PSA Peugeot Citroën Group says it has improved production lead time reliability since implementing simulation specialist Ilog’s JRules business management software in its order management system.
The new system calculates production lead times of 300,000 monthly vehicle orders in real time, and operates at a reliability rate of 90%, enabling the carmaker to quote with greater accuracy and to improve responsiveness to distributors.
The company points out that increasing demands for customisation on top of multiple brand management was creating complexity. Indeed, it says that calculating order processing times means addressing 500 manufacturing constraints, ranging from assembly-line output to the type of engine, gearbox or wheel rim, as well as fabrics, door number and country-specific requirements.
It was the scale of complexity, it says, that drove the decision to look for a different, more flexible automated order management system. And the result, with JRules, is apparently some 18,000 rules per automotive brand calculating lead times for manufacturing its vehicles.
With JRules, system users are now informed about potential delays and changes in real time, allowing them to adapt more quickly to issues. Just as important, they can define and update daily business rules for each brand.
Users are currently running five simulations per day, with each operation not exceeding 45 minutes, to account in near real time for resource changes, such as late supplier deliveries or damage in a production plant, and re-evaluate new priorities. The impacted rules are then updated every night.
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