Common drivers in the automotive and manufacturing industries
Patrik Eriksson is responsible for the sustainable sourcing, digitalisation and sourcing excellence at Haldex AB. Haldex is a Sweden-based company developing and providing reliable and innovative solutions that improve safety, vehicle dynamics and environmental sustainability in the global commercial vehicle industry. The company is one of the world-leading suppliers of brake and suspension solutions, and are developing new technology for electrical and autonomous vehicles.
“What is interesting is that I have realized that the manufacturing and automotive industry have common drivers in the changing environment. We can see that there exist many same impacts in sourcing topics, digitalization like how we can improve with the suppliers and share information, and sustainability topics like safety and good working conditions and financial issues. Both industries have the same challenges.
If I look in a short perspective, the topic which interests us is to get control of audits. When we do an audit at the suppliers, we should have everything online. It means that you have all the actions and documentation already completed when you leave the factory. Since we work in the automotive industry, we need to have APQP – the PPAP documentation which ensures the traceability. These systems should be in a short term up and running.
And I should probably not forget the improvement of the on-boarding of new potential suppliers which we have as a short-term target. We need to ensure that we have all the certifications, legal requirements in place, prior they are nominated for potential business.
In the long run, I would say it’s more – almost like industry 4.0 – to have sensors on tools so we can predict in advance. When the tool is about to be broken, or need maintenance, but also to get information has the production started or not for our purchase order, so we get on-time information”, Patrik Eriksson states in this video interview.