The Future of the Automotive Industry | SEEBURGER Integration
Trends & Innovations

Building a Digital Future for the Automotive Industry: A Perspective on Southern Automotive Conference 2021

| | Account Manager, SEEBURGER
Southern Automotive Conference 2021

Today, the automotive industry is challenged with building a digital ecosystem of integrated products, services and operational capabilities. According to Forbes, companies are addressing these challenges with strategic priorities for success, designed to balance running a profitable business with developing disruptive business models and innovative solutions. “Supply chains and manufacturing networks must become more resilient, completely modular, and flexible,[1]” while the classical, engineering‑driven skillsets of the automotive workforce are changing to require software skills across the entire automotive value chain.

What’s driving the future of the automotive industry?

To remain competitive and maintain market share, stakeholders within the automotive ecosystem need to be innovative to manage consumer expectations, supply chain disruption and emerging digital technologies.

This and many other topics were discussed at the Southern Automotive Conference (SAC) 2021 on October 13-15, 2021. Automotive manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers from all over the world celebrated the vehicles “Made in the South” across the Southern U.S. states of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina, Kentucky and Texas. SAC brings together industry leaders from manufacturing, safety, logistics, government and energy sectors to discuss and explore the latest innovations, current trends and challenging issues related to automotive manufacturing, including future vehicle infrastructure.

We were excited to have a booth at this year’s conference. My colleague Michelle Morgan, Sr. Manager of Business Development at SEEBURGER, joined me at SAC. “The energy was great!” said Michelle. “People were in high spirits, networking and talking about the latest industry issues. People were excited to be among their peers again.”

Highlights of SAC: U.S. Governors greenlight skills training and education programs for workers

The biggest highlights of SAC 2021 were the keynote speeches delivered by several U.S. governors. Due to shortages in skilled labor, many states including Alabama are investing in education and training—to raise the digital skills of the automotive workforce.

State governors in the American South are optimistic that growth in automotive manufacturing, plus education and training for new high‑skilled jobs in the industry, will lead to future economic vibrancy in the region. Regional educational development that provides essential skills for automotive industry professionals is critical to building a workforce ready to handle the changing technical demands of the growing, and quickly evolving, automotive industry.

Last year, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing (MTM), the joint-venture between Mazda Motor Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation, announced an $830 million investment to add cutting‑edge manufacturing technology to its production lines and provide enhanced training to its workforce of 4,000 employees[2].

Integration solutions accelerate the leap to digital

While talking with leaders and experts at SAC 2021, it surprised me to learn that phones and emails are still the way much of the industry is communicating and sharing information. By shifting manual processes into digital processes with integration, companies can save considerable time and money in operating expenses, ensure they are communicating in accordance with industry standards and open up a new world of possibilities for innovation. SEEBURGER Integration, a combination of our solutions, our services and our people, has been providing integration solutions for the automotive industry for more than 35 years.

Indeed, the right integration platform can help companies accelerate the leap to digital transformation. SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite (BIS) interfaces with most ERPs, and as a certified SAP Silver Partner, we provide deep integration and support for thousands of SAP customers.

SEEBURGER Solutions for the Automotive Industry enable secure data exchange and support the largest automotive network in the world with:

  • Fast trading partner onboarding in days or weeks instead of months
  • Instant connectivity with most OEMs and tier 1 and 2 suppliers
  • Readily deployable standard Automotive Solution that is compliant to most industry standards and OEM requirements
  • Extensive self-service capabilities that give ultimate flexibility to partners, suppliers and business users
  • 3660 automotive industry mappings and 1396 trading partners, with 14,000 total industry mappings and partner connections for suppliers, dealers, parts manufacturers and logistics providers
  • Ultimate flexibility to run and move across on-prem, cloud, iPaaS and fully managed cloud service

Leap into the digital automotive future with SEEBURGER Integration

SAC gave SEEBURGER an opportunity to learn and share cutting‑edge ideas and products for the future of the automotive industry. The way I see it, integration across the industry and education of the workforce are two keys for accelerating a digital automotive future.

How can you get your business ready for the future of the automotive industry right now? By upgrading your manual processes to digital with a centralized, cloud-ready business integration platform like SEEBURGER BIS.

Brochure

For more information, download the paper “The Race to Build a Digital, Cloud-ready Business.”

⤓ Download


[1] The Future Of Automotive And Mobility (forbes.com)

[2] Mazda and Toyota Further Commitment to U.S. Manufacturing with Additional Investment – Toyota USA Newsroom

Get in contact with us:

Please enter details about your project in the message section so we can direct your inquiry to the right consultant.

Share this post, choose your platform!

Twitter
Carlos Suares

Written by:

Carlos Suarez, Account Manager at SEEBURGER has more than 30 years’ experience working to streamline complex business processes for many industries including Retail, CPG and Manufacturing. He works for SEEBURGER for more than 10 years and has a wide experience of IT integration from 25 years in the business.