Vehicle & Automotive Industry
The vehicle or automotive industry deals with everything related to motor vehicles, whether that’s designing, manufacturing, selling, maintaining, or modifying them. With so many potential responsibilities, it’s a sector characterized by a lot of moving parts and different factors to keep track of.
While specific businesses focus more on certain aspects of the vehicle industry than others, the challenges they face are often similar. Common issues within the automotive industry are:
Supply chain problems
Any manufacturer needs a reliable supply chain if they’re going to establish a consistent schedule. Material shortages or spikes in costs can delay production significantly, damaging your reputation among consumers.
You might not be able to prevent a material shortage, but with good inventory management software, you’ll be able to calculate how much you need to meet manufacturing quotas, then have a surplus on hand for emergencies. Additionally, evaluate all your suppliers to ensure they have the capacity to meet your needs.
Quality assurance
Quality assurance in the automotive industry is essential, since consumer safety is one of the biggest concerns of vehicle regulators. Assembling parts improperly could lead to a vehicle recall, which means lost profits and reduced future business.
It’s important to perform quality audits at every stage of production. That way, you don’t just evaluate a final product, you inspect manufacturing processes for any flaws that could be causing defects in final products. A more holistic quality assurance process moves your business closer to operational excellence.
Regulatory compliance
Automotive businesses face lots of rules governing the vehicles they handle. For one thing, there’s a trend towards more environmentally-friendly vehicles, and revised emissions standards to go along with it.
Then there are quality and safety standards that new vehicles have to meet in order to be cleared for distribution. Failing to do so means a product recall and likely a penalty for your business. Finally, it’s important to note that regulations change frequently, particularly regarding sustainability standards and newly emerging automotive tech.
Changing technology
The next big thing in vehicle manufacturing is smart technology, such as AI-powered or self-driving cars. There are also frequent improvements to available safety technology, which new processes are necessary to implement.
Along with adjustments to the manufacturing process, integrating smart technology in your vehicles requires new skill sets you might not have available in your business. Self-driving cars, for example, need a veritable army of programming knowledge to design and produce correctly.
Running a vehicle business with Lumiform
In the automotive industry, precision is key. That means whatever systems you use to manage your business need to be equally precise.
Pen-and-paper based administration and documentation is the wrong fit here; it’s too easy to lose track of, misplace, or damage, and it’s often inconsistent. But workflow automation software like Lumiform will ensure that all your quality assurance, inventory management, and other tasks are as precise and standardized as possible.
Use Lumiform’s combination of desktop and mobile app to design and implement workflows in your vehicle business. Control every step of a process with fully customizable and automated checklists that eliminate variability. Employees can apply these checklists wherever they are, even offline, with the mobile app.
The desktop software gives managers an easy platform where they can assign, adjust, and monitor created workflows. That way, you’re able to manage teams remotely, and by notifying employees automatically, streamline communication.
Use Lumiform in your automotive business to:
- Develop a relationship with suppliers
- Perform quality inspections to make sure production processes are followed correctly
- Regularly inspect finished vehicles to maintain their condition
- Ensure compliance with applicable regulations by including certain checklist criteria
All Lumiform data is stored in the cloud, and completed checklists are converted into regular analytics reports that give you in-depth insights into business performance. Use these to identify useful processes and refine or abandon ones that aren’t working.