Logistics, Product & Material Cycles

Logistics incudes Product and Material Cycles:

• the planning of procurement and distribution structures in automotive manufacturing and the delivery of vehicles,
• the design of cross-company processes and supply chains, as well as
• the production of exchange products and the recycling of technically complex automotive products.

The automotive industry is one of the most demanding branches of industry and presents special challenges for logistics as well as product and material cycles. Automotive manufacturers are increasingly concentrating on their core competencies and shifting parts of the value chain to the supply industry. This leads to close cooperation in networks of value added services. The challenge is mastering hybrid and cross-company processes, complexity of the product and the increasing number of variants while simultaneously reducing inventories. In the interaction of product structure and production strategy, networks can be realized that enable economically efficient control of product complexity and variant diversity while simultaneously satisfying customer needs. In the planning and optimization of transport networks, the spectrum extends from the selection of the right locations to the planning of supply and delivery traffic as well as the optimization of network-wide processes. Fraunhofer use the latest software-based procedures, methods and algorithms for transport optimization. Cost structures and service levels are taken into account as target figures for each individual customer. The optimization potential in distribution and procurement is analyzed by means of scenario calculations and a practically realizable variant is determined.