Simulative evaluation of alternative supply chain scenarios for different manufacturing locations of a JIS production of complete seats at an automotive supplier
Innovative supply chain concepts, such as long distance delivery, are in demand among automotive suppliers, even for complex JIS scopes. A supply chain simulation can help, especially in the acquisition process, to evaluate different scenarios in terms of supply and costs and to ensure competitiveness.
Industry
Automotive OEM
Challenge
Supplying an automobile manufacturer over several hundred kilometres in sequence is possible via various supply concepts, depending on the sequence accuracy of the OEM or the vertical range of manufacture of the supplier in the best cost country.
Which form of supply best ensures the OEM’s competitiveness in terms of customer requirements (just in sequence) and profitability (with/without resequencing, manual/automatic sequencing buffers, etc.) over the entire product life cycle?
Solution
With the help of a supply chain simulation in Plant Simulation, the various scenarios could be evaluated in terms of supply security and costs regarding throughput times, investment and operating costs. Stress scenarios were also used to define supply-critical intervention guidelines. These in turn now form the basis for an emergency concept within a long-distance JIS operation.
Result
This enabled the supplier to identify and offer a competitive supply chain as part of its acquisition process. The effort required for such a simulative consideration by using standard modules is low compared to the risk of not being considered when awarding the contract.
Output of a system depending on availability of resequencing racks