Peugeot Creates a War Room to Battle Coronavirus Disruption

Every weekday morning at 8, a team of executives at French carmaker PSA Group gathers in a room an hour’s drive west of Paris. Others dial in remotely, and for the next few hours, the team huddles to plot a path out of the massive supply-and-demand crisis caused by the new coronavirus ripping through the global economy.

For a well-oiled machine like PSA, with its 173,000 employees, multiple brands including Peugeot, Citroën, and Opel, and parts sourced from 6,000 suppliers around the globe, the risk of disruption is significant. Each car is typically made up of 4,000 components delivered just in time for final assembly. Just one missing item can have devastating consequences for an entire vehicle plant, slowing or forcing changes to manufacturing and output or even grinding a complete line to a sudden halt.