production supply

Modern lean production systems require fast, stable and efficient logistics processes to guarantee just-in-time deliveries of materials to production. For this, a new logistics concept for a plant of the Brose group was developed, which consists of an automatic small parts storage system and an in-plant milk run system. One major challenge was the synchronization of the storage system and the milk run systems in a way that both systems are operated with even utilization and that no obstructions occur between milk run trains. To this end, a timetable was implemented which determines departure times of each milk run train at the warehouse. The timetable takes into account breaks, shift changes and other relevant restrictions. The generation and monitoring of the schedules was implemented entirely in SAP EWM.

Globalization and the growing number of supply chain participants lead to increasing cargo transport service and, thus, to higher energy demand. Although energy prices increase at the same time, the energy balance of production networks remains unconsidered during in the network design phase. Hence, the research project E²Log analyzes how logistics networks and production environment can be coordinated in order to improve energy efficiency. In the first project phase, based on the supply chain for the production of the Volkswagen Amarok, the use case partners have derived simulation scenarios and enhanced a simulation tool to evaluate measures for the efficiency increase without ignoring classic logistic objectives soon.