Competitive Benchmarking Analysis for the Automotive Industry
Globalisation has brought about major challenges for companies operating in the automotive industry and has increased the competition between international and domestic automakers. Also, the increasing demand for digitalization is pressurizing automakers to invest in technology and better supply and distribution chain management. Owing to such challenges, gaining a competitive edge has become all the more essential for companies in the automotive industry. To achieve this, automotive companies will need to compare their products, services, processes, and practices to their direct competitors using standard industry benchmarks. This is where companies realize the need to leverage competitive benchmarking analysis.
Do you want to know how your products and services measure up against your competitors? Request a FREE proposal to know how our competitive benchmarking analysis solutions can help you understand your performance relative to close competitors and drill down into performance gaps to identify areas for improvement.
Business Challenge
The client is an automotive product manufacturer based out of Central Europe. The company supplies instrument panel and cockpit components, safety products, and interior and exterior trim products. With a large number of automotive manufacturers and suppliers entering the European automotive market every year, the client was facing challenges in competing with them in terms of product, quality, and capability. Also, the client was losing their market share to their competitors. Therefore, the client wanted to compare their own performance with other major automakers in the market. Also, they wanted to identify their shortcoming and strengths compared with other major automakers in Europe. Therefore, they approached Infiniti Research to leverage their expertise in offering competitive benchmarking solution. Furthermore, with Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking analysis solution, the automotive company wanted to make improvements in productivity, quality, and reliability to drive down cost and keep customers satisfied.
With Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking solution, the automotive company also wanted to tackle these challenges:
- Today, technological advancements and innovations have increased the expectations of customers. Like all other sectors, this has equally transformed the automotive sector. With this, companies in the automotive industry are pressurized to invest more in new technologies. Therefore, with Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking analysis, the client wanted to monitor how they compared with their competitors’ in terms of adoption of new technologies and processes.
- Having an efficient supply chain and distribution system has become equally important for automotive companies. With Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking analysis, the client wanted to analyze the supply and distribution system managed by their key competitors. By doing so, they wanted to analyze their shortcomings compared with their competitors.
- The client’s inability in responding to customer expectations in time and providing them auto products meeting their utility expectation largely impacted their brand image. Therefore, with Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking analysis, the automotive product manufacturer wanted to understand how their brand measured up against other companies in the market.
- Changing economic and geopolitical conditions in Europe brought about unexpected uncertainties and financial risks for automotive companies. Therefore, by leveraging Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking analysis engagement, the client wanted to understand the company’s financial position compared with other major competitors.
Are you facing difficulties in monitoring your competitors’ processes and planning? CONTACT US to know how our competitive benchmarking analysis solution can help you easily track your competitors’ strategies and develop a standardized set of processes and metrics to measure up against your competitors.
Solutions Offered
The experts at Infiniti Research followed a three-phased engagement to competitive benchmarking.
Process benchmarking – In this stage of competitive benchmarking analysis engagement, the experts at Infiniti Research compared the client’s business process with that of their competitors. This involved analyzing the client’s operational performance, supply chain and distribution processes. This phase of Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking analysis engagement helped the client to identify processes that needed improvement.
Strategic benchmarking – In this phase of benchmarking analysis, the experts at Infiniti Research identified the winning strategies employed by the client’s key competitors. Also, the experts analyzed how the client’s business strategies compared with their competitors. This phase of competitive benchmarking analysis engagement helped the client in understanding how their competitors adapted to the latest technological innovations and advancements. This even helped the client in better planning and goal setting.
Performance benchmarking – The last phase of the competitive benchmarking analysis engagement involved analyzing competitors’ performance metrics and processes. This phase even involved analyzing the financial performance of the client compared with other major competitors.
With Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking analysis solution, the client was able to understand their performance relative to close competitors. Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking analysis engagement also helped the client to understand how the company’s processes, business planning, and financial performance compared with that of their direct and indirect competitors. With this, they were able to identify and prioritize performance gaps. Furthermore, by prioritizing the performance gap, the client was able to implement improvement opportunities to gain a competitive edge in the market.
Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking analysis engagement even helped the automotive company to identify where they lagged compared with their competitors in terms of supply chain and distribution capabilities, adoption of technologies, and management of capital requirements. This helped them make changes in their processes and business practices to meet the needs and demands of their customers.
Also, Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking engagement helped the client to develop a standardized set of processes and metrics to meet the industry standards. Within eight months of employing competitive benchmarking analysis engagement, the client was able to reduce operating cost by 20%, saving $7.8 million.
Want to gain more insights into our competitive benchmarking analysis solutions? Request for more info!
What is competitive benchmarking analysis?
Competitive benchmarking analysis is defined as the process of comparing a company’s business performance with that of its direct and indirect competitors. Competitive benchmarking analysis helps businesses identify improvement opportunities in their business process. Furthermore, by leveraging competitive benchmarking analysis solution, businesses can also understand the shortcoming and strengths of their competitors and make well-informed business decisions.
Competitive Benchmarking Tactics to Measure Your Brand
Request a FREE brochure to gain more insights into our services portfolio and their benefits of a competitive benchmarking analysis solution for your business.
Infiniti’s competitive benchmarking analysis solution helped a company in the food and beverage industry to create a new marketing strategy by relying on the key differentiators. To gain complete insights, read the full story here.
