Innovation to manage challenges

Issue #81, May 14th, 2021

The automotive industry is know for its innovative practices in both the product and in the processes to make them or in management. Toyota is applying is tried and tested kaizen approach for continuous improvement to manage the ship shortage by implementing a centralized inventory management framework across its supply chain. Ford is reskilling existing employees to plug the gap for new roles. EV makers want a direct to customer model to sell. Lithium miners want to recycle rare materials in cars. Here are some updates. To read updates in specific areas like supply chain management and change management, please follow the Infosys Knowledge Institute page. A recent HBR article is on breaking down change into small steps. More topics to follow.

Kaizen @ Toyota for chip shortage

To better deal with the chip shortage, Toyota is applying its popular kaizen philosophy to inventory management. Toyota does not maintain backup stock of components at its factories, instead ordering items from suppliers as they run out in the so-called just-in-time system. While Toyota can track which supplier factories are in operation following a natural disaster or some other emergency, it had no way of monitoring inventory levels at individual suppliers. Toyota is now considering a digital, centralized inventory management framework encompassing its entire supply chain. - Nikkei Asia

Push for direct EV sale

Electric-vehicle companies want New York lawmakers to let them open more dealerships in the state, a move that they and environmental groups said would expand sales of emission-free cars and trucks. Tesla currently has five dealerships in and around New York City. But state law prevents other auto makers from direct sales. The five dealerships were grandfathered in before a 2014 state law tightened requirements that vehicles be sold through independently owned dealerships. - WSJ

Reskilling at Ford

It's a case of high demand but not enough qualified takers. That's the situation right now regarding manufacturing jobs, especially in the auto industry—too many jobs, not enough applicants with the necessary skills. To fill that gap, automakers like Ford have turned to launching internal education programs to teach existing employees the skills needed to fill vacant openings. It's a concept catching on in many industries known as reskilling or upskilling and the need for it accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic as individuals either left the workforce or pursued other occupations. - Forbes

Lithium miners recycling battery materials

The world’s biggest lithium miner wants to extract more of the battery metal from old cars as demand surges and aging electric vehicles are traded in. Albemarle Corp. is making investments and partnering with automotive equipment manufacturers on the recycling effort, which it calls “critical” to its future growth. The miner is part of a growing list of companies looking to grab a share of the market for recovered battery materials as lithium supplies show signs of tightening. - Bloomberg

Recent trends in supply chain and change management

Infosys Knowledge Institute has started a series of posts on specific topics like supply chain management and change management. Below is a recent HBR article on how change management can be broken down into small and manageable steps. To stay updated with more updates, please do follow IKI on LinkedIn.

Faster EV adoption in 2/3 wheelers

The fastest adoption of electric vehicles in India is expected to be in two-wheeler and three-wheeler sectors. It is estimated that up to 4 million of such vehicles could be sold each year by 2025, growing to almost 10 million by 2030, said an official statement. The Office of Principal Scientific Advisor also said any charging solution to serve this sector must be highly scalable, easily accessible by the public, should support interoperability, and be affordable. - Economic Times

Blue print for aerial roads

Trial operations of flying taxis and cargo drones will begin in Coventry, England, before the end of the year as part of a plan to develop “aerial roads” for unmanned flights in urban areas. The project, backed by 1.2 million pounds ($1.7 million) of government funds, involves construction of a centrally located hub that will host demonstration flights across the city of almost 400,000 people. While plans for flying taxis and logistics drones are gathering pace around the world, most will initially avoid heavily urbanized areas, such as Volocopter’s bid to provide coastal flights around Singapore and Lilium’s push to serve 10 boutique hubs across Florida. The U.K. plan will tap an air-traffic-management system devised by Altitude Angel to allow operators to safely transit cities. - Bloomberg