Tier 1 Automotive Supplier
A leading Tier 1 automotive supplier in the United States leverages QAD ERP in the cloud to fully automate demand from customers to suppliers.
About Tier 1 Automotive Supplier
Tier 1 automotive supplier fully automates mrp with QAD
This company is a global Tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry.
The Challenge
Automating customer demand to suppliers
The automotive parts supplier currently makes use of QAD ERP in the cloud at its manufacturing sites and has fully automated the customer-to-supplier demand process.
Many suppliers in the automotive industry think their ERP system cannot fully automate MRP and instead continue to rely on spreadsheets throughout various points in the process, facing issues with collaboration, visibility, obsolescence, premium freight and administrative errors.
“We cringe when we hear about plants using spreadsheets for supplier releases. They are very manual and the data doesn’t flow into the supplier’s ERP,” commented the Senior ERP Analyst.
“Other automotive suppliers say it can’t be done but we did it. We fully automated MRP with QAD.”
Senior ERP Analyst
The Solution
the solution to improve communications from its Tier 2 to Tier 3 suppliers.**
“QAD Supplier Performance is working very well for us right now. Before I couldn’t measure on-time delivery and ASN timeliness, now I can.”
The Benefits
Trusting the data and the software
One of the main reasons that this company is able to increase their forecast window and provide additional data is because they know the data is accurate and correct. The manufacturing plants are tracking inventory correctly with QAD ERP in the cloud and following industry best practices for inventory management. By automating everything and prohibiting the use of spreadsheets, the company is confident in the data.
“When organizations do not trust the data, they are hesitant to forecast beyond eight weeks,” explained Onica.
This company utilizes forecasting tools to take into account any engineering changes and to project if a particular automotive program is continuing with current finished goods. The Plant Production Schedulers, with input from Sales & Engineering, are comfortable loading most current forecast data on the current finished goods.
“Our forecasting tool helps us move from one part number to the next with engineering changes within QAD. Then MRP takes the finished good numbers. Sales consumes them. We create our forecasts. QAD’s netting logic is a big advantage for us and the consumption logic is very helpful to drive any extra MRP demand,” explained the Senior ERP Analyst.
In addition, QAD gives this company the ability to forecast shipping times, which is especially important now with overseas suppliers encountering port delays.
USING QAD SUPPLIER PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
The company has recently implemented the QAD Supplier Performance module and QAD Demand and Delivery to better collaborate on-time delivery with its suppliers. It measures for under, over, early and late shipments and ASN timeliness. QAD Demand and Delivery improves supplier collaboration and visibility by promoting real-time communication. It eliminates manual processes that are error-prone and spreadsheets that quickly become obsolete.
“QAD Supplier Performance is working very well for us right now. Before I couldn’t measure on-time delivery and ASN timeliness, now I can,” commented the Senior ERP Analyst.
QAD Supplier Performance helps this company improve communications about shipment delivery performance. By sharing performance data with suppliers, it has significantly improved overall on-time delivery with its suppliers.
NEXT STEPS: CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT USING QAD DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING (DSCP)
As a growth-minded company, this Tier 1 automotive supplier is always looking ahead to improve their current processes and find the most value out of their solutions. It has launched a pilot program using the QAD Digital Supply Chain Planning (DSCP) solution for improved scenario planning.