Until quite recently, automotive customisation was something done by the customer, not for the customer. Today’s world is very different in terms of the range of options, from powertrain to trim and colour to accessories, is such that even the most successful new car might never run through all the possible factory-installed combinations in even the longest production run. The age of mass customisation is with us.
And for automotive assemblers the situation is even more complex because the increased variety on offer makes it impossible to forecast demand in detail. Many components and assemblies are required in small quantities at unpredictable times, and perhaps from small, specialist suppliers.
Yet the OEMs have to compete not just on features but on availability. The customer expects a dependable delivery date measured in days rather than weeks.
This is a massive challenge. Somehow the OEM has to receive a detailed order from the dealer, convert that into an even more detailed Bill of Materials, work out the earliest available delivery date, taking into account lead times on components, line availability and so on, and confirm that to the dealer before the customer changes his or her mind.
Then, or preferably simultaneously, orders or call-offs have to be placed with all the suppliers affected, with due dates and times and other instructions. The supplier may or may not have the components to hand. That vendor may have to send requirements to further lower tier suppliers. Carriers may have to be booked. Acceptances, acknowledgements, advance shipping notices, must be sent. All this needs to be fed into the ERP and other systems that govern the assembly plant.
Further complications are looming. According to KPMG’s ‘Global Automotive Executive Survey 2017’, digitalisation in all its forms, from self-driving vehicles to the Internet of Things, may see OEMs becoming in effect contract platform builders for the ICT companies that provide the ‘digital ecosystems’ – which is where the revenue is expected to be. One effect is that vehicles will be customised through their software and systems, at manufacture or in the aftermarket.
All in all, there is a massive communications task between multiple partners that needs to be accomplished with total accuracy, reliability and, increasingly, security and in close to real time. It needs Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
Mass customisation demands that the entire design, sales, production and indeed aftermarket network be linked with timely, accurate, ‘single point of truth’ data flowing in all directions.
Fortunately, developments in web technology and cloud computing, as well as some overdue degree of convergence in EDI standards, have made EDI accessible in reasonably comprehensive form to even the smaller network players at acceptable initial cost and without the need to retain highly specialist staff.
For further information, contact: Data Interchange.
