Indian Automotive Forum

Posted by Admin, Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Satven was an active participant in the India Automotive Forum held at the Le Meridien Hotel in Delhi towards the end of July 2016. This forum brought together several industry leaders & experts from India & abroad representing top automotive companies, technology solution providers, consultants, Government & Regulatory agencies and other key stake holders to share valuable insights and global best practices.

Sridhar Lakshminarayanan, VP & Global Delivery Head – Simulation, captivated the august audience with his talk on how virtual simulation is powering innovation in the automotive industry. Examples of several design concepts that are first studied in the virtual world were cited with explanations on how automotive OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers saved time & money in developing new products such as trucks with all-aluminum bodies, airbags that deploy from the roof and the rear of the front seat, tires that recharge batteries during braking and a few more.

Balasubramanyam J, Project Manager – Design, enthralled the dignitaries with his presentation on competitive benchmarking. The section on virtual benchmarking was especially appreciated by the delegates.

Sridhar was also part of a thought-provoking panel discussion on “Innovation in an automotive company”. His comments on customer discovery, how to bring about innovation culture in an organization by empowering the rank & file and balancing culture cohesion & creative dissent were all attention-grabbing. He also advised organizations to always set aside some time to think about strategies for the future even while focusing on improving operational excellence.

How the Ford Mustang was created was cited as a glowing example of how innovation came about based on people’s “lifestyle” and not “income groups”. Much emphasis was laid by Sridhar on how it is not going to be “business as usual” and why companies must continuously innovate to stay relevant in the marketplace.