On 13 June 2018, the Munich and Stuttgart C-P-S colleagues met for the first cross-location SCM workshop this year. The venue was the premises of the Stuttgart C-P-S office in Wangen. The subject of this year’s workshop was a case study from the field of supply planning in the automotive industry. All colleagues of the CoC SCM were invited to the workshop. After a joint breakfast and a short introductory round, it was full of verve on the processing of the first two tasks.

Thanks to the extensive preparatory work by Patrick Schubert, Niklas Dipp and Alexander Wurzer, the participants found a realistic and detailed scenario for editing. This scenario was spun around a fictitious automobile manufacturer who wants to build a new vehicle plant and, in parallel, wants to reduce logistics costs.

In the first step, it was u.a. to calculate the logistics costs and the investment for the allocation of a component. In the subsequent group task, the participants had to decide between different material supply strategies for different components in the LMG. In keeping with the components, the maximum possible loading units per truck and the delivery frequencies had to be calculated.

After a lunch break, consisting of pizza and cross-location networking, the digestion continued with a more complex task. The participants were assigned the role of a supply planner and had to draw up a detailed supply concept for a specific component, as well as fill out the documentation accompanying the process. A special highlight here was the possibility to send certain questions to several e-mail contacts specially set up for this simulation game and to receive corresponding answers and solution hints from “the other side”.

The last part consisted of a joint final round including the request to submit feedback on the event. All in all it was a very interesting and successful workshop day. We will see each other again at the next SCM workshop.

After this successful dress rehearsal, the case study will in the future be processed at universities by students. The C-P-S Group attaches great importance to assisting students with this realistic simulation game in their studies and, ideally, to attract attention as an attractive employer in the automotive industry at an early stage.