Automotive

The Automotive Industry

The automotive industry is one of the most capital-intensive and complex out there. Products are highly configurable, customers are very demanding, and the market is global. All of these pressures lead to significant product and operational complexity. Typical symptoms of which are: Exploding build combinations, growing parts inventory, high demand volatility, inaccurate forecasts, and reduced supplier stability.

“The effects of increased product and operational complexity are felt all the way up and down the supply chain.With various business units typically disconnected from the demand signals, there is poor visibility into what feature choices are driving demand and differences in the regional product mix. New models and options are added to the product offering in hopes that it will result in increased sales. However, the effects of this increased product and operational complexity are felt all the way up and down the supply chain.

Product proliferation weighs heavily on“Even with increased selection, customers often still want a configuration that is not on the lot. auto dealers, as they have to stock a large selection of cars to display the available choices. Maintaining these high inventory levels ties up capital and increases the cost of ownership for dealers. Even with this increased selection, customers often still want a configuration that is not on the lot.

Suppliers are also greatly affected by product proliferation. As the build combinations increase, the components that go into them tend to increase exponentially. For example, the wiring harness in an automobile can have hundreds of configurations to satisfy all the electrical combinations offered to the customer. This component proliferation drives up supplier costs.

How Emcien can help you:

Emcien’s pattern-based analytics applications connect the demand signal to the supply, providing clear visibility into the choice combinations that are driving customer demand. Our patented configuration optimization engine enables a company to automatically optimize their product mix to satisfy demand in the most profitable manner.