The automotive design industry is in a period of change and established ways of doing things are being put under the spotlight and their effectiveness questioned. The processes used and the way projects are resourced are changing rapidly, as everyone re-evaluates working practices, their financial situation and the available technologies.
The one glove fits all approach is no longer suitable, as manufacturers realise that they are and need to be different. Not only in their designs, but how they produce them and that requires flexible resources. Businesses have always looked to access additional resource so as not to increase fixed employee costs. Recent changes in regulations are forcing companies to reduce having contractors for a block of time and requesting packages of support from consultancies to provide known expertise and deliver to a deadline.
With experienced specialist teams, consultancies are in a strong position to provide flexible packages for clients in the automotive design industry. Where quality, experience and value are of utmost importance, they are able to support clients throughout the design process, completing projects in their own studio or through remote support of in house teams using technologies that have long been available but not readily accepted like screen sharing or Virtual Reality.
It is not only the manufacturers that are having to adapt but the design consultancies too. It is important that the current market conditions don’t side track the vision of the consultancy, but they need to continually adapt in order to provide value for their clients in these challenging times. For every company, the key asset are their staff and the best consultancies ensure that they provide a good working environment and equip them with the right tools, both equipment and personally, to excel at what they do.
Consultancies like Drive often work across different industries and are able to utilise insights and methods learned from product or aircraft industries to automotive clients and vice versa.
The benefit of this diverse experience of ideas, technologies and processes, delivers fresh innovative and creative concepts to clients whilst speeding up their products’ time to market.
There is no doubt that companies are looking for good return on investment through innovative design and cost reduction. Outsourced design and development expertise is an important element for achieving those goals and progressive clients understand their true value.
