Digitalization Background of the Automotive Parts Industry
1.Growing market: The industry's output value is increasing at a high speed of 20% annually,with continuous specialization in industry division and the emergence of new auto parts enterprises;
2.Intensifying competition: Faced with fierce industry competition,enterprises urgently need to enhance their management level through IT technology to strengthen their competitiveness;
3.Poor refined management: The industry faces information silos,insufficient refined management,and the application of information technology in enterprises lags behind the process of informatization development;
4.Increasing demand for enterprise informatization: The investment in enterprise informatization covers various aspects such as research and development,production,enterprise management,and market circulation,and enterprises have begun to try to move beyond traditional ERP and CRM systems.Typical Manufacturing Process for Vehicle Headlights
1.Electronics: Solder Paste Printing
2.Injection Molding: Injection molding machines are used to form the body of the headlight.
3.Surface Treatment: Surface treatment processes such as aluminum plating and UV curing are applied to the formed headlight body.
4.Assembly: Assembly is divided into sub-assembly and final assembly,relying on a combination of manual labor and production line resources to combine various components into a complete vehicle headlight.
02
Inter-process Planning for Headlight Manufacturing
(The original text seems to be cut off and does not provide further details on the inter-process planning for headlight manufacturing.)1.Communicate the demand for finished products and spare parts/supplies to assembly;
2.Develop assembly and partial sub-assembly plans,generate injection molding requirements and electronic pick-and-place demands,and pass on the generated demands to the upstream processes for their planning;
3.Create electronic plans,partial electronic sub-assembly,and electronic pick-and-place,generating injection molding requirements (corresponding to injection molding in various workshops);
4.Develop injection molding plans.
03
Challenges in Headlight Production PlanningOn the Demand Side
Information on sales,production,and procurement is disconnected.Changes in sales demand cannot be quickly fed back to production planning,and changes in production planning cannot be quickly fed back to procurement planning.
Demand changes frequently,and there is a significant deviation in forecast data.
Demand changes are often recent and urgent.
On the Material Procurement Side
There is a wide variety of materials,and inventory keeps increasing,leading to a large amount of capital being tied up,which seriously affects capital turnover.
It is impossible to track the delivery dates of raw materials in a timely manner,which constitutes a more rigorous production planning management system.
There is a lack of a rapid response plan for situations where certain materials are overdue.In terms of production planning:
An increasing number of factors are considered in planning.
Monthly,weekly,and daily plans are separate and cannot be linked.
Various equipment and resource constraints,numerous production constraints,making it difficult to balance the production process,and planning is time-consuming and labor-intensive.
It is impossible to accurately assess medium and long-term production capacity (formulating reasonable medium and long-term shift plans,production plans,and procurement material plans from different dimensions).
Some production lines suffer significant changeover losses,manual planning can only make rough plans,which makes it difficult to maximize the reasonable use of production capacity,
and even leads to the risk of increased inventory.
Uncertain trial molding time and quantity affect normal planning and scheduling.
Coordination between subsequent processes and previous processes is difficult.
In terms of production execution:
(The original text ends here,so the translation for the production execution aspect is not provided as there is no content to translate.)Well-crafted production plans are frequently altered within a very short time frame.
Once a deviation occurs,manual adjustments face a situation where "a single hair move affects the whole body," making it difficult to quickly achieve a new executable plan.
It is impossible to monitor the production process,and it is not possible to timely grasp the production progress and deviation situation.
04
Challenges in implementing the automotive lighting APS system
1.Large project scope with multiple planning levels:
The automotive lighting plan involves plans including S&OP capacity planning,master production schedule (MPS),rough capacity assessment,assembly & sub-assembly weekly plans,injection molding & surface treatment weekly plans,electronics weekly plans,assembly & sub-assembly daily plans,injection molding & surface treatment daily plans,electronics daily plans,etc.Each level of planning involves the transmission and feedback of information,with relatively complex interrelationships.2.Personnel Constraints:
Assembly personnel have skill management issues (cross-professional product assembly may result in discounted quality,with the presence of specialized and non-specialized workers.Non-specialized workers producing across products can lead to reduced capacity),and there is frequent turnover within team members,necessitating the rational scheduling of personnel participation through Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS).
3.Mold Constraints:
Car light injection molding typically involves large-scale injection machines,often in the range of thousands of tons,and the mold change process is relatively complex,requiring additional resources to assist in mold changes.
Although molds are considered auxiliary resources,they determine the production rhythm and output quantity,which need to be clearly defined and managed during the modeling process.
4.Complex and Diverse Parameters:
The project involves a large number of models,each with different considerations,requiring individual sorting and establishment.5.Product management complexity:
Spare parts and normal products are the same,but they have different product codes.They need to be combined with normal products for production.
There are thousands of material substitution combinations for assembled products.
In large process workshops,there is a need for a matching table between virtual and actual material numbers for sub-processes,as well as specific scheduling and capacity planning for each process.The ERP system has only one material number,but in actual production,there may be a situation where 1 is split into 4,requiring the addition of a new level of management in the APS system.
6.Balancing capacity between processes:
There is an imbalance in the capacity of injection molding and aluminum plating,with the latter having lower capacity.However,the injection molding schedule cannot be arranged according to the capacity of aluminum plating.Both injection molding and aluminum plating have only one material code.It is necessary to balance the output of injection molding based on the capacity of aluminum plating.
7.Data absence and poor accuracy:
Data such as CT time and R&D order information is inaccurate,not updated in a timely manner,and in some cases,it is not clear who is responsible for providing the data,leading to chaotic business processes;Incomplete material master data and equipment data are not suitable for precise system planning.
05
Methods for the successful implementation of the car light APS system
Project Initiation Phase
Adequate POC verification,thorough POC verification was conducted during the project selection to prevent the inability to meet core requirements during the implementation process.
Clear project scope,to avoid slow project progress due to scope issues in subsequent stages.
Clear project team and responsibilities of all parties,striving to implement a "top management" project,facilitating project advancement and business process improvement.
An experienced consulting team,including business experts,project managers,APS technology experts,and APS implementation consultants,is responsible for project advancement and coordination.Mature software systems should avoid significant project risks due to excessive customization.
Project Implementation Phase
Fully understand the company's production processes,industry characteristics,business demands,and current pain points,organize existing planning and operational processes and related standards,assist the enterprise in business improvement,ensure that APS can be smoothly promoted,and that business + software can run smoothly.
Reasonably plan system functions,implement in stages,and reduce project risks and implementation difficulties.Use the method of phased milestone launches to quickly see the results and boost the confidence of the project team.
Focus on the training of internal consultants and key users,and do a good job in knowledge transfer.
Strengthen project team building to enhance team cohesion.
Enhance inter-departmental collaboration,break down system barriers,deepen the application of APS,and ensure timely and smooth information flow.
Strengthen data governance to ensure the accuracy,completeness,and timeliness of data,and avoid project delays caused by data issues.
Hold regular meetings to facilitate top-level leadership's understanding of project progress and status,and to resolve core project issues in a timely manner.Project Closure Phase
Establish a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to oversee the performance of the APS and continuously promote its optimization.
Establish a comprehensive maintenance mechanism to respond promptly to significant issues,follow up on their resolution,and ensure smooth operation of the APS.
Continue to advance knowledge transfer efforts and establish a good cooperative relationship.
06
Achievements of Implementing APS in Headlight Integration
1.System Integration:1.Seamless integration with systems such as ERP,MES,PLM,etc.,to achieve the flow and exchange of data,eliminating system barriers and information silos.
2.Grand Planning Platform:
Construct a unified grand planning platform to standardize,visualize,and integrate the production management process.
3.Annual Capacity Planning:
Based on project planning,forecast future resource load situations,formulate medium to long-term resource planning strategies,and optimize the utilization rate of existing resources.
4.Demand Management:
Quickly receive ERP demands through interfaces,combine inventory and dynamic safety stock for MPS calculations,and obtain net demand data.
5.Weekly Rough Capacity Analysis:
Based on MPS net demand,combined with current resource conditions,assess resource satisfaction,modify ERP demands based on resource satisfaction,eliminate demand redundancy,improve demand accuracy,and ensure delivery within capacity limits.
6.Production Planning:Based on the demand assessed after a rough capacity evaluation,calculate the production plans for each workshop,guide on-site production,and achieve a rolling closed-loop scheduling by recovering actual completion data through the MES system.
7.Rational utilization of resources:
Ensure that resources such as equipment,personnel,and molds are used reasonably through refined system calculations.
8.Report analysis and presentation:
Implement inventory management tables to display information such as supply and demand fluctuations and breakpoints.
Demand,planning,and achievement reports: Analyze the reasons for deviations through report analysis and continuously promote improvements in demand,planning,and on-site production.
Inventory trend charts to monitor inventory fluctuations and prevent exceeding inventory upper and lower limit controls.
Load charts to guide decisions related to equipment and personnel.
9.Business transformation:
Clarify the planning lock period,stabilize the production plans of each workshop,and reduce the impact of demand fluctuations.Establish clear business operation standards to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of business operations.
Define key performance indicators and establish a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system.
07
Value Brought by Introducing APS to Headlight Operations
1.Enhance operational efficiency:
Organize existing business processes,establish business process operation standards,and improve operational efficiency and accuracy,reducing unnecessary waste.Through automation and standardization,significantly reduce tedious manual operations and increase work efficiency.
2.Improve data quality:
Drive the improvement of upstream data quality through downstream demand,especially the quality of data in ERP and PLM,enhancing the value of data.3.Data-Driven Manufacturing:
By conducting relevant planning in advance,it effectively avoids production stoppages and line interruptions caused by factors such as personnel and materials.
4.Enhancing Core Competitiveness:
Through close integration of upstream and downstream processes,dynamic safety stock management,and in-warehouse management,it effectively reduces intermediate and finished goods inventory.By coordinating with suppliers through material requirements planning,it lowers the cost of production and operation,improves the synergy of the supply chain,and enhances the core competitiveness of the enterprise.
From the public account: CIO Club
Comment