Delivering on Peugeot-Citroen’s strategic plan

2014 it entered into an agreement with Halla Visteon Climate Control Corp. to sell its thermal and emissions product line.

Jeffrey Edwards, chairman and CEO of Cooper Standard, said of this important move: “A strategic decision was made to divest our thermal and emissions product line and allow the company to focus resources on our four core product groups: sealing and trim; fuel and brake delivery; fluid transfer and anti-vibration systems.” This streamlining of its operations will ensure that Cooper Standard gains an even greater competitive advantage in its core areas of production in the years to come. n

DELIVERING ON

PEUGEOT-CITROEN’S STRATEGIC PLAN

PSA Peugeot-Citroen continues to roll out its global strategic plan “Back in the Race” and the results demonstrate that the plan is delivering its initial benefits in terms of improved competitiveness and growth in its key markets. The group’s suppliers and partners have played a major role its return to global growth and this commitment was rewarded recently at the company’s 10th annual supplier awards held in Paris. Philip Yorke reports.

PSA Peugeot Citroen is a leading global automotive group that continues to enhance its performance both at home and abroad. The company’s strategy for growth has seen sales improve significantly in its most promising overseas markets, in particular in the Chinese market, where in 2013 sales were up by almost 19 per cent, and by around 3 per cent in Latin America. The company reports that sales have continued to increase overall in Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico.

China remains the world’s largest automobile market and in 2013 it grew by 13.9 per cent, with 22 million passenger cars and light commercial vehicles sold. PSA Peugeot Citroen increased its sales to China in 2013 to 557,000 units – a rise of 26.1 per cent.

In a highly competitive environment, PSA Peugeot Citroen’s priority is to offer attractive, safe and affordable mobility solutions to the largest number of customers. With this in mind, the economic aspect of each project is taken into account from the early design phase and on to complete vehicle development. Thanks to innovative options for new materials and components, both Peugeot and Citroen are successfully reducing costs and improving quality throughout each entire value chain.

New roadmap accelerates growth

On April 14th this year, Carlos Tavares, Chairman of the PSA Peugeot Citroen Managing Board, presented the company’s 2014-2018 “Back in the Race” roadmap, which is designed to accelerate the Group’s recovery. The “Back in the Race” strategy is based around four operational objectives, which include a focused, targeted global product plan closely aligned to market demand, a drive for profitable international growth and an upgrading programme to improve competitiveness. These goals are supported by its three premium brands: DS, Peugeot and Citroen.

The group plans to accelerate its expansion in China, by tripling volumes with its partner Dongfeng by 2022 and by successfully completing the development of the company’s DS brand. In addition, the partnership with Dongfeng will also help to drive faster growth in the ASEAN region. At the same time, PSA Peugeot Citroen plans to turn around the situation in Russia and transform its business model in Latin America. The group’s key objective here is to return it to profit in both regions within the next three years.

Furthermore, in order to address its competitiveness challenges,

PSA Peugeot Citroen has stepped up the modernisation of its manufacturing plants worldwide, in order to bring them in line with the latest global benchmarks.

Suppliers win coveted awards for excellence

PSA Peugeot Citroen believe that supplier relations provide the cornerstone for product excellence and that they will make a major contribution to the success of the new “Back in the Race” strategic plan for growth. This year’s coveted awards celebrate suppliers who are fully engaged in their relationship with the group and who have demonstrated the deepest understanding of its expectations and provided the most proactive ability to meet them.

In recognition of the sustained efforts made by its suppliers and the excellence of

iObeya by KAP IT : the Enterprise platform for Visual Management

Today, many organisations are undergoing Lean transformations, deploying Visual Management (‘sticky note meetings’) as the new way of working.

However, traditional Visual Management practices in large organisations are faced with serious limitations : difficulty sharing information across multi-site teams, the high cost of travel and meeting space, lack of confidentiality of sensitive information on display….ultimately preventing the Lean optimisation process.

As early adopters of Lean, PSA Peugeot Citroën believed in iObeya from the outset because the solution eliminates these limitations, without impacting management rituals. iObeya is an enterprise platform that proposes secure, virtual meeting rooms equipped for Visual Management. Project teams can now interact in real time and regardless of location, using visual boards, sticky notes and other tools through an enriched and immersive user interface. As testified by Jean-Pierre Dumoulin, CTO of PSA Peugeot-Citroen, “Teams are much more productive. Space savings enabled a six month return on investment. I am a big fan of iObeya”.

Visual Management in large organisations is entering the Digital era, pushing boundaries and offering new perspectives. iObeya is pioneering this inevitable transformation, already seducing more than 23,000 users in 60 companies across the globe.

the results they have delivered, the group honoured supplier performance in six priority categories, which were:

Cost savings. The award is given for the ability to propose solutions to reduce the cost of delivered standard parts, by leveraging the full range of supply chain, marketing and purchasing drivers. This year’s awards went to Chongqing Jianshe, Faurecia Echappement and BASF.

Value Creation. Here the award was given for the ability to propose breakthrough technical solutions and new services capable of creating new value. Winners this year were KAP IT and Continental.

Programme management. This covers the supplier’s performance in the area of quality deliverables, on-time delivery, managing cost variances, project management, successful launches and technical expertise. In this category the awards were given to TRW and Magna.

Quality. This sector relates to performance in auto parts quality, from “Cradle-to-grave” including quality development, quality when new and quality in field. The three winning companies were: Bosch (Braking), Yazaki and Alsin.

Indirect Material Machinery & Equipment. This award relates to service and quality performance in the provision of services and the supply of industrial equipment. This year’s winners were Sugino, Actemium and Acobal.

After Sales Delivery Performance. This category covers quality of service, as measured by suppliers’ on-time, on-spec performance in delivering spare parts to the dealer network. Winners in this sector were: Visscher Caravelle, Gates and Metro.

The group also launched a new award this year for “Best Plants of 2013”. These unique awards were presented to 96 individual production facilities worldwide in recognition of their performance in manu-