The Chair will govern the distance between nomination and cash
A customer programme can be awarded years before its full economics are known. Design change, volume, localisation, material price, tooling, qualification, launch, warranty and recovery each alter the original case. The Audit Committee Chair must ensure that programme optimism does not become accounting optimism and that operational warning reaches the Board while choices remain available.
Programme file
For material programmes, the committee should see contracted terms, expected volume and mix, price-reset mechanisms, engineering and tooling responsibility, customer dependencies, working capital, qualification milestones, warranty and downside. Forecast revisions must explain whether the cause is commercial, engineering, supplier, operating or accounting.
Revenue, margin, contract assets, inventory, receivables and cash should reconcile to acceptance and enforceable rights. Customer debit notes, claims and change recovery require evidence and ageing. A project described as strategically important still needs an honest loss estimate.
Supply and inventory
Critical components and processes will be mapped beyond tier one. Sole-source exposure, supplier financial health, geopolitical or trade constraints, counterfeit prevention, long lead times, obsolescence and alternate qualification deserve Board attention. Inventory buffers should be judged against redesign, shelf life, cash and customer specificity.
The Chair will require assurance over vendor onboarding, technical approval, conflicts, purchasing authority, price variance and emergency procurement. Supplier quality and commercial controls should not operate as unrelated systems.
Quality, field and provisions
Internal defects, concessions, rework, line interruption, customer rejection, warranty and field events need a common evidence chain. The committee will test whether provisions reflect known experience and whether corrective action changes process capability. Small recurring failures can be strategically material before the financial charge becomes large.
Capital and plant technology
Capex cases should retain baselines for volume, cycle time, yield, labour, quality, energy and cash. Post-completion review distinguishes installation, qualification, utilisation and realised benefit. Plant systems, engineering files and remote access require cyber-physical controls and tested safe recovery.
NRC and risk connection
The director will contribute to succession for finance, operations, engineering, quality and commercial leaders and assess whether incentives support escalation. Risk Committee work will connect programme, supply, quality, cyber-physical and liquidity exposures so the Board sees their combined effect rather than separate functional reports.
Entry review
The Chair will select one significant programme and trace it from approved bid to current cash and field outcome. The gaps will set the first risk-based audit plan and reveal where Board information loses operating context.
Candidate requirements
Applicants may be automotive or industrial CFOs, CEOs, programme/business heads, audit partners, quality leaders or enterprise-risk executives. Direct multi-plant and customer-programme experience is valuable. Prior Audit Chair service is strongly preferred. Independence, DIN, databank compliance and plant-visit availability are mandatory.