Principles and Practices of Agile Techniques in Automotive Product Operations

Abstract

Agile approach and its practices are becoming more and more critical to many organisations in the face of accelerating global competitive pressure and customers' growing demands. While agility promises to bring values to business, organisations are facing a range of challenges in their agile transformation journey. This article aims to examine the principles and practices of Agile techniques in automotive product operations. The results find that Agile implementation helps automotive organisations increase customer satisfaction due to the more emphasis on customer preferences and frequent value delivery. Also, Agile promotes feedback loops, and continuous improvement across multi-layers within the organisation resulted in higher-quality automotive products. The implementation of Agile practices leading to higher productivity and efficiency in automotive operations is another finding. Agile approach and practices transform multifaceted aspects within the automotive organisation in terms of strategy, organizational structure, management methodology, processes, people, and technology, which resulted in the sweeping changes across the agile-based company. The final finding is that existing automotive organisations may face a wide range of challenges in their agile transformation journey. By contrast, it is easier for start-up companies as they begin with the blank page and do not need to obliterate anything.