During the course of the project a Feasibility study has been elaborated, discussing the strategic, market, financial, technical, project management aspects of an electric axle to be realised. Several personal discussions have been carried with potential clients in order to get a better view about customer needs, motivations and currently existing competing solutions.
Objectives of the elaborated feasibility study were as follows:
-To establish a firm basis for the proposal to be submitted in November 2015
-To summarise the results achieved in all fields (R&D, marketing, sales, funding, IP, project management)
-Determine the objectives of further work
-To write a detailed material for potential investors for Phase 3, which will be updated during Phase 2
Market study and business planning has shown that the there is real demand on the market, the product is both technically and by pricing competitive, freedom to operate analyses has not discovered any obstacle, Silex is capable to realise the project, there are already concrete contracts prepared to supply the axle. The only open issue is funding, i.e. to get the funds in Phase 2.
The impact of the project to Silex is:
-To upscale the company, i.e. to change the organisation from the current project-to-project working mode, which is based on highly devoted persons, to an organisation based operation.
-Silex’s formulated strategy is to provide total customer solutions at a competitive price / performance ratio. Currently Silex can provide complete body electronics solutions for commercial vehicles. By exploiting the currently underutilised IP in chassis, by the electric axle, Silex will be able to provide a highly integrated power-train solution too. As a consequence of the competence in the two most important parts of the vehicle, Silex will be able to provide system guarantee for the whole vehicle
-As a 60-80 employee company with a high level of organisation culture, Silex will fit much better to big players in the commercial vehicle business. Currently, in spite of Silex’s innovation abilities, the company is regarded much more as a risk factor, then a potential partner for large companies.
Outcome of the project is that Silex becomes in mid-term an innovative SME with 60-80 employees, 20-30 m€ turnover and 10-15% profitability, providing high added value, driven by technology, being active on the world markets and characterised by a high level of organisation culture.
