Your question is Standardize or Localize Service Operations. Take a moment with it on the right.
Talk me through your thinking if you like. When you're confident, submit your answer and I'll grade it like a real screen (7/10 or better passes).
You are an engineering manager at a global automotive supplier overseeing manufacturing and service operations across 14 plants in North America, Europe, India, and Southeast Asia. The company is rolling out a common operating model for connected diagnostics, line maintenance, and quality escalation workflows tied to factory systems such as DENSO Robotics cells, QR-code traceability, and plant-level MES dashboards. Today, plants using a highly standardized process average 96.8% first-pass yield, 11-hour mean time to resolution for recurring equipment issues, and $4.2M annual operating cost per plant, while plants with more local discretion average 95.1% first-pass yield, 8-hour issue resolution, and $3.8M annual operating cost, but show wider variance and more audit findings. Regional leaders argue local judgment is needed because customer mix, labor skill, and regulatory requirements differ materially; headquarters argues that inconsistent processes are slowing launches and weakening quality performance against two major competitors that run more uniform global systems.
How would you decide which parts of the operating model should be standardized globally versus left to local team judgment, and what would you recommend the company do over the next 12 months?