YANFENG AUTOMOTIVE INTERIORS

The Challenge:

EFFECTIVELY MANAGING MULTIPLE SUPPLIERS

The YFAI India plant didn’t have 24/7 real-time information sharing with their 22 suppliers. This lack of communication often caused problems with inventory control overages as well as shortages, and the timely completion of customer orders.

Procurement was done manually in a spreadsheet. Forecasts were sent to suppliers but not updated in real-time. This meant changes and fluctuations were not communicated consistently causing problems with parts not coming on time; unknown dates of dispatch; and lack of information on whether suppliers were sending partial or full quantities. 

Due to these problems, premium air freight charges were routinely necessary when customer orders weren’t completed in time for normal shipping. 

“When YFAI started in India in 2012 we had just a small footprint serving one major auto company. But the India plant has been quite successful, becoming high volume, which has increased the complexity of our operation. On top of that, customer expectations for integrating their ERP into ours became quite critical,” comments Sandeep Kularni, general manager and CEO, YFAI India. “Traditionally we had managed our supply chain by manually sending schedules, tracking those schedules and manually entering material availability –– there were a lot of pitfalls. We needed to upgrade our supply chain management as the traditional way we had been managing was no longer sufficient.”

The Solution:

REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION WITH QAD DEMAND AND DELIVERY

“We learned about QAD Demand and Delivery through discussion with our QAD team,” continues Mr. Kularni. “The team visits us regularly, updating us on the new things QAD is bringing to the market. We had been discussing how we needed to improve our supplier management for quite a long time and when we heard about the QAD Demand and Delivery we were eager to see how it works. Once we saw the demonstration of what the QAD Demand and Delivery can do, we knew it was a great fit for us.”

QAD Demand and Delivery facilitates real-time communication across the supply chain by extracting key inventory, order and related data and making it visible to suppliers via secure internet access. It is a cloud-based solution that can integrate with any ERP whether the client or suppliers are cloud-based or on-premise.

QAD Demand and Delivery works as a data-poller which pushes data to and from the ERP. Suppliers access QAD Demand and Delivery using a browser and have self-service for invoices, bills of material, specifications and other types of documents. With QAD Demand and Delivery, suppliers can access PO and invoice information, Goods Received Note (GRN) and rejections – all in real time, in easy to use formats.

QAD Demand and Delivery provides simple supplier implementation with no hardware needed. The program is quick to implement and is widely accepted by suppliers.

The Benefits:

INVENTORY CONTROL, COST SAVINGS, CONSISTENT CUSTOMER SHIPMENTS

“One of the biggest things we have achieved by implementing QAD Demand and Delivery is our ability to now furnish our suppliers forecasts and rolling plans live in real time,” adds Sameer VC, SCM manager. “This reduces lead times, and maximizes the shipment process. With QAD Demand and Delivery and real-time Advanced Shipping Notifications (ASN) our suppliers have noted there is no longer any confusion on forecasts, scheduling and supply needs. And, we have now achieved seamless electronic connectivity with all our sub suppliers which is a requirement for MMOG/LE Certification.”

The alerts and exception notifications available in QAD Demand and Delivery help YFAI India better manage inventory delivery and quality issues from suppliers, enabling both YFAI and their suppliers to more proactively optimize the performance of their production schedules.

Some of the other benefits YFAI India is experiencing with QAD Demand and Delivery include:

• Increase in inventory turns from 40 turns to 70 
• 25 percent reduction in inventory and the elimination of shortage/overage problems
• Head count savings of one full time position 
• 90 percent reduction in missed deliveries
• Drop in premium freight costs from 1-2 shipments per month to only two in eight months
• Faster payments and adherence to credit terms with streamlined invoicing processes
• Standardization of bar codings

“Our suppliers have adapted very well to using QAD Demand and Delivery. They now have forecasts for six months which are updated in real time as needed. The YFAI India plant and all our suppliers can now plan resources, machines, manpower, everything – based on these updatable schedules. QAD Demand and Delivery application has really helped the YFAI India plant achieve a lot of milestones and benchmarks which we had set ourselves,” concludes Mr. Kularni.

*QAD Demand and Delivery was formerly known as QAD Supplier Portal