Stabilising mission-critical IT in global automotive manufacturing

The business situation

A global manufacturing organisation was operating a highly complex technology estate supporting manufacturing, engineering, purchasing, logistics, sales and corporate functions. IT disruption had a direct operational impact: production losses, business interruption, supplier escalation and loss of confidence in technology delivery.

Why it was complex

• Business-critical systems supported live production and commercial operations.
• The delivery environment spanned large application, infrastructure and supplier estates.
• Operational performance depended on coordinated action across business, IT and vendors.
• The improvement agenda had to progress without destabilising day-to-day manufacturing activity.

What changed

Senior transformation leadership was applied across service delivery, supplier governance, escalation control and operational performance. The work introduced clearer ownership, stronger service management discipline, improved incident and problem governance, executive visibility of risk, and better alignment between technology delivery and manufacturing outcomes.

Commercial and operational impact

IT-related manufacturing losses were reduced by up to 99% and major IT outages by up to 80%. The work improved resilience, restored executive confidence and created a stronger platform for service modernisation, automation, cloud adoption and Industry 4.0 initiatives.

Delivery moves

• Created executive-level control across operational service risk and supplier performance.
• Strengthened incident, problem, change and escalation disciplines around manufacturing impact.
• Introduced clearer service ownership and management information for business-critical platforms.
• Aligned operational IT priorities to production, logistics and commercial outcomes.
• Built confidence with business leaders by making service risk, recovery action and benefits visible.

Evidence of value

• Up to 99% reduction in IT-related manufacturing losses.
• Up to 80% reduction in major IT outages.
• Large-scale estate: thousands of delivery personnel, hundreds of applications, multiple data centres and significant supplier complexity.
• Improved operational continuity while transformation and modernisation activity continued.

Relevant Ekselens services