Abstract

Dealing with production planning and scheduling in modern production networks becomes more and more complex. Globalization and mass customization are two megatrends influencing this trend especially in automotive suppliers’ industry due to the high internationality of plants and factory of an industrial company as well as the heterogeneous product portfolio. However, there are some tools, methods and principles which can counteract this trends and help making production planning more agile digital.  During this paper, a digital and automated Kanban solution will be implemented at a certain process in an automotive supplier’s plant. To make the effects visible, the current process and its weaknesses are visualized in a value stream map of the current situation with conventional Kanban planning during the Analysis phase. Thus, the future, optimized value stream with the use of a digital and automated Kanban solution is designed and mentioned in the results. In summary, the introduction of this Kanban solution can lower the costs of the planning process. In the example used in this paper, the total costs for this quantity of Kanban can be decreased by over 50%. Further, other weaknesses of this process could be erased as well. Those results are differentiated in a practical and a monetary comparison. Dealing with production planning and scheduling in modern production networks becomes more and more complex. Globalization and mass customization are two megatrends influencing this trend especially in automotive suppliers’ industry due to the high internationality of plants and factory of an industrial company as well as the heterogeneous product portfolio. However, there are some tools, methods and principles which can counteract this trends and help making production planning more agile digital. During this paper, a digital and automated Kanban solution will be implemented at a certain process in an automotive supplier’s plant. To make the effects visible, the current process and its weaknesses are visualized in a value stream map of the current situation with conventional Kanban planning during the Analysis phase. Thus, the future, optimized value stream with the use of a digital and automated Kanban solution is designed and mentioned in the results.  In summary, the introduction of this Kanban solution can lower the costs of the planning process. In the example used in this paper, the total costs for this quantity of Kanban can be decreased by over 50%. Further, other weaknesses of this process could be erased as well. Those results are differentiated in a practical and a monetary comparison.