Summary – Automotive Supply Synchronization

Operations Management Automotive Supply drawing string Synchronization Summary The article, Automotive Supply Chain Synchronization by Matthias Berlit, Ulrich Dorndorf, and Hans Jurgen Zimmerman, discussed the importance of logisticals planning in the management of automotive supply fibrils, and namely the role the transmit management establishment SynroTESS played in the optimization of supply drawing strings for Audi and Volkswagen (VW) Mexico.The article began by explaining that the unregulated inbound, inner and outward movements at heart a given automotive supply chain were not only inefficient, but also led to significant wasted date evidenced by the queuing of vehicles and the congestion that results from waiting. The authors argued that this waste of resources could be overcome by the proper synchronizing of movements with the use of a computer program called SyncroTESS. SyncroTESS was authentic by a German IT association called INFORM and was described as a syst em that intelligently synchronizes time-critical transport operations. The system is immensely adequate to(p) of optimizing operations like the allocation of material handling resources within a plant to scheduling the trucks used for internal and inter-factory movements. The authors then went on to depart 2 case studies in which SyncroTESS was able to success amply optimize the synchronisation of auto supply chains for Audi and VW Mexico. The first case study relate the Audi Ingolstadt mathematical product installation in Germany. The Ingolstadt factory is Audis largest production facility and produces roughly 850 built to order automobiles from its assembly lines daily.As we learned from the Marshall fisher Harvard Business Review article What is the right supply chain for your product, these built to order vehicles are considered an innovative product must employ a market responsive supply chain to meet its guide properly. In order to optimize this sort of supply chain, the SyncroTESS system manages the internal material pay heed of at least 3 long time expense of stock, optimizes the execution of 60,000 internal transport orders per day, including up to 3,000 stock-in and 4,000 stock-out movement per day and the flow and transport of materials from the parts warehouse to the assembly line. As of 2006, the SyncroTESS system has been fully integrated into Audis IT system and is still currently in use. In fact, SyncroTESSs responsibilities have been expanded to include the scheduling of about five hundred inbound truck movements a day. The second case study showcased the relate of the SyncroTESS system in the optimization of controlling finished auto gillyflower in the grammes of VW Mexico. The vehicle gees in Mexico distribute about 350,000 vehicles to dealers worldwide yearly.The stock is specifically tailored to store 2 types of production vehicles built to order, thusly innovative products, for the European market and built to stock, ot herwise known as functional products, for the Mexican and North American markets. Although VW Mexico was dealing with essentially two types of products, the fact that these products were already completed and ready for shipment, this case study centre on SyncroTESSs ability to handle an efficient supply chain for otherwise functional products.VW Mexico successfully implemented the optimization of its supply chain by marrying the SyncroTESS transport management system with VWs proprietary TOMCADS system. This transaction allowed VW to rely on a single all encompassing logistical operation system and eliminated the confusion created from the use of the 3rd party logistic providers (3PLs) of the past. SyncroTESS and TOMCADS worked in concert through a process called intelligent yard management. VWs TOMCADS system would inform SyncroTESS of a vehicles imminent arrival. At that time, the car would be inspected and in the event of any defects the car would be returned to production and SyncroTESS (would) re-plan the cars route allowing for repairs. Otherwise, the synchronization system would work to optimize the flow of the vehicle stemma from each yard in great detail from the flow of each vehicle within specific yards, to the order in which vehicle would be loaded as cargo to reduce wasted movement.The successful impact of the synchronization of transport management systems was made evident when Bjorn Beckmann, head of Logistics Planning group at VW Mexico, explained that, As a result of the (now) large number of cars leaving and first appearance our operations, most cars do not remain longer than 1. 5 days in the yards. This lower lead-time in delivering the finished inventory is beneficial to twain responsive and efficient supply chains, satisfying the demand of both types of production vehicles. The authors would then go on to describe how SyncroTESS has evolved to nclude GPS technology to further cartroad the movement of inventory in real time. The fu ll integration of the logistical system has allowed VW Mexico to create a more complete picture of its inventory flow. In fact, In addition to Audi and VW, BMW and Daimler have also adopted synchronization technology to optimize the execution of their supply chain with a usual break-even period of two years. The conclusion drawn from the authors essentially reinforced fisher cats stance that the implementation of the proper supply chain for a given product, despite the cost, is ultimately more beneficial to a company than focusing on cost alone.