Supply chain integration in an Italian automotive company: the case of a kitting system implementation

An excellent supply chain management is not enough to achieve good performance in a today modern industrial organisation: the integration in supply chain between supplier, assemblers and customers is basic during the production planning and the product development. This paper presents the analysis of an integrated reengineering project for an automotive company that produces luxury cars. The pre‐existing materials supply system of an assembly line is substituted with a kitting system. The assembler and the supplier work together, in order to optimise the whole process: the kitting system introduction is match with a complete reorganisation of the supply warehouse for the kits components. The economic and logistical benefit obtained has been analysed. An analysis of the errors committed has been also realised in order to have the possibility to learn from errors. This paper shows the real possible advantages of an effective cooperation between the actors of the supply chain.