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We often see OEMs in India miss the deadline to launch a new vehicle but seldom do we ponder on the reasons for such frequent delays. The Indian automobile industry is a fast growing landscape. Earlier this year, the nation went past Japan to become the thirdlargest automobile producer in the world.

A new study reveals all the possible reasons why Indian automobile launches face so many frequent delays. According to a report by Vector Consulting Group, around 80 percent of the OEMs face delays in launching a new vehicle. Most of these delays are caused due to late changes in design and engineering.

Late changes delay launches

The report highlights that India’s automotive industry is plagued by these latestage changes that also put constraints on suppliers. The study shows that, unlike expectations, engineering changes do not reduce significantly after the prototype and validation stages. Ideally, changes should fall below 15 percent during preproduction, drop to under 8 percent at production start/postlaunch, and decline further to under 3 percent after product stabilisation. 

However, this pattern is rare with only 6 percent of OEMs following it, 13 percent deviating moderately, while a large 81 percent are far from alignment. Every small change can trigger rework in design, tooling, repeated validations, or software updates, delaying launch schedules and increasing costs. This has a significant impact on suppliers. 

Supply chain constraints

The report states that 57 percent of component manufacturers have reported frequent changes that have forced their teams into constant rework and firefighting, repeatedly shifting resources from one project to another. Consequently, 76 percent  of respondents reported longer project lead times, 52 percent faced challenges with ontime deliveries, 43 percent encountered cost overruns, and 83 percent were forced to pause new technology initiatives.

All these changes also lead to cost overruns, reduced quality, increased warranty claims, and launch readiness issues. 33 percent of OEMs have reported ongoing challenges in achieving desired product quality and reliability even after launch whereas 20 percent have cited increased warranty costs. 58 percent of OEMs have highlighted delays in service and dealer network launch readiness. 

Root cause analysis

The report identifies three major root causes behind late engineering changes. Around 60 percent of the last minute changes happen due to missing or delayed manufacturing engineering inputs in early stages while 47 percent happens thanks to delayed supplier feedback. Around 13 percent changes happen due to unstable design freezes.

Solutions & Expected Benefits

The study by Vector Consulting has also provided recommendations that will help manufacturers mitigate all the above issues. Recommending a shift from a milestonedriven tracking to a flowbased execution model, the study suggests earlier involvement of suppliers and other stakeholders during the concept stage, that will help OEMs set workinprogress limits to avoid overload. 

Further, a structured triage of engineering changes will help OEMs separate critical fixes from nonessential modifications. The study also highlights the need for Tier1 suppliers to act as codevelopment partners rather than executiononly vendors.

The above recommendations, if implemented, can lead to the following benefits:

1. 20–30% fewer late engineering changes.
2. 30–50% faster time to launch.
3. 20–30% reduction in supplier response time.
4. 15–25% efficiency gains across the ecosystem