​​​Development processes are becoming increasingly complex. Their efficiency is also to be increased by the Global Technology & Innovation organisation. It is headed by Kay Talmi, who has become a member of the Electronics Executive Board in this function.

_{Thursday 2023-01-26}

​​Kay Talmi is a HELLA veteran. In 2004, the computer scientist started at the software specialist HELLA Aglaia in Berlin, and in 2009 he became its Managing Director. Since July 2020, he has also headed the Global Software House, which currently includes around 370 software developers worldwide. So he has a pretty good overview of the process of change that the automotive industry is currently undergoing.​​

"We are currently experiencing perhaps the biggest transformation ever in the history of mobility," says Talmi. "For HELLA, these are great opportunities for growth because our products and components are indispensable for trends such as electromobility and automated driving." At the same time, however, products are becoming more complex, more demanding, development times shorter, functional safety more important. "And that means: the workload is increasing. We have to be able to cope with that, especially in view of our high order backlog," Talmi emphasises.​​

A new organisation that was founded in October last year in the Electronics division should also contribute to this: Global Technology & Innovation. Kay Talmi is responsible for it, and in this function he has also become a member of HELLA's Electronics Executive Board.​​

Somewhat simplified, the approach looks like this: All topics that are relevant for more than one department or product area are to be bundled. "We do not want to take anything away from other teams, quite the opposite," Talmi emphasises. "Above all, we want to be sparring partners for development. We want to help teams benefit even more from each other, to share expertise and best practices even more in the global network. Above all, we want to watch our colleagues' backs and thus give them the freedom to concentrate on what's important: working with the product and the customer."​​

Much of what is now being tackled is still essential groundwork, but general directions are already emerging. "We are not turning the one big wheel," Talmi says. "Rather, we want to work on numerous small levers to further increase efficiency in development, improve processes and methods, streamline and digitalise."​​

For example, digital twins, virtual images of the product, will be increasingly used; the product areas will be supported in the development of "software only" products and the sales department in the question of how future software products will actually be priced. Product and cyber security will be more closely integrated into development in the future; the electronics division's newly established Global Engineering Academy and R&D resource management are also assigned to the new organisation. "Going forward, we have to find the right balance between perfectionism on the one hand and lean, efficient ways of working on the other," says Talmi. Ultimately, he says, this is not only a question of development processes, but above all of approach, of culture.

​​"We are at quite an early stage with our work and our organisation," says Talmi. "But I think we are setting the right course with it now. Not only to position ourselves strongly for the future in terms of development. But above all to be able to continue to have fun and be passionate about what we do."​