Automotive Enterprise Transformation : Build to Order As a Sustainable and Innovative Strategy for the Automotive Industry?

The global financial crisis has significantly impacted the automotive industry with reduced supply of credit to industry exposing their process inefficiencies and reduced credit to consumers reducing sales. Firms are restructuring, with some seeking government financial support, but the industry is not addressing the underlying failure of the business model. The transformation of the automotive enterprise is proposed as a potential solution; from the build to stock (BTS) approach currently employed to a build to order (BTO) enterprise in the future. The BTO approach outlined in this paper is drawn from a 4-year study by a European research consortium. The approach developed delivers the triple bottom line of economic, environmental and societal prosperity through addressing wastes such as overproduction, unnecessary transportation and inventory, coupled with innovative modular vehicle design and adoption of integrated supply chains