CIO interview: Steve O’Connor, Aston Martin

Thursday at 11:21 AM

For a spy, James Bond’s choice of an Aston Martin is anything but subtle, yet the car and the fictional spook have become synonymous with each other.

Since the 1960s, Aston Martin has upheld an image of style and exclusivity, bolstered by its association with the Bond franchise. But as the automotive industry races towards a new era, Aston Martin has had to evolve, much like Bond, and embrace change.

Today, the company is responding to broader industry shifts. Rising trade barriers hindering supply chains and keeping EV prices high, as well as growing competition and volatile trade in markets such as China. In September, Aston Martin and a number of other large car brands issued profit warnings.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Global new-vehicle sales are expected to reach a record 97.2 million units by 2025, with electric vehicles (EVs) leading at a 16% growth rate to 19.4 million units, according to a recent Economist Intelligence Unit report. It’s much-needed positive news for the industry.

For Aston Martin, which appointed former Bentley Motors chairman Adrian Hallmark as CEO earlier this year, this will only be of some comfort. It operates in a highly personalised, high-end bit of the market where costs can easily spiral out of control and where increasingly, its technology choices can have a determining role.

Speaking at Infor’s recent European conference in Amsterdam, CIO Steve O’Connor talks about the completion of an IT transformation and the need for efficiency (unsurprisingly), but it was envisioning a “software-defined car of the future” that he says has shaped the company’s current thinking, especially when it came data, parts and asset management.

Aston Martin has been working with enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider Infor for about four years now, but unlike many vendors who approach transformation, Aston Martin went for more of a rip and replace approach – usually the stuff of IT consultant nightmares. Much of this was down to its own Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) platform that the company had built about 20 years ago.

O’Connor says that “trying to maintain it and keep the thing alive just became way more complex”, and it didn’t adhere to industry best practice. In short, it was due an overhaul, but what made it even more pressing was the pressure building on meeting changing needs within the industry.

“The big driver is obviously the future of automotive,” he says, talking about the need to embrace EVs and how technology is now part and parcel of making cars and in-car experiences.

Aston Martin’s electrification strategy was recently awarded £9m of government funding through the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC), so it’s well on the road to developing its own EV platform, but that’s not what O’Conner is concerned about. It is the customisations or personalisation of each purchase that creates some of the biggest challenges for Aston Martin’s supply chain, logistics and product managers.

O’Connor talks about this complexity of handling parts at Aston Martin, noting, for example, that a sun visor alone could have almost 3,000 different permutations. This, says O’Connor, adds significant complexity into the manufacturing and supply chain process. “No two Aston Martins are truly alike,” he says, “even among dealer-spec cars.”

Customisation extends down to specific details such as stitching colour, leather options and carpet choices, making the planning, processes and management of parts a real headache and open to error. The same can sometimes be said of highly customised legacy ERP installations. So, how does Aston Martin work with Infor?

O’Connor talks about “extensibility” and “modular customisations” being key to the company’s ongoing plans and why it decided to transform its entire system and processes.

Aston Martin is using Infor’s LN software, the core ERP system for manufacturing in Infor’s CloudSuite Automotive. It’s also using a range of other Infor tools including Warehouse Management, Supply Chain Planning and Inform CPQ (configure, price, quote).

“We now have a fully connected ecosystem, starting with the configurator on the website and integrating with Salesforce and CPQ,” says O’Connor, adding that the IT team can do ERP customisations without affecting the core processes of the business, thanks to the modular approach of the software. “We’ve yet to see anything break through that extensibility, which in my experience is actually quite phenomenal.”

The ERP system handles SKU-level (stock taking unit) detail and tracks attributes down to specifics like stitching colour and leather type, says O’Connor, enabling a level of granular tracking that will have to be the norm for the business if it is to continue to compete, while at the same time streamlining its supply chain and becoming more resilient in the face of new challenges such as skills gaps.

Shifting gears

This is where O’Connor sees automation as a big draw. He admits that moving from the old bespoke system to Infor was “a real eye opener” when it came to skills challenges.

“There was a huge skills gap to start off with,” he says, “it was a scary prospect.”

This underscores the daunting transition from a customised legacy system to a modern, cloud-based ERP. The company had to rely heavily on Infor’s partners and implementation teams to bridge this gap.

Automation, however, offers a potential solution to some of these skills challenges, with O’Connor describing the ERP as “open for the automation potential”. By reducing the manual workload involved in tracking and processing customised parts, for example, O’Connor sees automation allowing Aston Martin to manage its extensive customisation options more efficiently, hopefully saving time and money but also importantly ensuring customers get what they want. But it may not be that easy.

According to Deloitte’s The future of the automotive value chain 2025 and beyond: “Up to 1,300 IT specialists and mobility managers may be required for the future car company to play a significant role in the market.”

The automotive industry, like many industries, will still need significant skills in technology (data and AI) and increasingly mobility and Edge expertise – and that’s where it gets really competitive for talent. Managing resources is becoming increasingly essential if these sorts of businesses want to keep seeing the margins to which they have been accustomed in recent years.

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“The big driver [of electric vehicles] is obviously the future of automotive”

Steve O’Connor, Aston Martin

O’Connor seems fully aware that skills will be an ongoing challenge for the whole organisation, and he has learnt a lot from undergoing an IT transformation. He talks up the value of change management, saying it should “not be underestimated” in bringing the business along with you.

“We threw all of our core business systems out and went for the three [Infor] platforms,” says O’Connor. “That was huge and in a short period of time as well. So, you’ve got to win the hearts and minds and you’ve got to keep your eye on the value. You’ve got to keep telling the story.”

The shift has required a careful approach to both process alignment and training, ensuring the team not only understands the technical aspects of the system, but also embraces the new ways of working. This focus on automation and change management reflects the growing role of digital tools in mitigating skills gaps at Aston Martin, but as O’Connor suggests, at the intersection of legacy craftsmanship and high-tech innovation, you can never really take your eye off the ball.

Automation will no doubt have an increasing role here. Focus on workflow is already ongoing, but it’s also proving valuable for Aston Martin’s approach to order management. O’Connor explains that while there’s a 12-week “frozen period” before production, customers can make changes up until that point, sometimes even after. Last-minute changes can be managed more cost-effectively, enabling the business to maintain its customer experience and commitment to individuality.

Managing resources efficiently is fundamental and sustainability is now accelerating to the forefront of Aston Martin’s strategy, with the luxury carmaker aiming to meet the rising environmental expectations of its customers and regulators alike. The company’s Racing Green initiative sets ambitious targets to reduce its environmental footprint across every stage of production, from supply chain logistics to vehicle manufacturing. So, will Infor help?

“That’s the intention,” says O’Connor, adding that having just finished the Infor implementation, he can now turn his attention to sustainability measures to track resource use, emissions and efficiencies.

He was keen to point out that sustainability for Aston Martin is not just about ticking regulatory boxes but reshaping the brand’s future to appeal to environmentally conscious buyers who expect luxury without compromising on sustainability.

The inference from O’Connor was that previously the systems were in no position to help with tracking that sort of data. In many respects, Infor has opened up a new world for Aston Martin, giving it oversight of its operations and an ability to manage products, parts and processes in fine detail.

It’s a new world for such an iconic, traditional sports car brand, and Aston Martin has certainly been brave in firmly planting its IT transformation flag early. As O’Connor says, it can now focus more confidently on its core abilities of building and marketing luxury cars. It’s less shaken, but definitely more stirred.

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