IntelliWORKS Positions Tier 1 Automotive
Supplier for Organic Growth with New
Sequencing System
An IntelliWORKS Case Study
Client Overview
For over 33 years, the Supplier has supplied top OEMs with high-quality interior parts such as door panels, harness wiring, dashboards and more. With offices worldwide, the Supplier has over 33,000 employees who are dedicated to serving and anticipating their customers’ needs through enhanced technology, innovation and a passion for delivering great products.
Challenge
A global Asian automotive supplier wanted to grow and had their sights set on North America. Once their North American operation was established and obtained traction, they noticed a number of factors greatly decreasing their overall customer satisfaction levels, ultimately hurting their client relationships.
- Their homegrown broadcasting engine was not fault-tolerant or consistent and very limited. They experienced frequent failures that were very difficult to troubleshoot and the limitations of the system made it almost impossible to handle all their requirements.
- They used remote support from their Asian headquarters which caused lagged response times due to the time zone differences, complexity of the systems and language barriers.
- In addition, the supplier had their sequencing process in a different building adding additional complexity and ultimately extending the time it took to fulfill orders.
The Supplier knew that in order for them to continue to grow in the North American market, they had to overcome these daunting challenges and provide their clients the same high-quality service and trust as they did with their clients in Asia.
Solution
After initial process analysis, the Supplier decided to implement an error-proofing system to help gain greater efficiency and reduce wasted efforts and costs, but quickly saw they needed a cohesive sequencing and error-proofing system to meet all their requirements.
After only a week of coordinating and testing their manufacturing process, Pyramid Solutions successfully replaced the Supplier’s homegrown infrastructure with IntelliWORKS for the sequencing and error-proofing of their door panels.
Before this, the Supplier had limited error-proofing when it came to packing and shipping parts, meaning parts were being shipped out to the OEMs without the guarantee that they had gone through the correct processes and the correct materials inside each shipment container.
IntelliWORKS has provided additional process enforcement, traceability and visibility for each part as it advances through the manufacturing process. This includes the capture and recording of operator actions, such as who worked on what part, points of machine tool integration, the collection of serialized components and process data, resulting in a complete birth history for each part produced as well as which shipping container they are packed in.
The sequence methodology that was built for the Supplier was based on an on-demand need, which freed up floor space, reduced the on-hand inventory carrying costs, increased compliance with OEMs and ultimately allowed the company to adapt to higher production volumes. This way, they were able to increase scalability and meet their overall goals for growth.
By having one cohesive solution that included sequencing, error-proofing and packet, it became much easier for the Supplier to troubleshoot errors, less domain knowledge was required as engineers only had to know one system and costs were greatly reduced.
Benefits
Process Enforcement
Reduced Production Cost
Increased Customer Satisfaction
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