Co-create to accelerate: Building agility and speed with supplier collaboration

Platforms like Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE make this collaboration seamless by providing a single, secure digital environment where OEMs, suppliers and engineering teams can co-develop.

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India’s automotive industry is in the midst of rapid transformation, shaped by electrification, connected systems and stringent regulations. In such a high-velocity environment, reducing time-to-market has become not just a competitive edge but a survival imperative. One of the most powerful levers to achieve this is early supplier involvement (ESI), the practice of treating suppliers as co-creators from the earliest stages of design.“Traditionally, OEMs engaged suppliers after specifications were frozen. In early supplier engagement, we co-define those requirements alongside them,” said Kartikeya Joshi, President & Business Head, Uno Minda. “It allows us to tailor solutions, plan better quality, and align to regulatory and integration needs from the start.”

For Mohammed Azmathullah, Sr. Sales Director, Dassault Systèmes India, the value lies in mindset and process transformation. “Transformation is not about numbers. It is about changing the way stakeholders collaborate, reduce non-value-added activities, and pursue shared growth ambitions across the value chain.”

Watch the complete conversation here.

Collaboration as a competitive advantage

At Uno Minda, early engagement offers practical benefits: more time to plan launches, adapt designs, and ensure compliance with rising standards in automotive electronics. For a Tier 1 supplier that manufactures lighting, mechatronics and safety systems, being part of upstream design gives visibility and influence that directly impact product success.“Early supplier involvement helps us detail requirements at both system integration and regulatory levels,” explained Joshi. “It is especially crucial as automotive electronics and power electronics add new layers of complexity to vehicle design.”Platforms like Dassault’s 3DEXPERIENCE make this collaboration seamless by providing a single, secure digital environment where OEMs, suppliers and engineering teams can co-develop. “The objective is to reduce the time lost in handovers,” said Azmathullah. “By bringing everyone onto one platform — now even as SaaS on the cloud — we enable faster validation and more efficient manufacturing outcomes.”

Innovation in India, for India and the world

Global Tier 1 giants such as Bosch or Continental typically conduct upstream research and platform engineering in Europe, the US or Japan, with India teams focusing on application engineering. Uno Minda, by contrast, has built its entire innovation process end-to-end in India, reflecting its core market focus.“Our mandate is to innovate for India and then from India for the world,” said Joshi. “We look at technology trends, align with OEM roadmaps, and make forward R&D investments right here in India, ensuring both upstream and downstream innovation happens locally.”

This localisation resonates with Dassault’s vision of empowering India’s value network. “Design in India, design for the world is no longer aspirational — it’s happening,” noted Azmathullah. “What excites us is seeing Indian suppliers like Uno Minda drive upstream innovation while collaborating digitally with global OEMs.”

Overcoming frictions in early engagement

While ESI offers clear benefits, challenges remain. OEMs often hesitate to bring suppliers in too early, fearing data security risks or disruptions to established governance structures. Others worry about involving multiple partners before preliminary designs are complete.

“OEMs sometimes prefer to finish their internal designs before involving suppliers, but that delays optimisation,” observed Azmathullah. “Concerns about data security and programme governance also slow adoption. Fortunately, platforms today address these through unified data models and secure collaboration environments.”

For Uno Minda, overcoming these barriers is about building trust and delivering value. “In India, consumers are demanding faster launches, and electronics content is growing sharply,” said Joshi. “Complexity means more stakeholders — so early engagement ensures everyone has enough time to deliver high-quality, market-fit products.”

Digital continuity: The new baseline

Both leaders agreed that digital continuity is no longer optional. With shrinking timelines and complex supply chains, design, simulation and manufacturing can no longer happen in sequence — they must run in parallel, with suppliers plugged in throughout.

“You ideally need a unified platform that integrates drawings, BOMs and quality parameters seamlessly across the supply chain,” said Joshi. “That’s how we ensure robust product quality while meeting aggressive market timelines.”

“Earlier, design and simulation were sequential,” added Azmathullah. “Now they happen simultaneously, with supplier collaboration embedded. SaaS-based platforms provide not just continuity but also stronger security, making collaboration faster and safer than ever.”

Case in point: Cameras built in India

Uno Minda’s journey into camera manufacturing illustrates the stakes of early engagement. As one of the few Indian Tier 1s to produce cameras locally, it had to orchestrate global and domestic suppliers across semiconductors, tooling and manufacturing technology.

“For our camera line, we engaged critical suppliers right from the design stage,” recalled Joshi. “We digitally designed the production line in parallel with the product, built proto lines for workforce training, and upgraded tooling suppliers to meet the demands of high-precision manufacturing.”

For Dassault, such examples highlight why upstream collaboration pays dividends downstream. “Digital twins of both product and manufacturing line help validate quality and efficiency before full-scale rollout,” explained Azmathullah. “This is how you de-risk investments while meeting PPAP and regulatory benchmarks on time.”

Building trust across the value chain

The conversation also turned to softer but equally critical factors: shared vision, trust, and collaborative mindsets. Without these, even the best platforms or processes cannot ensure true early involvement.

“Intent and trust are fundamental,” argued Azmathullah. “OEMs, suppliers and partners need shared programme governance, collaborative working environments, and platforms that support MBSE, DFA and DFM validations across domains.”

Joshi emphasised that the ‘why’ is already well understood — time to market and rising electronic content demand it. “The question now is how. Complex ecosystems require early engagement to converge on specifications and give every partner the time to deliver a world-class product.”

From insight to impact

As innovation cycles shorten, deciding when to commit resources becomes both art and science. For Uno Minda, it is an iterative process , aligning product roadmaps with OEMs, testing product–market fit, and scaling once anchor customers validate the value.

“The earlier you fact-check innovation with the customer, the less disappointment later,” said Joshi. “Once we see the pain point clearly and the competencies required, we commit resources, secure anchor customers and scale.”

For Azmathullah, the right time is always “day one.” “If the objective is to reduce new product development cycle time, stakeholders must be involved from the very beginning. Planning, execution and governance must run together — across design, engineering and manufacturing.”

The road ahead

Episode 3 of India Leadership Talks underlined a clear message: in India’s automotive sector, early supplier involvement is no longer optional. It is the foundation of speed, quality and competitiveness.

“As CTOs and suppliers, our biggest opportunity lies in simplifying complexity for the end customer,” reflected Joshi. “That requires trust, collaboration and the courage to innovate together.”

“The next leap will come when digital continuity becomes a shared language across OEMs, suppliers and dealers,” concluded Azmathullah. “That is when collaboration will truly accelerate innovation from design to delivery.”

The dialogue signalled a future where India’s auto ecosystem is not just manufacturing for the world but designing with the world — faster, smarter, and always with the customer at the core.