Tell someone “It’s impossible” and many people will take it as a personal challenge to prove the world wrong. In the case of this QAD automotive customer using QAD ERP in the cloud, it wasn’t all that hard.
The leading Tier 1 automotive supplier fully automates the customer-to-supplier demand process, that “impossible scenario,” with QAD Manufacturing Requirements Planning (MRP). Read the full customer success story about how a Leading Tier 1 Automotive Supplier fully automated MRP with QAD.
QAD has an extensive history in the automotive industry — approximately three-quarters of the 100 top-selling vehicles in the world are produced by suppliers using QAD solutions. We frequently hear from suppliers: “We can’t let go of our spreadsheets. We can’t fully automate customer demand to suppliers.” This global automotive supplier did just that.
How the Tier 1 Supplier Does the “Impossible”
This QAD automotive customer, in the top 100 global suppliers with locations all over the world, is able to fully automate demand coming in from its customers down to its approximately 320 suppliers. It runs an MRP batch job every night and then sends out daily releases to suppliers.
“QAD MRP creates the planned order of the components we need and when we need them,” explained the Senior ERP Analyst.
Each Monday morning, the production schedulers use the demand from the weekly releases to create schedules. They use QAD’s Master Planning and Scheduling Workbench (MSW/PSW) to produce the production schedule aligned with customer demand. The schedulers also build maintenance and banks as needed.
On a daily basis, the automotive supplier creates a shipping schedule using the data from the night’s MRP run, taking into consideration any last-minute customer requirements. Because the global company runs MRP every day, its data properly reflects any updated customer EDI data. The staff firms up the production schedule with QAD MSW/PSW. They create a daily ship schedule with 14 daily buckets and 52-80 weekly buckets (for their electronics suppliers only) for the planning schedule. The company then sends the forecast and shipping schedule to their suppliers via EDI or the QAD Demand and Delivery portal.
When Suppliers Rely on Spreadsheets
Suppliers who are convinced they can’t automate supplier demand with their ERP solution are challenged by a significant lack of collaboration and visibility in their supplier network, obsolescence, premium freight and administrative errors, among other issues.
“We cringe when we hear about plants using spreadsheets for supplier releases. They are very manual, and the data doesn’t flow into the supplier’s ERP,” commented the Senior ERP Analyst.
Gaining Insight into the Automotive Supply Chain
QAD helps automotive manufacturers implement robust supply chain processes that integrate seamlessly into their business systems. We’ve developed a roadmap for improving supply chain delivery and identified 24 essential supply chain processes in our Delivering on the Promise of Delivery ebook series. Production scheduling is identified as one of the three most common areas to automate to improve your plant’s performance, as well as work instructions and customer complaints.
In addition, QAD’s automotive director, Terry Onica, co-hosts the “Auto Supply Chain Prophets” podcast, which is dedicated specifically to global automotive supply chain issues. The podcast is designed to guide automotive suppliers and OEMs to improve their supply chain networks. Each episode concludes with one specific and actionable insight for gaining efficiencies in the supply chain.
Read the full customer success story describing how this leading Tier 1 automotive supplier automates supplier demand.
