Reconciling process flexibility and standardization: a case study in the automotive industry

In the automotive industry, short-term changes in the product mix can be executed in an attempt to better react to customers’ immediate needs and preferences. These modifications impact confirmed orders sent to suppliers via material requirement planning (MRP) and may lead to supply shortages. Supply chain stakeholders can respond to these modifications in a plethora of ways to avoid shortages. However, the process of deciding on the appropriate response is not easily standardized due to the high level of flexibility and subjectivity required to deal with each specific situation. Based on an automotive manufacturer in the State of Paraná—Brazil, we propose a decision support system (DSS) to guide supply chain stakeholders during the process of deciding on how to respond to short-term material requirement modifications. Flexibility is ensured by the occurrence of “decision points” in the process model, which guide a process instance through specific paths based on a mix of simple rules as well as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The DSS has its application demonstrated by a series of simulated scenarios. Through the standardization of a flexible process driven by subjective factors, this work aims to achieve: (i) a better understanding of the cost versus risk trade-offs that complicate standardized decision making within automotive supply processes; and (ii) an artifact capable of providing standardization without hindering the flexibility requirements for this class of processes.