Newswise — BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Deloitte’s work to help automakers worldwide proactively detect and respond to vehicle quality and safety issues has been recognized with an Analytics Leadership Award from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
Deloitte received the award for developing its solution, “Quality and Safety Analytics: Transforming Automotive Quality, Warranty, and Recall Management.” The solution was recognized for its advanced predictive analytics that help mitigate safety issues before reaching consumers, combined with its ability to help save organizations money.
The solution benefits automotive and original equipment manufacturers in the United States, the European Union, Japan and India.
"Our clients are under increasing pressure to continually predict, monitor and mitigate vehicle quality issues in order to maintain the highest levels of safety," said Derek Snaidauf, Deloitte Advisory principal, Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP. "To succeed, automakers have begun to fundamentally shift to a proactive, analytics-driven approach for identifying issues, such as vehicle defects and fraud, across the quality and warranty-management process."
In selecting the Deloitte project, judges took note of its success in delivering costs savings for clients while also benefiting consumers.
“The overall problem of managing recalls and controlling the cost of quality is important in many industries and has been particularly an issue recently in the automotive sector,” said Frank Acito, a professor of marketing, the Max Barney Distinguished Teaching Fellow and chair of the selection committee.
“The winning submission focused on a wide-ranging business problem and an initiative to address it," he added. "We understand that it already has led to considerable cost savings and improvements in efficiencies, and we look forward to seeing its further success.”
Automotive original equipment manufacturers have come under greater scrutiny from government agencies, consumer advocates, the media and the public in recent years. According to a U.S. Department of Transportation report, more than 51 million vehicles were recalled in the United States in nearly 900 separate campaigns last year.
The Analytics Leadership Award is presented to the winners of an annual competition conducted by the school’s Institute for Business Analytics. It promotes innovative adoption of analytics within corporations. Judges were looking for a project that matches analytical rigor with practical and beneficial applications for the company and its clients.
This year, there were two runners-up in the competition -- another Deloitte project, "Predictive Analytics in Childcare: Reducing Payment Errors in Childcare Subsidy Programs;" and a Humana Inc. project, "Predicting Disease Progression: Analytics to Address the Diabetes Epidemic."
Award-winning projects reflect the kind of education the Kelley School strives for -- applying strong quantitative skills for solving real business problems. Previous winners have included a predictive model that identifies older individuals at greatest risk for falls and processes that lead to more efficient manufacturing and higher net revenues.
The award will be presented at a dinner this evening, in advance of "Kelley Analytics Day" on Friday, Nov. 4. Other events will include talks highlighting industry best practices, a panel discussion featuring analytics professionals and a networking event for students.
“We are excited to recognize the successful journey of our corporate award winners in applying analytics for a myriad of business applications,” said Ash Soni, executive associate dean for academic programs and a professor of operations and decision technologies at Kelley.
The Analytics Leadership Award was created in 2014 to highlight today’s important and rapid adoption of sophisticated analytics for improving productivity, increasing profits, reducing costs, managing risks and creating a competitive advantage for organizations worldwide.
Founded in 2011, the Institute for Business Analytics supports academic programs that prepare students to solve business problems using analytics; develops corporate partnerships that shape the school's understanding of analytics; and helps companies tap into Kelley's talent. It also supports cross-disciplinary research by faculty and organizes seminars, conferences and data competitions.
The institute is co-directed by Vijay Khatri, associate professor, chair of operations and decision technologies, and the Arthur M. Weimer Faculty Fellow; and Jeff Prince, associate professor, chair of business economics and public policy, and the Harold A. Poling Chair in Strategic Management.
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