OEM&Lieferant Ausgabe 1/2019

104 IT and Automotive Tolerance Limits, Release Order Analysis, and More: How Automotive Suppliers Recognize Demand Fluctuations in an Instant By Siegfried Kuri, Head of SAP Product Management, WSW Software GmbH Recognizing at an early stage, whether a customer violates the specified tolerance limits when retrieving delivery quantities or whether their release order behavior has changed is a business-critical factor for automotive suppliers. With SPEEDI , suppliers who use SAP software, can perform release order checks and analyses as well as purchase quantity checks in SAP. The process is integrated and IT-supported, andwith that, efficient and transparent. Material planning and production planning can be adjusted promptly. Since the beginning of September 2018, new passenger cars may only be registered and sold in the European Union (EU) if they have been tested for traffic per the WLTP (World- wide Harmonized Light-Duty Vehicles Test Procedure). This causes a registration back- log for new cars. Automobile manufacturers (OEMs) therefore reduce production or discon- tinue specific model variants. Recognizing Fluctuations in Demand Early This also affects the suppliers. Admittedly, sup- ply contracts with the OEMs usually specify exactly what partial quantities a supplier must deliver when, and which the customer then re- quests by way of forecast delivery schedule or shipping release order. Frequently, however, there are fluctuations in demand when retriev- ing, for example, due to the WLTP test, which has an adverse effect on material planning and production planning at the supplier. Therefore, certain tolerance limits are usually agreed con- cerning the retrieval of parts or components. It is therefore critical for the supplier to recog- nize at an early stage whether current release orders violate the defined tolerance limits – preferably directly when the release orders are entered. Ideally, it should also always be possible to understand the development of the release order behavior of the customer. Significant deviations can then be identified immediately, and material planning can be ad- justed promptly so that a “smooth” production is still guaranteed. Another critical aspect for smooth material requirements and production planning is full control of production and material releases as well as the agreed minimum and maximum purchase quantities. Material releases allow purchasing to plan ahead for about six or eight weeks. Production releases oblige the OEMs to accept the components produced by the supplier in advance for a certain period of time, for example for four weeks. More Efficiency through IT-supported Processes Whether during the verification and analysis of forecast delivery schedules or the control of production and material releases as well as purchase quantities: Suppliers using SAP soft- ware face the challenge that the SAP Standard does not or only insufficiently supports these processes. Consequently, the processes are performed manually and costly outside of SAP, in Microsoft Excel, in-house-developed programs or even on paper. The solution is provided by th e SPEEDI p lat- form from WSW Software, which integrates seamlessly with the SAP software, extends the SAP Standard without modification and closes existing gaps. For this purpose, the add-on provides solutions, using which the above-mentioned and numerous other logis- tics processes can be handled throughout and in an IT-supported manner in SAP, and thus very efficiently and transparently. Checking Forecast Delivery Schedules during Entry The SPEEDI Tolerance Line Check , f or example, automatically checks data from in- coming forecast delivery schedules against previous release orders during entry into SAP. Traffic light functions signal immediately whether a delivery schedule quantity exceeds or falls below the specified tolerance limits. Necessary actions can be promptly initiated, such as a processing stop of the forecast de- livery schedule or the transmission of the de- viation to the customer. Release Performance Analyses Available at the Touch of a Button Th e SPEEDI solution Analyses of Release Performance w ith Aggregation takes an im- Images/Graphics: ©WSW Software GmbH The SPEEDI solution Tolerance Line Check checks already during entry of a release order, whether or not it exceeds or falls short ofthetolerancesspecifiedwithregardtodemandfluctuations.Violationsaredetectedearly,andpromptresponsesarepossible.