Where automotive suppliers fail? Frequent Project Management mistakes

As part of our Project Management activities, we have built a team of Supplier Development experts that helps automotive players to unfold their projects in Central and Eastern Europe as well as improve their performances.

SNECI’s solutions in industrial project management are highly customized depending on the needs of every client and, therefore, vary greatly in time and size. However, the aim is often the same: to improve suppliers’ performance in terms of production capacity, product quality, supply chain efficiency, and new project implementation.

Last year our team has performed over 700 missions, assessing the performance of over 550 automotive suppliers. Working closely with our clients to analyze their project results allowed us to identify the top-5 vulnerable points in project management of automotive suppliers alongside the most occurring corresponding problems:

Installation & Try-Out:

• new equipment and/or tools are not installed on time
• operational documentation is not ready on time

CpK and part audit:

• capacity does not correspond to OEM requirements

Gauge & Measuring equipment

• poor management of the equipment, missing calibration, R&R
• customer property missing and marking or study is not performed

Implementation of Control Plan

• the Control Plan is not fully implemented – frequency of the control, cleanness requirements are not implemented in the control plan, unclear inspection criteria, presence of boundary samples/calibration 

NG actions

• NG part management is not respected: rework standards are not defined, continuous improvement activities are not implemented (missing evidence, system, no recurrence prevention/reserialization activities)

These deviations are a result of poor project management caused by the lack of skills within the supplier’s team or insufficient budget dedicated to this activity.

“The thorough project launch preparation and monitoring of its evolution is an important step to the supplier’s success,” – explains Jozef Lajda, Director of SNECI Central & Eastern Europe. “To ensure a smooth production start, we follow various Manufacturing Process Qualification Standards such as ASPQR, APQP, and VDA, assessing the supplier’s industrialization process daily. On top of that, our collaborators often provide such services as coaching, training, interim experts, and supply chain management to secure the client’s performance during the entire life of the project.”