Automotive Parts Supplier Enhances Efficiency and Accuracy with Altair® Monarch®

• Analytics & Modeling - Data Mining
• Robots - Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGV)

• Automotive
• Mining

• Logistics & Transportation
• Procurement

• Additive Manufacturing
• Vehicle Performance Monitoring

• System Integration
• Testing & Certification

A leading global automotive parts supplier, with over 300 manufacturing centers and close to 90 product development, engineering and sales centers in 30 countries, faced a significant challenge when it expanded its operations to a new facility in the southcentral United States. The company's business model is based on invoicing against the cost of each component used in the manufacturing of a final product. On average, over 100 different components were used in each finished unit, with the number often exceeding 250 for custom variations. The supplier needed to validate, reconcile, and report on all the components used to manufacture the final unit for the automaker. Poor inventory controls and inaccurate supply chain reporting were impacting the supplier’s operational costs and revenue numbers. Additionally, the automaker required that each component used in the final unit be mapped to the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) of the fully manufactured vehicle. The number of different data sources and formats used in this process demanded a solution that was easy to use, could extract needed information from disparate data sources, and ensure accurate, timely, flexible reporting and invoicing.

The customer is a global leader in automotive supplies, with over 300 manufacturing centers and close to 90 product development, engineering and sales centers in 30 countries. The company is known for its quality part designs and engineering, and it conducts tests and manufactures automotive systems, assemblies, modules and components for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of cars and light trucks around the world. The company has won awards from their customers for delivering innovative technology, providing superior quality components, and offering competitive enterprise-level cost solutions.

Before the new plant became operational, the parts supplier turned to Altair’s self-service data preparation solution, Monarch Complete. The workflow begins with job orders by component put into the Manufacturing Executive System (MES). When an order is ready for production, the components’ data is passed through the company’s ERP system known as ‘Trans4M’, in the form of a report that provides the inventory of the order. Once the order has been produced and is ready to ship, a finished goods report is generated showing the components that were included in the order. This report is then passed through a pick and pull shipping system from Hewlett Packard; it is also passed through an ERP system by finished good, product unit number and the VIN. Using prebuilt reports and data queries run from inside the ERP system, the manufacturer uses Monarch to extract, compare and verify the production data from one system with what is in the shipment from another system to ensure the order is correct and properly billed. Monarch has proven to be the solution that mitigates complexity when creating final reports and invoices and analyzing other datapoints for business purposes.

• The use of Monarch to efficiently extract data from various sources has led to tangible results in the time and cost it takes to create reports compared to similar reporting processes used at other sites. The accounting department uses the detailed SQL table to analyze its business costs, as well as their customers spend, margins realized, and growth patterns. Monarch’s user-friendly interface is leveraged to access and transform this data for the analyses. The process is now automated by dropping a file into the Monarch environment. With the success of the Monarch’s self-service data preparation capabilities, the parts supplier is now adding Monarch to other areas of the business to increase reporting efficiencies, reduce costs, and to improve its inventory controls, supply chain logistics, and to increase its overall value with their customers and partners within the automotive industry.

• Reduced time and licensing costs for the general ledger (GL) system
• Minimized the amount of data transferred into the GL system
• Reduced the time it takes to create a report from hours to minutes