Silos and Reactive Supply Chains. Current situation
Automotive seat manufacturing involves distributed production of leather, foam, and metal frames, followed by final assembly at separate locations. However, these processes are supported by heterogeneous MRP and JITbased enterprise systems from multiple vendors, resulting in fragmented planning and limited interoperability.
Due to insufficient real-time monitoring and visualization, supply chain planning is often reactive rather than predictive. As a result, stakeholders struggle to align decisions under uncertainty and disruptions, leading to long and variable lead times, inefficient transport and container usage, excess inventory, and rising costs. Moreover, traditional monolithic planning solutions are computationally expensive and poorly suited to dynamic, real-world supply chain conditions.
UniMaaS Solution and Technical Approach
UniMaaS introduces a service-oriented, open platform that transforms supply chain planning into interoperable services seamlessly integrated with existing enterprise systems. It provides container planning as a service and transport planning and embedded production planning, enabling real-time collaboration across all supply chain nodes and supporting both push and pull strategies at tactical and operational levels.
Technically, UniMaaS acts as an orchestration layer offering real-time monitoring, optimization, and visualization. Key enablers include Digital Product Passports for tracking seat components and reusable containers, AI-based predictive models for estimating part availability, delivery times, and sustainability characteristics, and Digital Twins for simulating scenarios such as supplier clustering, circular container flows, optimized truck utilization, and sustainable EU- based sourcing. A strong focus on reusable packaging and circular logistics helps minimize ripple effects across production and transport.
Partners and Expected Impact
The use case is implemented by a strong industrial consortium, with Adient, the world’s largest automotive seating supplier, playing a key role. Adient contributes extensive expertise in global seat manufacturing and supply chain operations, ensuring that UniMaaS solutions are validated in real industrial environments and scalable across the automotive sector.
The outcome is a replicable blueprint for logistics and manufacturing companies to transition from reactive execution to intelligent, collaborative planning. Expected impacts include:
- Waste reduction (−20%)
- CO₂ emissions reduction (−10%)
- Transportation cost savings (−15%)
- Improved truck utilization (+5%)
- Higher productivity (+25%)
- Reduced worker burnout (−30%)
- Lower inventory levels (−10%)
- Increased sourcing within EU regions (+20%).
Blog Writers: Francisco Ferriols Martinez and Mykyta Shmatko
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