Improved Capacity Planning for Automotive Tier 1 supplier
08/08/2011
Magna are the most diversified automotive supplier in the world. They design, develop and manufacture automotive systems, assemblies, modules and components, and also engineer and assemble complete vehicles. Decoma Merplas, which is an operating division of Magna, specialise in the supply of external trim to the UK automotive market. It was Decoma Merplas who engaged the team at Gideon Hillman Consulting to undertake a complete review of their existing Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP).
Decoma Merplas supply bumper assemblies and exterior trim components for Jaguar, Landrover, Aston Martin, Honda & Toyota and needed a process to consolidate all vehicle build plans into a single business forecast (running up to 5 years). This business forecast could then be utilised for optimising capacity and resources, financial forecasting, and ensuring customer build plans were met within the service and cost expectations.
The team at Gideon Hillman Consulting undertook a total review of existing processes and from these developed new and comprehensive sales forecasting and capacity planning tools. These tools were developed in conjunction with the operations team, ensuring that the tools were not only fit for purpose, but also had the agreement and support of the key stakeholders in the business.
The sales forecasting tool was designed as the sole platform in the business for interpreting and extrapolating the OEM operations strategies, forecasts and order book. This tool converted all the available data into a single forecast with a supporting process that ensured all rules and logic within the conversion had cross-functional consensus.
The capacity planning tool linked directly to the volumes in the Sales Forecast tool, and provided a mid to long term capacity plan clearly demonstrating where the business may have future constraints, or where resource could be optimised. Once again, appropriate processes were designed supporting this tool to ensure that the logic, routings, BOMs and key financials were consistently updated, maintained and agreed.
By providing the Decoma Merplas team with a clear picture of both future sales and future capacity, the management are now able to make informed timely decisions, with accurate supporting data, and business-wide consensus, ensuring the continuous improvement of the Decoma Merplas operation, and targeted improvement in its customer service and cost base.
