Industry: Automotive Manufacturer

Control Costs – Rebuild with Strength – Grow with Resilience

The problem:

An automotive parts manufacturer saw profit margins dwindle when faced with increased price competition. To stay in business, the company had to offer volume discounts to distributors ahead of making corresponding manufacturing cost reductions. The manufacturer was looking for a solution to get back to profitability and grow the business.

CHALLENGES

Sales team had poor visibility of orders with an ad-hoc method of forecasting.
Operations was not able to scale up or scale down production capacity efficiently.
Suppliers were not in the loop and not able to meet needs.

SOLUTION

Implementation of a CRM-based (customer relationship management) sales forecasting tool in the first 30 days.
Deployment of a Sales and Operations planning framework in the first 90 days.
Integration of data from sales, marketing, operations and supply chain into a common CRM/ERP (enterprise resource planning) format.

Results obtained:

With the new processes implemented, the company’s forecasting accuracy improved by 23% and lead times were reduced by 50%. This resulted in winning back formerly lost customers, along with a 10% growth in profit.

“Ajay has demonstrated outstanding leadership and ownership by taking charge of a core aspect of the project and digging deep to help resolve the client’s issues… further, I find Ajay’s analytical and interpersonal skills when dealing with clients and evaluating their concerns to be second to none.”