Automotive supply chains are very complex networks of vehicle manufacturers, their parts suppliers and logistic service providers. They ensure deliveries of the right product in right quantity, quality and time to any place in the world. Costs of logistic processes in each supply chain are critical for the final economy of any project. One of the most important categories in the logistics is packaging. There is hardly a movement of goods in the automotive industry not using packaging for protection and enabling the logistic processes. This work focuses on one-way packaging (like cardboard box or plastic bag) used in automotive supply chains and its role in logistic costs' optimization activities. In other words, how optimizations performed on or by one-way packaging can influence single logistic cost components and what is the final impact on total logistic costs?The first step in the analysis was to define the practical relevance and appearance of one-way packaging to different automotive supply chains. Standardization of supply chains based on the recommendation 5010 of the German VDA Association was used. Two standard supply chains were selected, one from Direct deliveries and one from Warehouse deliveries. Another important step in outlining the research area was the definition of the most typical one-way packaging solution in the selected supply chains. Practical relevance and potential for general application of the research stood here in focus. First objective in the research was to analyze the shares of the logistic cost components to see their importance in total cost of logistics. For this purpose the method of process and cost modeling was applied. In terms of processes the SCOR (Supply-Chain Operations Reference-model) from the Supply-Chain Council was used to describe the logistic processes at different supply chain levels. Later, cost models were created for each selected supply chain using the "Analytical Cost-planning and calculation model for the tactical logistic planning before SOP" developed by Markus Schneider in 2008. Based on these models, basic calculations of costs and their shares were made using standard cost rates and other relevant parameters. In both logistic flows Packaging and Transport costs showed the absolute dominance on total logistic costs (>95%). In the next part of the research, various packaging optimizations were performed within the basic calculations to show the links and influences on the logistic costs. The analyzed optimizations were selected from four basic categories with potential of reducing total logistic costs. The most effective optimizations were clearly those with positive influence on Packaging and Transport costs. For example, increasing unit load density or stacking factors in transport counted to those with highest potential cost savings. Unsurprisingly, pure reduction of packaging costs (even up to 20%) didn't count to the top scorers. Finally the results of the work were compared to real life situations in two Case studies performed at two visited automotive suppliers. Each of the visited companies worked in one of the analyzed supply chain type. Results of their logistic cost structure and shares of cost components were almost identical with the model situations. In one of the cases potential optimization in transport density was recognized leading to a maximum saving of 19% on total logistic costs per transported component. This work clearly demonstrates that one-way packaging optimizations can generate much more savings in total logistic costs when having direct influence on other cost components such as transport, warehousing or handling, than with a stand-alone reduction of packaging price.
en
dc.language
English
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dc.language.iso
en
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dc.rights.uri
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
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dc.title
Role of one-way packaging in automotive supply chains' costs optimization processes