A Discrete-event Simulation Model for Supporting the First-tier Supplier Decision-Making in a UK’s Automotive Industry

Abstract

The automotive supply chain industry is characterised for a well-known hierarchical structure, where manufacturesexchange partially their forecasting with their first-tier suppliers as a requirements demand, which implies in the mostof the cases that suppliers must be prepared for handling a variety of potential requirements. Moreover, consideringtechnological tools for handling such variety are crucial for managing efficiently the decision-making in this domain.Therefore, this paper presents a simulation-based model to support the resource allocation decision-making processin a real automotive first-tier supplier UK company. Results shown that operations management is enhanced acrossthe selected first-tier supplier by reducing the reworks, which leads to achieve its production targets.