Detroit is known for its history in automotive. Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, Actify is the leading provider of visualization and program management solutions for the automotive supply chain. Now, Actify CEO Dave Opsahl, is bringing attention industry-wide to the challenges in the automotive industry that may have the potential to perpetuate production impacts felt in 2020 and 2021.
The company counts approximately 1,700 auto suppliers in its global customer base. As CEO, Opsahl works to bring the community together by hosting formal group meetings, attending on-site visits, and having frequent informal communication with companies reflecting a broad spectrum of component suppliers. He is looking to encourage the auto community to work towards an improved process.
“The entire automotive supply chain, from OEMs to lower-tier suppliers, is in need of a fundamental restructuring because the relationship between cost and risk has gone out of balance,” says Opsahl to Forbes. “With supply lines that stretch across oceans and continents, and an extraordinary level of interdependency, there is simply not enough resiliency to absorb climate, political, or health disruptions. The relentless drive to remove costs and increase speed has left the supply chain too brittle, and we are seeing the cracks everywhere.”
With constraints present in the supplier base, the problem has the ability to greatly impact future OEM production plans. Suppliers may be able to address the problem through the development of more program managers and adopting new software tools, including those developed by Actify. OEMs can also get into the game for their own interests. To do this, OEMs, as the CEO sees, must adopt a more collaborative approach to contracts and simplifying outdated procurement procedures and supplier operations mandates.
“I cannot recall a single supplier that is not already stretched to the limit due to the inability to scale their program management team,” says Opsahl. “Program managers orchestrate each program launch, and it is not unusual for them to be working at 150-200% of planned program capacity. Now, as OEMs ramp their EV model introductions, demand is set to swell but there is no program manager capacity available to supply.”
The CEO, along with his team at Actify have continued to raise awareness of the opportunity to transform program management. They are also spreading knowledge on how suppliers can prepare for the future of the automotive industry as the rise in EVs continues to gain steam.
To continue the push to bring attention to the auto industry’s program management, the company appointed Bob Anson as the company’s new Vice President of Products in February. Anson will now lead the company’s product portfolio, including the industry’s first purpose-built solution for Automotive Program Management.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be joining Actify at this time of urgent market need, and with the technology assets and market presence Actify has already developed,” said Anson. “It’s not every day that you have an opportunity to create first-to-market products to address an underserved market, and the team at Actify has done an amazing job so far. I look forward to working with our customers to advance Actify’s portfolio of robust enterprise visualization and program management products.”
Though the company is headquartered in Detroit, Actify has sales and support in 45 countries including its offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and China, and their global network of partners.
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