An Integrated Approach for Resilient Value Creation Among the Lifecycle: Using the Automotive Industry as an Example

Current semiconductor shortages, trade obstructions, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic have shown the urgent requirement to rethink existing economic and production structures as well as trade practices. Such global events revealed the susceptibility of value-added structures to environmental disruptions. Especially the complex and highly optimized value chains in the automotive industry were particularly affected. Lack of early warning systems, missing redundancies and ever-increasing dependencies between individual value-added partners can be seen as some of the reasons for the enormous effects the industry is facing. However, looking into the future, fast and flexible product changes might affect the supply chain in similar ways as the current events. To secure value creation and employment and to minimize the impact of future crisis, the industries structures must be made more resilient. This paper provides a contribution to this through an integrated approach. This approach combines elements of linear value creation with a lifecycle-oriented perspective: The life cycle perspective considers temporal changes and dependencies between the individual supply chains of the life cycle phases. Subsequently, the value creation system is decomposed into manageable elements. The corresponding dependencies over selected life cycle phases are described. By creating scenario-robust value-added modules, risk within value-added systems is minimized. To illustrate the approach, a case study on automotive software and electronics is presented. Future changes regarding possible functions of an electric vehicle are anticipated and technical implications are derived on basis of a scenario analysis. Subsequently, the value-added module of integrated software and hardware development are examined in more detail and possible value-added configurations are displayed to indicate that the developed approach is suitable to generate robust supply chains. Interdependencies between value chains of multiple life cycle phases are discovered. Consequently, our approach provides additional value in the context of flexible products and services as well as their associated value-added processes and systems.