Challenge: Our company faced a quality issue originating during our sub-assembly of headliners for a major customer, a Fortune 100 automotive OEM. Strands of the glue used to affix wiring harnesses and other parts to headliners' C-surfaces were ending up on their A-surfaces as well and were not detected in the QA process. The problem was discovered after finished headliners were installed on vehicles. We needed to make detection easier and meet production cycle times and quality standards.

It's the Daytona 500 of vehicle manufacturing: the race to bring connected cars, light trucks and SUVs to market. Unprecedented safety, driver assistance and infotainment features promise to revolutionize the driving experience. Still, few industry executives are confident that their current connected vehicle initiatives are on the right track.

Premium audio system sales in new vehicles are expected to grow from just over 8.6 million units globally in 2014 to more than 11.6 million units in 2021, with branded speaker system sales expected to grow from more than 8.7 million units to 11.1 million units in the same time frame, according to the IHS Automotive forecasts for these systems.

Challenge: A leading automotive parts retailer, with more than 3,000 stores in the U.S., wanted to quickly develop their B2B channel while simultaneously growing their traditional retail channel. But their operations would have to adapt to meet the higher service level that B2B customers require.