Dynamic Supply Loops – A Concept for Flexible and Faster Automotive Supply Network Management

The situation of automotive industries can be characterized by low and fluctuating demands for final products. Components supply and as well production systems and networks are too often optimized for the operation at high degrees of utilization without explicitly supporting flexibility. Increasingly, production strategies like Build-to-Order (BtO) are applied to enhance the flexibility of the production networks in automotive industries. Customize-to-Order (CtO) is a promising approach to avoid the efforts for coordination and control that result out of BtO. Research and development to bring CtO to life by means of its process and technology enablers is done in the EU-funded project ACDC. ACDC develops a highly dynamic and robust supply loop concept, which is superior to the conventional hierarchic system in reactivity, reliability and costs while maintaining the 100 % guarantee of delivery. For the proof-of-concept a characteristic next generation automotive modular system is being developed, which merges different technologies, mechanics and electronics, into high quality modules to reduce part-count and cost, i.e. first cost, cost for stocks and stocks itself, and to achieve a customer-neutral component/supply concept.