This was the first time I had visited AutoTech so I didn’t really know what to expect, but as it turned out, the format and presentation subjects were very similar to the Odette conference that I attended in Munich last year.  AIAG claimed that there were around 1000 registered for the event but in a large venue such as the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi, Detroit, it felt as though there were less attendees than this. 

The event was split into two main areas, an exhibition hall where the software and services vendors could showcase their solutions and a number of presentation rooms where attendees could listen to the latest trends in Automotive related IT and supply chain management initiatives.  GXS did not have a booth at the event, we decided, from a networking point of view, that we would sponsor the first night cocktail party and also the internet booth.  The internet booth was actually quite a large space, more like an executive lounge with about 20 PCs, wireless connectivity, leather sofas and coffee served throughout the day. We were able to hold a number of informal discussions with both existing and new customers. 

Another interesting exhibit was from Microsoft who showed their Ford Sync car concept.  This was a great example of how Microsoft wish to see their products integrated or embedded with car entertainment systems.  In short, the Microsoft system within this car was a fully integrated, voice activated in-car communication and entertainment system for your mobile phone and digital music player.  As a demonstration of the theme of AutoTech, co-opetition, the Sync system offers support for both the Apple iPod and Microsoft’s own Zune music player.  A good example of a company listening to what the customer wants rather than forcing only one option, ie the Zune integration upon the Sync’s potential customers.  Further information about the Sync concept can be found HERE

During Autotech, six OEMs, GM, Ford, Chrysler,Toyota, Honda and Volvo gave a presentation on the work they are currently doing to improve their supply chain management processes.  This blog will describe what GM, Ford and Chrysler had to say, the others will be covered in another blog entry.    GM talked about the car industry as a whole. They highlighted a number of misconceptions about the automotive industry, none of which were true, namely that it was a stagnant / non growth sector, it was unprofitable, receding in importance to customers and the 20^th century technology used in the cars was old fashioned. In fact, did you know that the global market for the automotive industry was $1.2 Trillion and growing, the U.S market alone was estimated to be about $500Billion, the market was increasingly consumer driven and technology such as GM’s Volt and Microsoft’s Sync concept were leading technological change.  They also highlighted that China was one of the leading manufacturers, with 50% of all worldwide cameras manufactured there, as were, 25% of toys, 60% of bicycles and now 9% of cars.  GM also highlighted that they were now a true global manufacturer with a manufacturing presence in nearly every region of the world.  They presented some incredible statistics from their daily, global logistics operation.  Every day they use 8600 trucks, 750 rail cars and 1400 shipping containers for the delivery 160,000 car components to their 81 assembly plants, 97 manufacturing plants around the world.  In addition they also distribute 21000 vehicles, 14000 via rail and 4000 via sea, every day as well.  These figures are astounding and when you think the other U.S based OEMs have similar operations, you can understand why supply chain and logistics management is such an important area for them. 

Chrysler gave a very upbeat presentation after their recent acquisition by Cerberus.  They presented a very positive outlook which was going to be driven by what they call their Recovery and Transformation Plan (RTP).  The recovery part of their plan would sharply focus on cost, revenue management, material and fixed costs, capacity and efficiency and finally employee retention.  The transformation part of the plan will improve focus on customers and brands, increase global presence and increase the number of partnerships. They mapped out a 3 year plan for how they would return to profitability, which included bringing 20 new vehicles to market and spending nearly $3Billion on new powertrain systems. They were also keen to explore global growth strategies including forming a new joint venture partnership with the Chery car company in China.  Chrysler also talked about their supplier management program and how they use a process called Value Stream Mapping to improve efficiencies and reduce waste in their manufacturing process. 

Ford decided to talk about their Global Product Development System, GPDS, this system was developed from two AIAG standards, namely PPAP (Production Part Approval Process) and APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning).  The resulting GPDS includes 31 elements covering everything from quality processes, change management processes and revision control.   The intention is that Ford will adopt their GPDS across all their brands and across all car platforms by 2009.  The intention is to have a global car development process and all suppliers that wish to work with any Ford related brand must be able to use and comply with this process.  In addition the GPDS also includes a single, common reporting tool for suppliers, and a standardized management reporting tool for Ford execs.  The GPDS will help Ford to improve the quality of design and engineering related information that is sent to them by their suppliers. 

Overall the presentations were very positive and on the last day of the event all of the purchasing directors, from each OEM present, attended a joint panel to discuss future purchasing strategies.  They all agreed that moving forwards, one of the only ways to help reduce costs still further was for the OEMs to try and work together and try and share sourcing programs between them.  This would ultimately mean that the OEMs could eventually end up sharing parts sourcing strategies between them.  The aim of this would be to help share production and logistics costs.  Many OEMs are already working together on joint engine development programs already but significant cost reductions can be realized still further by sharing component sourcing costs.  This strategy comes back to the theme of the event, Co-opetition, working together and creating supply chain value.  So here is a question for you, if the OEMs are willing to work together on joint strategies such as this, how long will it be before we see software and service vendors working together more openly on joint projects?

The second part of my AutoTech 2007 review takes a look at some of the presentations that were made during the event.  In addition to the presentations made by the various OEMs, there were also presentations from numerous AIAG project teams, reporting back on the progress made on their projects.  In addition there were also presentations made by the various software and services vendors that were in attendance at the event.  These vendors also had a chance to demonstrate their solutions on the final day of the event, but I decided to skip those demonstrations as trying to get into some of them, bearing in mind some were competing companies to GXS, was like trying to get into Fort Knox!.  So this blog entry will focus on some of the key AIAG project reviews that took place and as there were multiple presentation tracks I can obviously only provide a review of the ones I attended.  This will hopefully give you a flavour for the type and breadth of projects that AIAG gets involved with.  I will provide a summary of others once the presentations are posted up to the AIAG website. So where do we start, OK, how about…

Interoperable Electronic Business Messages in the Enterprise - the first presentation I attended.  This session looked at the progress being made in the area of web services, which has been around now for about 7 years.  There are about 180 companies that are working together as part of the Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) organization.  This is an open industry effort, from both companies and vendors, with a common aim of achieving interoperability and where possible work with bodies such as OASIS, W3C etc to ensure that the web services being developed are compliant with global standards.  The WS-I value proposition is to reduce complexity and risk, improve productivity and accelerate time to market, and simplify web services buying decisions. The OEMs are interested in web services as they can realize significant cost savings, improve supply chain communications with more, if not all, companies in their supply chain, and many of them require secure asynchronous processing of information.

Supply Chain RFID International Standards Effort -  The aim of this presentation was to try and provide an update on the standardization efforts being made in the area of RFID technology.  The first slide of the presentation highlighted that there were five areas of RFID technology that needed to be standardized, namely: Technology, Data Content, Conformance, Network and Application Standards. The ISO TC122 project looks at a standard for packaging which includes bar code labeling, linear bar codes and a range of 2D symbols to represent the contents of packaging.  ISO TC 104/SC looks at a standard for sealing shipping containers, three tags have been developed, a supply chain tag, an electronic seal tag and a container ID tag.  The container ID tag provides automatic identification via RF technology, allowing easier location of a container at a port or distribution center. Finally the ISO TC 122/104 Joint working Group project is looking at supply chain applications for RFID.  This covers RFID tracking of shipping containers, transport units, pallets, packaging and products.  The final area presented was on EPCGlobal which is looking at Active tagging, sensors and long life battery developments, item level tagging and UHF / HF air interfacing.

Their main conclusions were that RFID, at the moment at least, is an evolutionary technology rather than a revolutionary one.  Bar code labeling has its place and will work alongside RFID technology as a backup and EPC global will require a complete change in the infrastructure of a company for it to work effectively. It was also interesting to hear that Walmart and the U.S Defense Department were the leading users of RFID technology with the Defense Department having the largest RFID network in the world.  RFID is a very effective technology for container and pallot tracking, but item level tracking still appears the most difficult to achieve.  Tracking a spare part, such as a gearbox, for a tank may be worth the effort of RFID tagging as it is a relatively expensive component, but tracking a can of tuna through Walmart’s supply chain network may prove a bit more difficult to achieve!

Materials Offshore Sourcing: AIAGs Long Distance Supply Chain Project – The MOSS project was interesting as it ties in very well with GXS Logistics Visibility solution.  This project was essentially looking at improving the visibility of shipments around the world, initially focusing on two ‘trade lanes’ Europe to the U.S and China to the U.S.  The project is developing a recommended best practice to enhance the use of electronic communications across all trading partners using standardized, reliable data based upon international standards.  One statistic quoted during the presentation was that nearly 15% of all inbound ocean freight is delayed in route due to data deficiencies.  Many of these deficiencies are as a result of extensive use of paper, documents, e-mails, faxes and phone calls involved in these complex movements.  This project involves ocean shipping companies, logistics providers, U.S customs and a number of automotive OEMs looking to improve their global shipment of cars and spare parts.  This project is currently in the ‘demonstrator build’ phase.

Global Recommendations for B2B Messaging in China – This project was conceived two years ago and the final report findings were given at this presentation.  China still represents the fastest growing car market in the world and with many domestic and joint venture car companies being established there, the need for a common B2B messaging format has become very important for this region.  This project has been a true global project involving a number of industry organizations including AIAG, JAMA, JAPIA, ODETTE and STAR.  The project undertook a couple of extensive surveys to find out the current ‘state’ of B2B / EDI adoption across China and the conclusion was that EDIFACT was by far the most popular EDI format in use today.  However due to implementation and cost issues it was felt that an XML based messaging format would eventually become a standard for use in China.   The report however recommended, due to the infancy of the XML standard, that UN EDIFACT and / or OAGIS XML BODs based on the Joint Automotive Data Model are the recommended standards.  Ultimately the JAIF will eventually recommend the UN / CEFACT XML standard, however this is still in development but will, in a few years time, provide the B2B standard for conducting business in China.   The presentation also highlighted from their surveys that GXS were one of two B2B service providers who had a well recognized presence within the Chinese automotive industry.

Developing the Joint Automotive Data Model – This joint AIAG, ODETTE, JAMA and STAR related project is an attempt to try and standardize on a model to allow for true global data exchange.  This model will not only be able to carry standard supply chain messages but also engineering type data traditionally associated with the ENGDAT format. ENGDAT is widely used as a format for transferring engineering computer aided design (CAD) models. Given that the car industry has become so globalized, there is a strengthening need to be able to exchange supply chain and engineering related data seamlessly around the world.  This project is an attempt to try and combine and enhance many existing formats into one common messaging format that can be used in any region of the world.

Global Automotive Update from Europe (Odette) and Japan (JAMA) –  The final session that I attended was an update on the work being carried out by Odette and JAMA.  During this session the most interesting development was about the new OFTP v2 standard that Odette are working on. The current OFTP standard has been in use within the European automotive industry for many years now, OFTP v2 is an attempt to bring the OFTP standard up to date and embrace the internet as a viable communications platform.  OFTP v2 looks promising and will offer a number of key features to allow companies to exchange information via the internet.  These include secure authentication via digital certificates, data confidentiality (whereby the file is encrypted before being sent to a trading partner), use of digital signatures, file compression, SSL session security, signed receipts and finally, support for international file descriptions.  These enhancements will mean that a company does not have to have a permanent internet connection, it will support large file transfers, reduce transmission times, it is ideal for emerging markets and it will become the chosen method for EDI and CAD data transfer over the internet.  Only time will tell if this last statement will be true as many car companies still prefer to use secure private networks for engineering related message / data transfer, there could for example be great hesitation in sending car related design information across the internet.

In addition to OFTP enhancements, ODETTE are also working on expanding the reach of the Global MMOG / Logistics Evaluation project.  KPI4GMML will look to improve materials management, particularly focusing on six key performance indicators for improving how parts / materials are shipped between a supplier and customer with a particular emphasis on improving the performance of logistics and 3PL providers.  KPI4GMML essentially measures the effectiveness of the logistics processes between parties. This project is in its early phase at the moment but is being built on the tools developed already as part of the MMOG/LE project.

There were many other sessions over the two days, and some of the more notable developments were in the area of Plant to Business (P2B) communications, a number of projects looking at how companies can improve communications between their HQ offices and their various manufacturing plants around the world.  I will post a separate blog entry about this development at a later date.

Overall, the presentations at AutoTech were very good and informative, they managed to cram a lot of presentations into the two days and I still have a lot of reading to do of sessions I didn’t get to attend. Further information about AutoTech can be found at the official site at autotech.aiag.org and www.autotech.org

So no sooner do I get back from a two week holiday, I fly out to Detroit to attend the AIAG Autotech 2007 Show.  AutoTech is one of two major B2B related Supply Chain Management shows this year, the other major one is Odette which is taking place in Prague in late November.

This year’s event is being held at the new Rock Financial Showplace just outside Detroit. AutoTech is one of the leading B2B related shows for the U.S automotive industry and as GXS has many North American based automotive customers we decided to provide sponsorship to the event.  AutoTech is run by the Automotive Industry Action Group, a body set up to help automotive companies improve how they do business with each other.  In fact the theme of this year’s show is Coopetition, now this is a term that I had never heard of before and therefore I had to do some Googling (other search engines are available!) to find out exactly what it meant! 

In essence it means cooperative competition, a way for competing companies to work together to achieve a common goal.  The best example of coopetition between automotive companies is when they work jointly on a new car or engine programme that will be sold by both companies. From AIAG’s perspective they are encouraging coopetition between North American automotive companies to try and solve complex business problems, improve supply chain efficiencies and help develop global supply chain strategies.

The event itself has two parts, firstly an exhibition area where various B2B software and services vendors can showcase their solutions and secondly a twin track set of presentations delivered by OEMs, suppliers and B2B solution providers.  The aim of these presentations is to provide education in the latest B2B industry trends, provide updates from the various industry standards bodies and allow the OEMs to discuss their latest supply chain strategies.  More importantly it provides a great opportunity for networking and discussing business issues with both automotive companies and B2B solution providers.

I will be attending both days of the event and I will provide further updates and key highlights from each day of AutoTech via this blog.  I will also highlight GXS involvement with the event and hopefully get round to posting up some pictures over the next couple of days.  So hopefully you will find it useful and if you are interested in finding out more information about this event then you can visit the AutoTech 2007 official website