Who has the power in purchasing?

This last month has seen the latest announcement from a joint-alliance of OEMs that they are looking to make further cost savings. Renault-Nissan formally confirmed that that is aiming to achieve at least EUR4.3-billion (USD5.85 billion)-worth of annualised synergies between the two automakers by the end of 2016.

The methods which they plan to use to make those savings will be all too familiar to suppliers. The alliance will study how to allocate research on next-generation technologies to spread resources further. It will also focus on the acceleration of common platforms, define and deploy a common powertrain strategy, and optimise test facilities globally. A review will also be undertaken as to how best to optimise capital expenditure through greater standardisation, better capacity utilisation and logistics efficiency.