That acceleration in the manufacturing and delivery of cleaner, more connected cars, in turn, requires a greater degree of standardisation across processes and earlier collaboration both internally at the carmakers but also between them and their logistics partners.

Speaking at last week’s Automotive Logistics and Supply Chain Europe conference in Munich, Germany, Dieter Braun, head of supply chain at Audi, said that production planning, which was previously done on a monthly basis, was now being done weekly. The semiconductor crisis, to take one of the current pressures, requires a taxing level of attention. Braun said designating a semiconductor across Audi’s eight plants, 13 lines, and 45 models means considering 11 trillion alternative uses.

That is driving a faster adoption of digital tools and better data handling.