Corporate raw materials criticality assessment: A novel tool for car electronics value chains developed with design science research methodology

Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) represent a topic of great relevance for Europe. Among the strategic sectors highly dependent on them, there is the automotive sector. Considering the disruptive time this industry is living in and the complexity of the lifecycles of its products, it is challenging for practitioners to manage the supply risk of CRMs. In this work, a novel criticality assessment tool tailored to car electronics is proposed. Contrary to the majority of existing tools, it was developed following a structured Design Science Research (DSR) methodology, ensuring its relevance for practitioners. General requirements for the tool were gathered through interviews with seven European automotive companies, covering different stages of the car electronics value chain. The tool has been designed in constant interaction with experts from industry and academic peers. It has been validated on nine different raw materials for a hypothetical large European company. To perform the validation, the main players worldwide on the value chains were mapped for the first time. Compared to the other criticality assessment tools, this one presents the supply chains of the company as the unit of analysis. This, on the one hand, ensures that the information provided by the tool is relevant for the single company. On the other hand, it supports companies in complying with the EU Critical Raw Materials Act requests. Novel indices filling the gaps between the emerging needs of the European automotive sector and the current state of the art of the literature have been developed and implemented. • Critical raw materials are crucial for the European automotive sector. • A tool for the criticality assessment in European automotive companies is proposed. • Its soundness and relevance are ensured by employing Design Science Research. • It is validated on the case of an average large company for nine raw materials. • Results are representative of the average situation of a large European firm.