FEV Consulting helps suppliers strengthen their competitiveness in rapidly changing markets by combining strategic analysis with deep product and technology expertise. Support ranges from portfolio transformation, market expansion, and technology-driven growth strategies to cost competitiveness, organizational readiness, and accelerated product development. Suppliers receive concrete product concepts, validated business cases, and implementation support, with the option to continue into product development support to ensure consistent execution from strategy to realization.
INDUSTRies
Supplier Industry
What challenges do suppliers face in transforming their product and market positioning?
Suppliers across industries are navigating fundamental changes in technologies, customer expectations, and competitive structures. Electrification, software-defined products, digital services, changing value chains, and growing international competition are forcing many suppliers to rethink their future role in the market.
At the same time, traditional sources of differentiation and profitability are coming under pressure. Products that were successful for decades may become less relevant, while new opportunities often require different technologies, capabilities, business models, and development approaches.
This creates a fundamental challenge for suppliers: identifying future growth opportunities while maintaining competitiveness in existing businesses. Success increasingly depends on the ability to reposition portfolios, enter new markets, develop differentiated products, and build the capabilities required to support long-term transformation.
How does FEV Consulting support suppliers in transforming their product and market positioning?
FEV Consulting supports suppliers by combining strategic analysis with deep product and technology expertise, ensuring that strategic decisions translate into actionable product outcomes and can be continued into development if required.
Portfolio repositioning and new growth opportunities
FEV Consulting helps suppliers identify future growth opportunities in changing markets and technologies. We assess how existing capabilities can be transferred into new applications, customer segments, and value chains, creating transparency on where future growth can realistically be achieved. The result is a prioritized opportunity portfolio that connects market attractiveness with the supplier’s existing strengths and long-term strategic objectives.
Product and technology differentiation
Identifying opportunities is only the first step. FEV Consulting translates market opportunities into differentiated product concepts by combining technology assessments, competitor analysis, benchmarking insights, and system-level product understanding. This enables suppliers to define products that are technically feasible, commercially attractive, and clearly differentiated from competing solutions.
Business case validation and transformation planning
FEV Consulting helps suppliers evaluate whether promising product opportunities can become successful businesses. We combine business case development, roadmap creation, capability assessments, and organizational readiness evaluations to support investment decisions and prepare implementation. This creates a realistic foundation for growth initiatives while reducing execution risk.
Cost competitiveness and product value optimization
Competitive products require not only technical differentiation but also attractive cost structures. FEV Consulting combines engineering expertise with cost analysis to create transparency on cost drivers, identify optimization opportunities, and evaluate product alternatives. This enables suppliers to improve competitiveness while balancing performance, customer value, and profitability.
From strategy to product development
Many transformation programs fail because strategic decisions and engineering implementation are disconnected. FEV Consulting bridges this gap by supporting clients beyond strategy development and into concept development, specification work, technical validation, and product development activities. This creates continuity throughout the transformation process and helps ensure that strategic decisions translate into tangible business outcomes.
What supplier transformation experience does FEV Consulting bring?
- 0+supplier strategy and transformation projects delivered for more than 40 clients
- 0+industries supported incl. mobility, industrial, energy and technology sectors
- 0+years of continuous client support
- 0+benchmarked vehicle technologies available in the proprietary carat database
Case samples
How does FEV Consulting support suppliers in practice?
Suppliers face transformation challenges that go far beyond developing new products. FEV Consulting supports clients in repositioning portfolios, entering new markets, improving competitiveness, and turning strategic decisions into development-ready product concepts. Our following examples illustrate how strategy, product expertise, and engineering capabilities come together in real supplier transformation projects.
Identifying new EV product opportunities
A supplier with a strong ICE-focused portfolio sat out to identify future growth opportunities within electric vehicles while leveraging its established expertise in fluid management. The project combined capability assessments, EV system analyses, and hands-on workshops in the FEV Benchmarking Center to identify and evaluate potential product opportunities. The outcome was a prioritized portfolio of future product opportunities and a structured decision basis for further investment activities. One of the identified opportunities subsequently entered product development, supported by FEV, and created the foundation for several follow-up projects.
Defining a differentiated electric drive unit strategy
When evaluating entry into the electric drive unit market, a supplier of internal combustion engine powertrain components required a clear understanding of technology options, market dynamics, and competitive positioning. Market and competitor analyses were combined with technology assessments, concept development, implementation planning, and business case validation to define a differentiated EDU offering.
The outcome was a validated product concept and implementation roadmap that provided the basis for subsequent development activities. FEV continued supporting the customer beyond the strategy phase to help translate the concept into product development activities.
Repositioning within evolving vehicle value chains
A supplier faced increasing uncertainty around its future role within changing vehicle architectures and evolving industry value chains. As technologies, customer expectations, and sources of value creation shifted, the company needed a clear perspective on future growth opportunities and strategic positioning. FEV Consulting conducted capability assessments, value-chain analyses, and strategic positioning evaluations to identify future market opportunities and areas of competitive advantage. Based on these insights, we developed portfolio priorities, growth scenarios, and a transformation roadmap aligned with anticipated technology and market developments. The project delivered a clearly defined positioning strategy and investment roadmap, enabling the client to align its portfolio, capabilities, and future growth initiatives with emerging mobility ecosystems and changing customer requirements.
Improving cost competitiveness of an electric drive portfolio
Cost competitiveness became a critical question for a supplier seeking to strengthen the market position of its electric drive unit portfolio in passenger car and light truck applications. The project combined should-cost modelling, subsystem-level assessments, and design gap analyses to create transparency on cost drivers and optimization opportunities. The outcome was a structured understanding of cost-performance trade-offs across key subsystems. This enabled informed technology selection decisions and provided a fact-based foundation for improving future product competitiveness.
The key challenge for suppliers is not identifying trends, but defining products that are technically feasible, competitive, and aligned with their capabilities.
Frequently asked questions
Suppliers need to understand how their capabilities align with future product requirements. Combining capability assessments, technology analysis, and market insights helps prioritize commercially and technically viable opportunities. FEV Consulting combines strategic analysis with detailed product and technology expertise, enabling suppliers to evaluate opportunities based on both market attractiveness and technical feasibility.
Successful entry requires a combination of market understanding, competitor benchmarking, technology assessment, and business case validation. These elements help reduce risk and improve decision quality. Beyond identifying attractive opportunities, FEV Consulting can support the definition and, when required, the development of new product concepts, creating continuity from strategy to implementation.
Competitiveness depends on product performance, cost positioning, and differentiation. Product benchmarking, technology analysis, and cost assessments provide the required transparency. FEV Consulting complements market assessments with strong engineering know-how and product insights derived from development programs and FEV Consulting’s own benchmark activities.
Cost analysis enables informed product and technology choices before significant development investments are made and helps identify cost optimization opportunities at an early stage. FEV Consulting combines unique cost engineering methodologies with deep subsystem and product knowledge, allowing cost optimization opportunities to be linked directly to technical decisions.
A product-focused approach allows strategic recommendations to transition into development support, reducing implementation risks and maintaining alignment throughout execution. Unlike traditional consulting approaches, FEV Consulting can continue supporting clients beyond the strategy phase, helping to bridge the gap between consulting recommendations and engineering realization.
Suppliers need to assess capability gaps, define required skills, and establish roadmaps that align organizational development with product and technology ambitions. FEV Consulting combines organizational assessments with deep product, technology, and development expertise, ensuring that capability-building activities are aligned with future business opportunities.
Get in contact
with our team
Dr. Andreas Wiartalla
Director and Expert in Supplier Industry
Igor Hazanavicius
Senior Manager and Expert in Supplier Industry
