Suzuki announced on the 25th that it will halve the development period for new models to roughly 24 months. The company will overhaul its development process, which had proceeded sequentially through planning, design, and raw material procurement, so that each department shares information from the initial stage and advances the work in parallel. It also aims to improve development efficiency by about 30% by using artificial intelligence in design and other areas, in a bid to compete with fast-rising Chinese and emerging automakers. President Toshihiro Suzuki made the announcement at a technology strategy briefing held in Tokyo the same day, explaining, "This is a challenge to become a company that will not lose out to the speed of change." Suzuki has traditionally taken about 40 to 48 months to develop a new model, but it also aims to raise production efficiency through measures such as parts commonization.
Suzuki Motor Corp.Suzuki will halve new-model development time to ~24 months and use AI to boost development efficiency by 30%, overhauling its R&D process.
Suzuki Co., Ltd.
