Simulation of passenger vehicle order fulfilment processes

There are strong competitive pressures on high volume automotive producers to develop order fulfilment systems that are responsive to customer needs and that deliver customer-focused variety to the marketplace. Order fulfilment in high volume automotive operations is complex, involving the participation of many internal functions and external partners, and typically requires extensive upstream planning pipelines. It is also subject to increasing levels of product variety and high rates of new product introduction. A programme of research has been underway to study automotive order fulfilment systems using simulation. The first phase has studied the implications of opening the planning pipeline to the sales function. Using generic-focused simulation models, fundamental and counterintuitive system behaviour and performance has been observed. The second phase of the work involves the development of a simulation environment – FULSIM – that includes the decision making of all the major participants in the order fulfilment process, including dealers and customers as well as internal functions. The paper describes some of the insights gained on simulation from developing this large-scale model. The power of discrete-event simulation to represent complex decision logic is highlighted. The relevance of agent-based modelling concepts for capturing parts of the system is noted. The attraction and challenges of developing an integrated model that incorporates different simulation constructs are discussed.