Interview Timeline
00:04 The challenges suppliers face with Automotive Program Management
Dave Opsahl is the CEO of Actify, a software and services company that provides solutions for manufacturers primarily for the automotive industry, typically Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers.
“According to automotive industry data, the number of programs will increase by 50% to 65% over the next three years. There is a huge wave coming at the suppliers. Our Automotive Program Management (APM) can help suppliers deal with the complexity”, Dave Opsahl
“The software we deliver helps suppliers communicate with their customers about Requests for Quotations (RFQ) and build. We make it possible for them to take the design information and be able to understand what’s the item at issue”, says Dave Opsahl”.
Actify supports the efficient automotive program management
Actify was founded in 1996 with HQ in Detroit, U.S. The company has other offices in Edinburgh, Scotland and Munich, Germany. They have received funding of $1 million, with the last funding round completed in March 2020.
Dave Opsahl: “Our vision has been to take the technology we’ve built and use it to create a hub, i.e., a place where program managers, and the people they work with, can aggregate all the information they have. They can organize and connect this information in a process so that when something happens, the program manager doesn’t have to call a bunch of people to figure out what the impact is; the system will tell them.
The system will also show them the impact on all other milestones in the project. We can automate a lot of the activity of launching a program, which today all happens manually. Therefore, our vision is to create a purpose-built tool for those program managers”.
The shift of the automotive industry to electrification and the pace at which the OEMs introduce new models impact program management. There is a correlation between a new model launch and a program because every new model creates a new program. These program managers are a bottleneck in this process. You can’t run the business for the supplier if you don’t have enough of them to manage the programs you’re able to win.
Listen to the interview to understand:
- The need for digitalization of Program Management in the automotive industry to support the complexity and scalability of vehicle and parts manufacturing
- How Actify’s software management & UX can help to overcome resource constraints & support the fast transition to electrified mobility & networked driving
- Actify’s go-to-market strategy, product-fit benefits and availability of solutions
To listen to the full interview join Auto2xperts.
