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Supply Chain Management in the Automotive Industry
26 MyAdvantech
By Advantech iService Business Group and Pictures from Advantech
T
he automotive industry is not only one of the world’s most important economic sectors by revenue, it also takes up a leading role in terms of quality expectations, product variety and process complexity. Dr iven by globa l i zat ion a nd i ncreasi n g customer requirements, car manufacturers are forced to offer a large range of vehicle models and options. Just for example, one single model series of a premium German automobile brand can reach 1017 possible automobile variations! The enormous product variety-induced complexity and the pressure of tough international competition make it hard to ensure efficient logistics. That is the reason why industrial
computing plays a major role throughout the entire automotive supply chain, from allocation and storage of raw materials and components to production and delivery to timely spare parts procurement. Completely Knocked Down: The CKD Principle Instead of shipping whole cars to overseas markets, automot ive ma nu fact u r er s pr efer to sh ip veh icle components to be assembled on-site in local manufacturing plants. The reason: Import duties for “completely knocked down� (CKD) products are often considerably lower than for finished end products, and the components occupy less