Tap new growth markets, implement innovations – to do this, the automotive and components supply industries need a lot of financial capital. In addition, in the current situation automotive companies also depend on alternative financial sources outside the financial markets. This is why the order of the day is to strengthen the company's own financial power.

The most important measures

• Reduce inventories in the long term– with needs-synchronised production, capacity-oriented planning and increased supply security
• Systematically reduce the extent of receivables – by realising receivables faster, agreeing on adequate security and by selling receivables
• Manage payables holistically – by negotiating longer payment terms or more favourable discount conditions

To achieve these aims, purchasing, production and sales must work closely together. Specifically, this means: purchasing should focus on Total Cost of Ownership, production should consider lower safety stocks and batch sizes and sales should not compromise so much when it comes to payment terms.

Control the entire order-to-cash cycle with Cirquent

Cirquent's aim is: to reduce short-term tied up capital volumes in order and payment processing for automotive companies. We see most leverage in inventory and receivables management. The idea is not to focus on individual areas but to manage the entire order-to-cash cycle. Specifically, Cirquent provides support for:

• Inventory categorisation with the identification of high potential items
• Inventory optimisation with differentiation based on savings potentials that can be achieved in the short term and others that are more long-term
• Reducing liquid outstanding claims and prolonging terms for payables

Cirquent defines targeted measures and supports all phases of the implementation, including continuous monitoring.