Winning a nomination takes engineering hours. So does losing one.
ZopaAI links your project pipeline, quote history and call-off data to 230,000+ external sources and scores every open RFQ on lifetime contribution, win probability and engineering effort.
Automotive
A clearer view on which RFQs are worth the engineering hours
Automotive suppliers often decide early in a programme where to invest engineering time and how to price over many years. Pipeline, quote history and call-off data usually sit in different places, and external signals such as platform changes or sourcing decisions can reach sales late. ZopaAI connects your project pipeline, quote history and call-off data with external signals such as sourcing announcements, platform changes, facelifts and competitor wins, and scores every RFQ on lifetime contribution, win probability and engineering effort. It also keeps carry-over, derivative and aftermarket business in view. Your team gets a shared, ranked view of where effort is most likely to pay off.
ZopaAI stands for reliable, scientifically verified AI for use in companies, in order to avoid the problem of AI hallucinations.
Newspaper, Frankfurt
Eight building blocks, usable on their own, together a steering system
All blocks run on the same data foundation and the same score logic. You can start with one of them without having to rebuild the others later.
Pick your role, the modules used day to day in that role are highlighted.
Account scoring and next best action
One score per OEM group and per customer plant, recomputed weekly, from lifetime contribution of the running programmes, price-down exposure, call-off deviation against nominated volume, quality cost and your share of that customer's relevant platforms. Next to the score sits the movement since last week, the component that caused it, and one action: prepare a claim, raise at the quarterly review, secure the successor, hold, reduce exposure, or do nothing. Each action is shown with its expected effect and the condition that would change it. Before go-live the model is run over your last two nomination cycles, so you can compare its recommendations against what your team actually decided.
- One score per OEM group and per plant, recomputed weekly
- Movement shown with the component that caused it
- Run over your last two nomination cycles before it is used forwards
“Group 3, plant Zwickau: score down 7 points. Driver: call-offs on programme P41 have run 12 % below the nominated volume for two quarters, so tooling amortisation is short. Recommended: raise at the November review, before the price-down round assumes the nominated volume.”
Illustrative wording. Figures and names are not from a real client project.
Programme and RFQ prioritisation
A ranked list of open RFQs by expected lifetime contribution per engineering hour. The win probability behind it comes from your own quote history: who the incumbent is, what you were awarded at that group before, whether your footprint fits the OEM's logistics radius, and your quality record on comparable parts. Each RFQ also shows whether you have contact on the engineering side, because a specification is set before purchasing sends the request.
- Open RFQs ranked by expected contribution per engineering hour
- Win probability derived from your own awards and losses, not from a generic model
- Buying center coverage shown per RFQ, engineering as well as purchasing
“14 open RFQs require 3,100 engineering hours, 1,900 are available. The top 6 by expected contribution per hour use 1,750 hours and carry 78 % of the expected value. Two of the remaining eight have an incumbent on the current platform and no contact on your side outside purchasing.”
Illustrative wording. Figures and names are not from a real client project.
Quote and lifetime pricing
A price per part across the full programme life, not only at SOP. The calculation holds the annual price-down path, the amortisation of tooling and development over the nominated volume, and the material clause with its index and lag, and shows contribution year by year. It also gives the volume at which amortisation breaks even, so the downside of the nomination is known before it is signed.
- Contribution shown year by year to EOP, not only at SOP
- Break-even volume for tooling and development stated per quote
- Material clause checked for index, lag, cap and floor before it is signed
“RFQ 2291, SOP 2028, seven years: at a 3 % annual price-down and the nominated 240,000 pieces a year, contribution turns negative in year five. Amortisation breaks even at 71 % of the nominated volume. Comparable awards at this group were signed with a 2 % path.”
Illustrative wording. Figures and names are not from a real client project.
Call-off and volume tracking
A rolling forecast of call-offs per programme, set against the volume the nomination was calculated on. It is built from call-off history, the OEM's own production plan and the end market, updated weekly, and shown with the change since the previous week. The cumulative shortfall is carried against the amortisation basis, so an unrecovered tooling position is documented as it builds rather than at EOP.
- Rolling call-off forecast per programme against the nominated volume
- Cumulative shortfall tracked against the amortisation basis
- Weekly change shown, so a drift is visible while it can still be raised
“Programme P41: nominated 240,000 pieces a year, call-offs tracking at 211,000. Cumulative shortfall since SOP 46,000 pieces. Tooling recovery is 19 % behind plan. Evidence prepared for the next commercial review.”
Illustrative wording. Figures and names are not from a real client project.
Carry-over, derivatives and aftermarket
The follow-up business attached to programmes you already run: facelifts, derivatives, successor platforms and service parts. Each running programme is shown with the expected sourcing date of its successor, which part families you hold on the current version and which you do not, and whether service part volume for the outgoing version is quoted. This is the part of the pipeline that usually exists as knowledge in one person's head.
- Successor sourcing dates tracked per running programme
- Part families you hold and do not hold shown side by side
- Service part volume on outgoing versions surfaced before EOP
“Platform B, facelift sourcing expected Q3 2027. You supply 2 of 4 relevant part families on the current version. Service part volume on the outgoing version is not quoted today, around 30,000 pieces a year at aftermarket pricing.”
Illustrative wording. Figures and names are not from a real client project.
Programme and customer risk
Programme delays, volume cuts, cancellations, localisation moves and financial deterioration at your customers, tracked from announcements, filings, plant investments and payment behaviour. Exposure is aggregated by OEM group, by platform and by powertrain, so a concentration that sits across several programme numbers becomes one figure.
- Exposure aggregated by OEM group, platform and powertrain
- Programme delays, volume cuts and localisation moves tracked from public signal
- Payment behaviour and financial deterioration monitored at tier-1 customers
“38 % of contribution after 2029 sits on three ICE platforms at one OEM group. Two have no announced successor. One tier-1 customer's payment delay is up 9 days over two quarters against open exposure of 2.1 million euros.”
Illustrative wording. Figures and names are not from a real client project.
Competitive and platform analysis
Which competitor sits on which platform and which part family, from award announcements, plant investments, localisation moves and your own quote outcomes. Losses are split into three causes that call for different responses: price, technology or qualification, and footprint.
- Competitor presence by platform, part family and OEM group
- Losses split into price, technology and footprint
- Plant investments and localisation moves tracked as they are announced
“Chassis brackets, Group 2: 5 of 9 losses went to a supplier with a plant inside the OEM's logistics radius. The price gap was under 2 % in four of them, so footprint rather than price decided the award.”
Illustrative wording. Figures and names are not from a real client project.
New customer and programme discovery
OEM groups, tier-1s and platforms whose part families match what you already make profitably, with the sourcing window for each. Group structures are resolved, so a platform at a group you already supply through another plant appears as an existing relationship rather than as a cold contact. Where you hold no qualification with that customer, the approval effort is estimated.
- Matched on part family and process capability, not on industry code
- Sourcing window shown per platform, so timing is part of the ranking
- Existing relationships inside the group resolved before a contact is called cold
“11 platforms with a matching part family enter sourcing within 18 months. 4 belong to groups you already supply through another plant. In 3 cases the relevant engineering location is within 200 km of your development site.”
Illustrative wording. Figures and names are not from a real client project.
What changed at a tier-1 supplier in 14 months.
Scope of the case study
- Client
- Tier 1 supplier, drivetrain and chassis components, anonymised
- Territory
- Europe, 6 OEM groups, 74 customer plants, 31 sales staff
- Implemented
- Programme prioritisation, account scoring, carry-over and aftermarket, competitive analysis
- Period
- 14 months over two nomination cycles, measured against control regions that kept the previous steering logic at comparable programme mix
Full case study as a PDF
Two pages on initial situation, data foundation, methodology, results. Get access to the link.
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Presented anonymised. Figures from the client's own project controlling.
Our pipeline was three years of PowerPoint and no numbers. We now know which programmes we should be quoting for and which ones only cost engineering hours.
Reference from an ongoing project in automotive
Questions we hear first
Short answers before your first call.
Yes. Sourcing announcements, programme milestones and localisation moves are tracked as external signal from the day they become public, so a platform enters the pipeline before the RFQ arrives. Carry-over business is treated the same way: for every programme you run, the expected sourcing date of the facelift, the derivative and the successor is tracked, together with the service part volume on the outgoing version.
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