TABLE OF CONTENTS Hartmut Stadtler
Darmstadt University of Technology, Department of Production & Supply Chain Management, Hochschulstra e 1, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
The preceding chapters have shown the different steps of introducing an APS in industry, starting with an analysis of a given supply chain, its redesign and subsequently modelling the supply chain from long-term to short-term decision levels. The integration of all planning tasks relating to the order fulfilment process will result in a new era of enterprise wide and supply chain wide planning.
Thereby, an APS not only will yield improvements on the three crucial factors of competitiveness, namely costs, quality and time, but it will also allow for the
making of processes more transparent,
improvement of flexibility and
revealing of system constraints.
Widely available information from all over the supply chain results in a transparent order fulfilment process. It enables companies and supply chains to provide customers with accurate information about the order status and provides alerts in the case that an unexpected event causes the delayed delivery of an order. However, before this happens a decision-maker can find and check alternative ways to fulfil the customer's order, either by a shipment from another warehouse or another production site or by offering parts of the next higher grade. Additionally, transparent processes will reduce waste along the supply chain, because waste, e. g. resulting from excessive inventories or resources with low utilization rates, will be recognized quickly and measures for its improvement may...
