Effektiv och kontrollerad materialförsörjning i fordonsindustrin : En fallstudie av Scanias CKD-verksamhet

Due to the increased competition in the automotive industry, companies have been forced to become more flexible and to use resourses and information more effectively. The automotive industry is associated with production lines and it is common to use a modulation system, used to manage deep product ranges. CKD productions handle components and modules, which are delivered to international customers where they are assembled to end products. CKD productions are requiring the same components and modules as the production lines and this leads to many complex transportations of material. The study was conducted at Scania in Södertälje that manufactures buses and trucks. In the current situation, the demand for Scania’s products is low, but the demand is expected to increase in the next economic boom. Therefore, Scania has set a target to increase the production of existing products and to increase the number of product variants with existing capacity to ensure future supplies. In order to achieve these objectives, the internal logistics flows associated with the chassis production will have to fundamentally change. These changes are carried out by the project, “Master Process Logistics”, which means that unpredictable transports are substituted to loop traffic by train. The planned changes will also affect the transportations of materials to CKD production, which mean that new methods for material supply to CKD production must be developed. The aim of this study was to develop a framework for efficient and controlled supply of materials to a CKD production in the automotive industry. The aim has been reached by (1) examining the characteristics of the supply of materials in the automotive industry and (2) examining the characteristics of efficient and controlled material supply. The results are based on observations, interviews, focus groups and a literature review.Effective supply of materials is strongly linked to overall company goals and strategy. Concrete measures to achieve the objectives should be formulated and by performing these measures the efficiency can be enhanced. Efficiency aims to affect variables such as cost, time, flexibility, customer service and environment. Actions to increase efficiency are primarily to perform more with fewer resources, JIT, customer focus, minimizing waste and planning transportation routes to create predetermined material flows. The use of trains, return flows and already existing transport routes can lead to increased fill ratio and by that increased efficiency. Controlled supply of materials includes tracking and tracing, meaning to constantly be aware of the location of the products and to have access to information when an unforeseen event occurs. Controlled supply of materials can be created by introducing control points in the flow, predictable routes and good communication.The framework in this study contributes to create efficient and controlled supply of materials to CKD production. The concrete steps are to use a terminal, increase the number of predetermined routes, material transport with high fill rate, production in sequence, Kanban, Minomi and JIT and reducing waste. Moreover, Scania in Södertälje is recommended to increase collaboration both in and between departments, rotation between positions and increase its power over the system support in CKD production.Validerat; 20130701 (global_studentproject_submitter