Forward-looking network planning in the automotive industry
The customer
The BMW Group manufactures premium automobiles in a complex global network. Vehicles are built and distributed worldwide with a high level of in-house production. The complexity of the production network is primarily due to interdependencies, products with a high level of vertical integration and the need to make the best possible use of available resources.
Goals at a glance
Determination of optimum production quantities on the basis of historical values
Successful integration into the existing IT infrastructure
Consideration of all cross-dependencies
Creation of alternative courses of action (what-if analyses)
The project in detail
Executive Summary
OPTANO GmbH has successfully developed and introduced a versatile system for interactive network planning and optimization for the BMW Group. Following a conception phase and the modeling of the IT system, the software was implemented precisely. The integral concept made it possible to transfer essential planning steps into the software and thus support the planning process in the best possible way. At the same time, the best possible integration of this highly complex software into the existing IT landscape was ensured.
The project was implemented by OPTANO in close cooperation with the customer, meeting all quality standards.
The challenge
Planning a network is a highly complex task with a wide range of issues. The precise and, above all, rapid consideration of information from several hundred thousand data records requires efficient algorithms.
In addition, it was necessary to combine the requirements of the customer's different planning areas and develop a solution that would satisfy all of them.
The procedure
OPTANO worked closely with the BMW Group project managers to manage the specification process, develop the IT solution and provide support during the software rollout. The OR experts were primarily responsible for the following tasks:
- The analysis of the current situation, the available data sources and the desired outputs
- Planning the TARGET process
- The mapping of planning issues in mathematical models
- The creation of the software architecture
- The implementation of the functions
- Management of the agile development process
- Software documentation for users and IT experts
The technology
The software was developed according to the customer's specifications and embeds modern optimization and data processing algorithms. The data is stored in a high-performance database. During implementation, the focus was on the selection of high-performance components and efficiency:
- Storage of very extensive time series data
- Creation of components to display many millions of data fields in the graphical user interface
- Development of an efficient model generator to create the variables and restrictions of the optimization model
The result
OPTANO has introduced a versatile planning and optimization system to optimize the planning situation. It includes the following functions, among others:
- Revision of the demand information
- Mapping of the entire production network and markets
- Capacity management and capacity restriction planning
- Determination of optimum production quantities
- Determination of flexibility and calculation of alternative courses of action (what-if analyses)
- Evaluations based on key figures and detailed reports
- Preparation and transmission of data to downstream IT systems
The OPTANO solution is used as the leading system for network planning.
The particular project successes include:
- Standardization of the differing requirements of various planning areas of the Group and transfer to a common mathematical model
- Integration of processes for data preparation, optimization/planning and data transfer in one software package
- Determination of flexibility and alternative courses of action in arbitrarily complex network configurations