Globally operating companies have to deal constantly with the creation and best-possible use of synergies in organizational units.
Among other things, this concerns the interaction of different brands, locations or markets.
A sub-aspect of this is called Commonality. It is used to pursue the goal of creating the greatest possible diversity in covering requirements with the smallest possible number of different parts.
Applicability is heavily product-dependent. While smartphone manufacturers can mostly sell the same product around the world, manufacturers of commercial vehicles, for example, are faced with greater challenges. These can be legal requirements (e.g. length, width and height restrictions), market conditions (e.g. polar climate vs. subtropical climate) or even customer requirements (e.g. desire for more comfortable suspension vs. agile handling).
When does commonality make sense and pay off?
In order to become more profitable, the focus is often on reducing the cost of parts. At first glance, commonality harbors lots of potential for savings, but the desired “cost of scale” effects are often wiped out again by opposing effects – such as additional logistics costs or industrialization requirements in certain markets. A more detailed consideration of all influencing factors is needed here to be able to take a fully substantiated decision.
On the basis of our experience in the area of commercial vehicles, we have amassed extensive expertise with regard to commonality projects. We support our customers from analyzing the problem through to the final implementation. In doing so, we pay attention to technical possibilities and keep an eye on legal framework conditions and specific customer requirements in various markets worldwide.
4 reasons for EFS Consulting in commonality projects:
1) We know the complexity.
We have experience of commonality projects, and know the potentials and challenges they pose. We also bring our knowledge to bear in order to understand the high degree of complexity and to take account of all relevant aspects regarding the commonality.
2) We know the procedure.
Our project experience gives us a head start. We know how to successfully set up and process commonality projects. We have already put our experience to good use in numerous projects.
3) We understand intercultural collaboration.
Implementing commonality automatically means cooperating with partners worldwide. We use the experience we have of international and intercultural cooperation. We are used to dealing with different business mentalities and different approaches to issues, and always manage to find a common “language”. We have project experiences in such markets as the USA, Japan, China, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, EU and many more.
4) We create evaluation and decision-making criteria.
We create an evaluation framework that allows us to seamlessly evaluate commonality criteria. In doing so, we consider technical and legal aspects, logistics costs, the cost of parts, development costs, customer requirements, unit numbers etc. Based on this, we deliver our customers the basis on which to take their decision. For the sustainably best solution.