A tier-1 automotive components supplier · Automotive & Components
Line-side visibility and full traceability for an auto components supplier
Shortages showed up at the line, not before it, and a recall query meant days of paper. We built inbound and line-side visibility and part-level traceability, so shortages are seen early and a batch can be traced in seconds.
Written by Shubham Panwar
- Line stoppages
- −41%
- Premium freight
- −33%
- Batch traceability
- Hours → seconds
The situation
Our client supplied sequenced and just-in-time components to vehicle assembly plants, where a missing part does not slow the line, it stops it, and a stopped line carries a penalty by the minute. Yet the first anyone knew of a shortage was often the empty bin at the line side. Inbound material from their own sub-suppliers was tracked on emails and phone calls, stock accuracy drifted between counts, and the planners were forecasting shortages from gut feel.
Traceability was the other quiet risk. When a customer raised a quality or recall query, tracing which batches of raw material went into which shipped parts meant pulling paper records across the plant, a job of hours or days when the customer wanted an answer now.
What we did
We started on the shop floor and at goods-in, following a part from the sub-supplier to the sequenced delivery, before proposing anything.
- We built one data foundation that pulls inbound ASN and receipt data, stock movements, and production consumption into a single trusted picture of what is on site and what is coming.
- We gave the line side early warning, projected shortages against the sequenced build plan, so a gap is visible hours ahead with time to expedite deliberately rather than react at the bin.
- We built part-level traceability, every finished part linked to the raw material batches and process records that made it, so a recall or quality query is answered by a query, not a paper chase.
Because our founders have lived in supply chain and heavy industry, we built around the discipline of JIT and sequenced supply, where being roughly right is not good enough.
The outcome
With shortages visible before the line side rather than at it, line stoppages fell by 41 per cent and the expensive habit of premium freight to cover surprises dropped by 33 per cent, because expediting became a planned decision, not a panic. A batch that once took hours to trace through paper is now traced in seconds, which changed how the client stands in front of its customers on quality.
We continue to run the platform and extend it to further plants and suppliers.
