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Automotive

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Our Expertise
Driving auto industry transformation.

The automotive industry is transforming with remarkable speed: Electrification. Automation. Artificial intelligence. Connectivity. Shared mobility. All this innovation has revolutionized the industry and brings opportunity for those who get creative as to how they restructure their businesses, reshape their products, reimagine their services, and refine their operations. Positioning for success in the world of future mobility also requires accelerating investments in Industry 4.0 technology, connectivity, and digitalization.

We partner with automotive companies to deliver leading-edge insight and pragmatic solutions to help you succeed in this new world of mobility and smart manufacturing. From market analysis, strategic planning, and supply chain and operations improvement, to technology, audit, and tax solutions — we’ll help you position your business for today and tomorrow. If you’re looking to rev up your growth engine, our cross-functional experts will work alongside you to customize strategies to accelerate your business. If M&A is identified as a strategic lever to increase market share, fill gaps, or gain competitive advantages, our transaction advisory team will help you prepare, plan, and execute.

Our automotive practice serves clients across the global value chain, including OEMs, parts and service suppliers, distributors, and component manufacturers, as well as aftermarket parts and brands. As leaders in accounting, tax, and consulting for the automotive industry, we bring decades of industry experience backed up by proprietary market forecasts and benchmarking data. Our Mobility Intelligence Center brings together cross-functional expertise to deliver leading-edge market, financial, operational, and strategic intelligence you won’t find anywhere else. We’re also highly regarded as thought leaders within the industry, with our experts regularly featured at key automotive conferences and quoted in industry media.

Tailored solutions to help you adapt and thrive

The speed of transformation has made it more important than ever to partner with industry experts to help you navigate change. We’ll work with you and guide you down the road of success. Let us help you:
Advance your market position with a cutting-edge strategy
In this era of disruption, your strategy is more important than ever. Our interdisciplinary team of automotive management consultants are guided by proprietary industry data and benchmarking you won’t find anywhere else. We use this insight to help you assess critical areas such as product growth, customer acquisition, digital competencies, and operational efficiency, and then will help you prioritize. We won’t restate the problems you’re already aware of — we’ll build solutions to the issues critical to driving your success. Our strategic recommendations are practical, and our detailed blueprint will help you execute.
Elevate the value of your audit and financial plan

Does your advisor address every aspect of business risk for you? We entrench ourselves in your business to gain a deeper understanding of core functions and performance and deliver meaningful, actionable insights to drive improvement. We’re set on serving as more than your auditor; our goal is to be your trusted business advisor.

Our automotive accounting and audit professionals will help you navigate ever-changing regulations, manage complex accounting issues, audit your employee benefit plan, and ensure your internal controls are functioning correctly. If your company needs back-office support, our accounting solutions team can support your business with finance and automotive accounting services, assume a CFO-level role, or help upgrade your accounting systems to keep pace with your growth.

Enhance your global operations and supply chain strategy
Whether it’s building more resilience in your automotive supply chain, optimizing your plant floor to better leverage technology, analyzing your costs and margins to drive more informed decision-making, or increasing viability with your suppliers, our comprehensive solutions tailored specifically for the automotive industry will help you optimize your supply chain and operations.
Improve technology, data analytics, and cybersecurity
Our technology strategists will help you evaluate which technology investments are strategic to your short- and long-term competitiveness while also understanding the time frame on return. We’ll assess your technology infrastructure and ensure it’s gathering accurate data, generating efficiencies, and helping drive informed decisions. Our cost and margin intelligence team will help you understand where you make money — and where you don’t — while our automotive analytics team will assist to transform data into actionable insights to improve performance. And, with cybersecurity threats continuing to evolve, our cybersecurity experts will assess your security infrastructure and ensure your data and systems are protected.
Scale up with mergers and acquisitions
Automotive companies face difficult decisions about the technologies and capabilities they’ll need to succeed. A clearly defined M&A strategy will play a pivotal role in determining your future success. As your single source for transaction advisory services, including our investment bank affiliate, PMCF, our team has strong expertise in automotive M&A. We have experience working with a variety of ownership structures, including public, private, foreign, and private equity-owned. Our professionals will help identify opportunities, develop a buy- or sell-side strategy, conduct due diligence, execute the transaction, and guide post-transaction integration.
Strengthen your tax position
With ever-changing tax codes in the United States and across the globe, are you optimizing your tax position? With a team of tax specialists focused solely on automotive clients, we’ll help identify planning, structuring, and compliance opportunities that minimize your tax obligations. With expertise ranging from state and local tax and international tax to tax credits and incentives and transfer pricing, we’ll develop a plan customized for your situation.
Inflation, supply chain challenges, labor shortages, and shrinking margins have made manufacturers realize the importance of becoming factories of the future. Our webinar series will help you strategize and navigate Industry 4.0.
Register Now

Related Events

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June 2-Sept. 15, 2022

Webinar series: Level up your technology, data, and operations to drive manufacturing excellence

Industry 4.0 is here. Is your manufacturing organization ready? Register to listen and learn no matter where you are in your transformation journey.
Webinar / 60 min watch
June 13-16, 2022

PowerPlex at ROKLive 2022

Join us for PowerPlex at ROKLive 2022 in Orlando, Fla., where you’ll discover the latest in industrial technology innovations.
Event / 1 min read
Thursday, June 16, 2022

ASC 842 Leases: Implementation considerations

Is your organization ready to implement ASC 842 and navigate potential issues that might arise? Register for our June 16 CPE-eligible webinar to hear from our experts about ASC 842 and what you need to know to prepare and implement.
Webinar / 60 min watch

Industry 4.0

More Industry 4.0
December 21, 2021

Industry 4.0 guidebook: Level up to achieve manufacturing excellence

Increase productivity and profitability by realizing the full potential of Industry 4.0 technologies. Our guidebook will help you assess, establish, and optimize your roadmap.
White Paper / 8 min read
October 26, 2021

Wondering how to start your Industry 4.0 transformation?

Article / 5 min read
December 21, 2021

Industry 4.0 scorecard: Assess your readiness in five key areas

Assessment / 2 min read
November 11, 2021

Modern ERP Guidebook: Update, connect, and create value

White Paper / 9 minute read
Unlock the full potential of Industry 4.0 investments
Download Now

Insights

MORE INSIGHTS
May 26, 2022

Adaptive costing: A CFO’s survival guide

Do you have an adaptive, predictive cost and margin intelligence model to guide profitable decision-making? To survive in today’s economy, you’d better.
Article / 6 min read
May 25, 2022

Plante Moran's annual automaker-supplier working relations study suggests automakers may be trying to play nicer with parts makers

Article / 2 min read
May 18, 2022

Automotive Insiders podcast: Demand, adoption, and supply chain

In The News / 15 min listen
May 18, 2022

International tax news and other global updates for Q2 2022

Article / 8 min read

Case Studies

SEE ALL CASE STUDIES
October 15, 2021

Operations assessment for targeted growth

Manufacturer improves efficiencies by more than 10 percent of operating cost and sees increased production capacity.
Case Study / 1 min read
October 01, 2018

North American Lighting replaces multiple ERP systems with Plex Manufacturing Cloud

North American Lighting (NAL), the largest independently owned Tier 1 automotive lighting supplier, replaces multiple legacy, on-premise ERP systems and achieves seamless integration across advanced manufacturing systems and facilities with the Plex Manufacturing Cloud.
Case Study / 2 min read
May 07, 2020

Cost and margin intelligence solutions for automotive supplier

Automotive supplier improves costing information leading to confidence in product decisions and reduced lead time.
Case Study / 1 min read
Client Experience
An experienced partner at your side

Headquartered in the Motor City with nearly 100 years of experience, our experts know what drives success in the automotive industry. In this era of radical change, our broad range of customized services will meet you wherever you are in your transformation journey and wherever you operate around the globe.

Our clients say we’re knowledgeable, attentive, and more flexible than other automotive consulting firms. They know we’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with them as a member of the team and be equally invested in their success. In the words of our automotive consulting practice leader Daron Gifford, “Our clients appreciate the depth of our industry experience, our understanding of what’s most important to transform and succeed, and our ability to help build out a pragmatic plan with realistic, implementable, strategies.”

Our clients say

Our Plante Moran consultant is a trusted, highly respected, and integral part of our organization. He is our expert on industry and market issues and consistently delivers top value while maintaining the highest degree of professionalism and integrity.

Steven Perlman
Chief Executive Office, The Intec Group
Photo of Daron Gifford Daron Gifford

Partner

248-223-3709

Headshot of Mark Barrott Mark  Barrott

Principal

248-223-3272

MEET OUR TEAM