26th Aachen Colloquium Automobile and Engine Technology 2017
The Single Most Important Capability of Automotive OEMs and Suppliers to Survive is Software Development
Authors
Dr. Albert Neumann, Frank Peter Böhm, Ulf König,
Strategy Engineers GmbH & Co. KG, Munich
Summary
The automotive industry is currently undergoing dramatic changes. The key trends are often summarized as CASE: connectivity, autonomous vehicles, shared mobility and electrified powertrains. The common denominator to all those trends is software.
None of the innovative functionalities that go hand in hand with modern automotive mobility would be imaginable without any software aspect to it – let alone new business models based on digital services. Considering the subsequent need for software development and management capabilities at OEMs and suppliers, it is remarkable how little strategic relevance seems to be attributed to software. This article describes why software development and management is the single most important capability for any of today's industry players which want to succeed in the digital transformation that is currently reshaping the automotive industry. It goes on to discuss strategic changes that need to be made in order to accommodate the fundamental shift in the industry and emerge as leading player of the digital transformation.
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