QAD | Redzone is positioning a single platform for automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), Tier 1 suppliers, and aftermarket companies. The company argues that electric vehicle (EV) programs, fragile supply chains, and disconnected plant systems are straining automotive manufacturers.
The platform centers on QAD Adaptive ERP, the company’s cloud ERP for manufacturers. It pairs that core with Redzone Connected Workforce tools for frontline teams and supply chain visibility software.
Tenneco, a Tier 1 supplier, is QAD’s featured example. Its Braking division replaced SAP ECC at several plants with QAD Adaptive ERP and standardized how those plants plan materials, manage warehouses, and keep their books.
QAD Ties Platform Functions to Each Segment
Production planning uses dynamic scheduling, multi-level bills of materials, and material requirements planning (MRP), which calculates what materials a plant needs and when. The platform also covers lot-level material tracing, inspection workflows, corrective actions, and the general ledger.
QAD tells OEMs that new programs, EV programs among them, can scale under tighter controls without costing agility. Planning software aims to optimize inventory and maximize production capacity, and supply chain software gives the enterprise one shared view from end to end.
Tier 1 suppliers hear about schedule responsiveness, plant visibility, and supplier coordination. Electronic data interchange (EDI) support lets manufacturers swap forecasts, releases, advance ship notices, and invoices with their OEM customers.
Aftermarket companies manage parts with varying demand, and the company says consolidation and new entrants are changing the field as the move to EVs and higher vehicle prices reshape the market. The platform answers with inventory accuracy, demand planning, and service performance, along with online selling that also tracks customers’ stock, shipments, quotes, and invoices.
Tenneco Braking Division Standardizes on QAD Adaptive
The $651 million Braking division operates in Europe, the United States, Mexico, and China, with 11 plants plus two engineering centers. Acquisitions and regional requirements had left it with a mix of SAP and older QAD systems. QAD notes that pre-implementation analysis found legacy sites using about 46% to 53% of the ERP functionality available to them, with spreadsheets and adjacent tools filling the gaps.
Under the QAD Adaptive core model, coverage rose to about 93%. The rollout eliminated more than 500 customizations, gave sites a shared chart of accounts, and moved MRP, warehouse management, and traceability onto one system. The company reports that the division missed neither a production day nor a customer shipment during the change, and QAD Digital Learning supplied role-based guidance inside the application for operators.
Jonathon Brown, divisional CIO for Performance Solutions at Tenneco, describes QAD Adaptive as “a platform our operations team can actually live in,” adding that people stay in systems they trust and find easy to use. The division is targeting a 9% reduction in scrap, a 1.5% gain in direct labor productivity, and an inventory synchronization benefit of $3.36 million in the first measurement period after go-live.
What This Means for ERP Insiders
Visibility anchors QAD’s automotive pitch. The company frames each segment’s pressures around visibility into plants, suppliers, and demand. Manufacturers across the chain get connected planning, quality, and plant execution, and QAD says electrification is changing supply chains and production models.
ERP replacement doubles as an operating-model decision. Tenneco’s Braking division paired its move off SAP ECC with one core model for plants that ran different systems. Manufacturers with mixed ERP estates face a similar choice about how consistently each site should operate.
Operator adoption sits inside what ERP delivers. Tenneco’s divisional CIO linked consistent data to a system users choose to stay in, and QAD places frontline tools and in-application learning beside its ERP. Operator trust becomes part of the business case for any manufacturing system.
