The Hotdog Model – How Turn a Tier 1 Automotive Company Into an Agile Organization

Abstract

The more dynamic the markets become, i.e., the more surprises the markets have in store for companies, the more important it becomes for companies to react quickly to these changes in order to have market-driven and individual solutions. This is especially important for tier 1 suppliers, as competition is fierce and the customers, the OEMs, also have to adapt to the changing market and thus customer needs.In order to be best prepared for this, it is necessary to align one's own company in a flexible and responsive manner. In particular, the context-specific development and application of a framework as well as a model for the improvement of internal collaboration in companies is necessary.In this paper, exactly such a framework has been developed in several pilot projects within the framework of an agile transformation at a tier 1 supplier over a period of two years by means of participative action research.As a result, the conception and development of an individually scaled agile framework for a tier 1 supplier in the automotive industry, the AHEAD framework, is presented here. The Hotdog model is the central basis for the collaboration model, which is scalable to all company levels.