The global automotive industry has experienced many foundational changes over the past several decades. One of the biggest is a shift from an emphasis on lean manufacturing principles — which emphasize production efficiency, stability and profitability — to today’s increasing focus on flexibility and customer-centricity.
There’s no question that operational flexibility is the new competitive imperative for car and truck manufacturers, for a number of reasons.
Worldwide, consumers are embracing electric vehicles (EVs) more slowly than expected, while remaining loyal to internal combustion engines. This is creating complex capacity issues, including production slowdowns at some plants, coupled with a high volume of orders at other plants. In addition, automakers increasingly need to produce more personalized products to meet growing customer expectations. And, while the global chip shortage is clearly behind us, manufacturers are still experiencing material shortages and other supply chain disruptions.
As they navigate this volatile environment, automotive manufacturers still need to optimize lead times and delivery reliability. And let’s not forget their central mission: Earning a profit.
Enter the concept of operational flexibility. Innovative, dynamic planning solutions, such as Blue Yonder Production Planning, enable automakers to create flexible production plans that are continuously updated in response to real-time data. By supporting flexible production on an immense scale, these solutions enable car and truck makers to increase their productivity and asset utilization, achieve greater operational stability, and improve their ability to personalize products — while still delivering high levels of customer service and demand responsiveness.
At the same time, manufacturers can significantly strengthen their financial position by reducing their capital investments, decreasing their resource costs, optimizing their transportation expenses and minimizing their IT costs.
But what about auto manufacturers’ traditional focus on lean, predictable operations? Today’s new flexible approach may seem at odds with lean production, which emphasizes stability and efficiency. Read on to see how these solutions enabled one of the world’s leading truck manufacturers to successfully combine both principles — with a rapid and substantial return on the technology investment.
