTD. OTD is defined as those processes and procedures that are required from the time a vehicle is ordered by a dealer to the time the dealer actually takes delivery of that vehicle.
Why study this issue? For one, manufacturers constantly search for ways to be more competitive. Building an improved OTD system could result in a competitive advantage: lower costs, for example. Second, there is an opportunity to provide heightened levels of customer satisfaction. Third, new technologies, especially the Internet, might offer new opportunities to improve a system that has remained largely unaltered for years.
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This article analyzes e-Business opportunities and threats for automotive systems integrators. The report
discusses two critical e-Business domains, product development and relationship management. The analysis
identifies four tensions that define the systems integrators' strategic options, implications, and
imperatives.
Authors: Antonio Benecchi of Roland Berger and Richard Senter of the Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation. Published in Automotive Components Analyst. Download Report ( Acrobat, 60 KB)Return to selections
OSAT undertook this project to provide an independent examination and assessment of the prospects
for increased use of automotive plastics. The project was funded by contributions from the
University of Michigan and a consortium of automotive resin supplier companies. A central thrust
of the project is the identification and description of the resource conservation and recycling
issues raised by increased plastics use. This six-part series develops information on the economic,
infrastructure, and policy aspects of these issues, identifying the barriers to and facilitators of
the use of automotive plastics. The project adopts a combined product and material life-cycle approach.
Project reports include:
Adobe, 5.4MB)Return to selections
Our recent research found that supply chain management (SCM) is one of the areas where automotive
manufacturers and suppliers face the biggest challenges in integrating processes internally and
with their customers and suppliers. Why is SCM so hard? This 2004 report answers this
deceptively simple question. OSAT and the IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) undertook this
study to measure the performance and importance of SCM activities, examine current benchmark SCM
efforts, and the barriers and facilitators to their implementation. We also analyzed two major
SCM activities: manufacturer supplier relations and global sourcing.
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As a part of a broader University of Michigan project, OSATexamined how Detroit came to recognize
and understand crucial elements of Japan's technology strategy, and how it proceeded to attempt
the transfer of that technology to its own operations. Primary results identify the critical barriers
to and facilitators of the industry's learning process and discuss the process itself, with a view
to highlighting the lessons learned to enhance the learning rate of American industries.
Authors: Michael S. Flynn Download Report ( Adobe, 2MB)Return to selections The 21st Century Supply Chain: The Changing Roles, Responsibilities, and Relationships in the Automotive Industry (1996)
Sponsored by A.T. Kearney, Inc., this 1996 report investigates the changing basis and nature of relationships and responsibilities along the automotive
production chain. Reflecting the emergence of system integrators, the rapidly altering relationships among companies constitute a fundamental dimension
of future industry change and raise a number of strategically important issues for industry participants, whether vehicle manufacturers or suppliers.
This research effort includes a major survey covering the industry in North America, and selected interviews of industry leaders.
Return to selectionsAuthors: Michael S. Flynn and Bruce M. Belzowski Download Report ( Word, 296 KB)
This 2005 report presents a preliminary look at some important industry developments of the
past year, and suggests a few developments that may make the coming year another challenging
one for many automotive manufacturers and suppliers. Download Report ( Acrobat, 337 KB)Return to selections
Sponsored by Eaton Corporation, this 2002 report details a focused research investigation into engine top systems.
Based on executive interviews, the report discusses the drivers and barriers to OEM adoption of engine top
systems, as well as the decisional criteria and methodology the OEMs use. Download Report ( Acrobat, 337 KB)Return to selections The U.S.-Japan 1996 Bilateral Automotive Trade Deficit (1993)
Sponsored by the Automotive Parts Advisory Committee, the purpose of this study is to assist the
Committee in terms of designing and measuring the current and likely future problem of automotive
parts trade with Japan in the 1992-1996 period. The study produced:
Download Report ( Acrobat, 13 MB)
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