Automotive resilience lessons
Disruption is the new normal: Key themes and takeaways from ALSC Europe 2026
"We should welcome crises, not to underplay the human side, but as a wake-up call to make sure we get better," Christopher Ludwig, chief content officer, Automotive Logistics.
ALSC Europe 2026
From AI and data strategy to green logistics, packaging regulation and the evolving role of supply chain in boardroom decisions, ALSC Europe 2026 brought together industry leaders in Bonn. What emerged was a clear and increasingly confident argument that the companies investing in collaboration, technology and talent are building competitive advantage from uncertainty.
Against a backdrop of significant global trade disruption, the ALSC Europe 2026 conference provided a hopeful and constructive outlook for a future where – through collaboration, innovation and data-driven decision-making – the industry can best prepare itself for what appears to be the (at least short-term) inevitability of disruption.
The conference was headlined by Stellantis’ Carlos Vazquez, vice-president global purchasing and supply chain, and Benoit Gaucherand, senior manager – enlarged Europe aftersales transport and flow engineering. The two leaders from Stellantis shared how resilience has moved from a boardroom-level presentation to a daily necessity – having been this way since the Covid pandemic. They outlined Stellantis’ people-centric ‘Engaged Program’ to effectively communicate and engage with partners throughout the supply chain.
Of course, the topic of AI dominated a lot of the conversations throughout the conference as delegates and speakers alike pondered how to make the most of new technologies to deliver end-to-end gains in the supply chain. But what several speakers highlighted was that AI systems are only as good as the data they are given, and therefore ensuring a clean data foundation must be top priority before a system is deployed. Kinaxis’ Luiz Solia noted that AI should fuse optimisation, heuristics and simulation capabilities to orchestrate workflows across planning and execution –providing options, but ultimately leaving key decisions to humans.
The continued support for a human-in-the loop approach expressed at ALSC Europe brought a spotlight onto another of the conference’s key themes – the value of talent. At a time when the industry is facing shortages in a number of critical roles, welcoming and developing talent in the industry is paramount. Sabine Isenbort, manager of inbound logistics operations at Ford Europe, highlighted that bridging the gap between generations is essential in order to benefit from the expertise of the older generation and the technological savviness of the younger generation.
The disruption faced by the industry since the turn of the decade has brought supply chain and logistics to the forefront of companies’ operations, and examples shared at ALSC Europe demonstrated a trend of logistics having a seat at the table earlier in the product strategy process – as early as design. Sean Bricknell, Volvo Cars’ head of performance office – supply chain, explained how it localised production of one of its models with supply chain in mind, and how supply chain has been part of the decision-making process at Volvo Cars’ new Slovakia plant from the beginning – highlighting how far the industry has come in terms of the influence of supply chain and logistics.
Another key theme and strategy for overcoming disruption was collaboration. Throughout the sessions, speakers highlighted the need for OEMs, tier suppliers, LSPs and technology providers to work closely together, share data and build meaningful partnerships that result in win-win scenarios. Marcio Lucon, executive director of global logistics and containers management at GM, emphasised that transactional relationships with partners are not enough in today’s automotive logistics landscape – it is those sustainable, collaborative and long-term partnerships that will deliver meaningful results.
To this point, Dr Nadine Kiratli-Schneider, head of supply chain risk management and sustainability at Schaeffler, and Annick Verhoeven, head of product at Maersk, shared how their two companies had worked together to tackle delivery unreliability in international logistics, reducing supply chain risk, carbon emissions and lead times. Going one step further, Dr Kiratli-Schneider noted that collaboration between competitors will ultimately benefit the industry as a whole – something JLR’s freight operations director, Levent Yuksel further emphasised in his session on how new partnerships, shared networks and collaboration must accelerate if the industry is to meet its sustainability targets.
On the topic of sustainability, speakers highlighted the need for decarbonisation goals to be embedded into product sourcing and network decision strategies rather than being considered separately later down the line. Multiple sessions also stressed that a company’s sustainability journey need not be separate to their financial goals and, in fact, decisions on decarbonisation and sustainability should be framed in terms of Total Cost of Ownership and ROI – particularly when seeking C-suite buy-in.
Something that appeared higher on the agenda in 2026 compared to previous years was the topic of packaging and compliance. A message that emerged throughout both days of the conference – particularly in the presentation given by Andy Winebloom, senior manager at Toyota Motor Europe – was that packaging has gone from a siloed afterthought to a strategic advantage, sometimes considered as early in the process now as part design. Strategies such as lightweighting and design-for-packaging have the potential to deliver huge cost savings, as well as supporting regulatory compliance and sustainability efforts. And throughout all packaging-related sessions, the PPWR was one subject that could not be avoided – clearly something all packaging teams have a close eye on and continue to seek clarity on in the year ahead.
The electrification process continued to be a key talking point in 2026, tying in to themes of sustainability, with infrastructure and scale remaining the biggest barriers. The battery supply chain was the centre of a lot of discussions, with the consensus being that it should be treated as an end‑to‑end strategic system, rather than a series of isolated procurement decisions.
And finally, order-to-delivery was discussed in multiple sessions, with Thomas Gensberger, head of supply chain steering order-to-delivery at Audi, sharing his view that it must be an end‑to‑end, centrally steered system that integrates planning and operations so that decisions are fact‑based, predictable and repeatable.
Overall, ALSC Europe 2026 put a spotlight on how embracing new technologies while nurturing human excellence – along with fostering collaboration both in house and across the industry – can not only provide a path through the uncertainty the industry faces today, but can also provide opportunities for companies, and the industry as a whole, to deliver on their goals of optimised, cost-efficient, sustainable logistics.
Stay tuned, we will update this page with more event highlights!
