Automotive Production Scheduling Challenge
A major automotive OEM was facing material shortages from suppliers and this was exacerbating production problems.
This automotive manufacturer had already implemented Eyelit Technologies’ APS asked for help managing supply chain instability. Material shortages from suppliers were causing production problems.
Key Takeaways
- The Order Moves solution from Eyelit Technologies reduces Order to Delivery cycle times by allowing a user to re-optimize the plan for changing order priorities and constraints/capacities
- Optimization is nimble so scheduling can be responsive in near real-time.
Automotive APS Solution
Eyelit Technologies designed a new solution called Order Moves that is used in situations where a rapid “rescheduling” needs to occur. Order Moves is configured to work with weekly buckets and can be used when orders need to be moved across weeks in the horizon.
Order Moves allows a planning analyst to align the planned order mix with weekly capacity and constraints while adhering to any movement instructions provided by the user. The service minimizes movement of other orders to the extent possible to increase production stability.
The Order Moves solution is setup to use Eyelit Technologies’ planning engine and has a very similar look and feel to the Eyelit Technologies’ planning solution.
There are special constraints configured to help influence order movement. In essence, a hierarchy is established on which orders can or cannot move.
Use Cases
There are a variety of reasons that may require an order move execution, but most fall into one of these categories of Use Cases:
- Capacity changes, e.g., plant capacity has been reduced in a week and orders need to be moved out to subsequent weeks.
- Plant and Material availability changes which may be the result of constraint limit changes due to supplier material issues, for example.
- A need to move orders in the schedule for a particular feature, combination of features, or for specific order IDs.
Types of Moves
Two types of moves are supported: Standard Move and Cascade Move.
The Standard Move can identify order(s) to be moved by order number or any other feature available to the system via defined Attribute Kits and can move orders:
- From 1 week to another week
- From 1 week to multiple weeks
- From multiple weeks to multiple weeks
The Cascade Move can also identify order(s) to be moved by order number or any other feature available to the system, can move orders from 1 week to another week, and allows for additional rules to control the direction of “collateral” movement more strictly and to try and hold orders as close as possible to their current scheduled build week.
APS Enabled Result
The Order Moves Solution demonstrates the ability of Eyelit Technologies’ APS to re-optimize plans to react to supply disruptions, changing order mixes and operating pattern changes, while working to maintain as much of the schedule as possible.
Eyelit Technologies’ APS serves as an enabling technology, allowing planners and schedulers to react quickly and effectively to changing requirements and changing environments. Planners at the manufacturer credit this solution for helping them cope with supply chain disruptions, and now routinely use the Order Moves service for all their production facilities.