Global development network at an automotive supplier

The company is one of Germany's largest automotive suppliers and has three powerful, globally recognised product brands.

The controlled development or expansion of the global development network presents the company with new challenges, as a large number of optimisation directions have to be taken into account:

• Efficient control of the network
• Access to missing knowledge
• Access to new personnel markets
• The clear allocation and bundling of product and technology responsibility
• Improving market or customer proximity
• Better support for production facilities or purchasing in the countries
• The establishment of engineering service locations in best-cost countries

At the same time, many managers and employees were afraid of globalisation.

The network was structured using a standardised company-wide role model. Each location was assigned several roles: Each location was assigned responsibilities for products, technologies, customers, processes, services, etc. according to its role.

This structure was used to record the initial situation. By highlighting the most important strategic goals of the individual business units and comparing them with the initial situation of the global development network, weaknesses and gaps were identified and target images for various time horizons were derived.

The expansion of the global development network is now managed via an annual rolling process that is synchronised with the corporate strategy and budgeting process.