German premium car manufacturer BMW is investing in Dassault Systèmes DELMIA Quintiq solution for production planning and scheduling at its European-located E-Drive production sites.

The point of choosing Dassault’s DELMIA Quintiq solution is to optimize the performance of BMW's production facilities, beginning initially in the Dingolfing, Leipzig and Regensburg locations.

With the DELMIA Quintic environment in place, according to Dassault, it is possible to synchronize demand from automotive factories for components and increased productivity, while trimming inventories and reducing costs. Today the system has been implemented and is up and running on BMW's E-Drive component assembly lines in the three facilities mentioned above.

“End customers' demand for electric cars is increasing rapidly and puts OEM manufacturers under pressure to optimize their response in this new market with scarce resources. It is important to ensure that their specific components are produced on time,” commented Dassault's Laurence Montanari, VP of transport and mobility solutions.

BMW Bets on DELMIA Quintiq. The background is that the demand for electric cars from end customers puts OEM manufacturers under pressure to optimize their production in this new market. It is important to ensure that front-end developers and manufacturers such as BMW can ensure that specific components are produced and delivered on time. Each missing component has a direct impact on car sales. The risk of such shortcomings can be reduced through a new approach to production planning that improves the flexibility and efficiency of the component supply chain.

An Important Poster Child for Dassault

The announcement from BMW and Dassault is interesting in several ways, not only in terms of what the system is designed to do, but also because it is implemented in a commercially valuable place that shows off the system: BMW's production lines for electric car components. If it works well and makes it possible to concretely demonstrate that the synchronization effects have materialized—such as production efficiency, time coordination of component deliveries and reduced costs—it will be an excellent marketing of the company's DELMIA Quintic software.

Quintiq was originally a Dutch company that Dassault bought in 2014. The firm was known for being a leading provider of on-premise and on-cloud supply chain and Operations Planning & Optimization software. Dassault paid €250 million for Quintiq, which in 2014 had 800 employees developing top level production, logistics and workforce planning applications. The company’s software was rated as a leader in the market by industry analysts, and its solutions were used by 250 customers at 1,000 sites in more than 90 countries.

BMW production line for electric car components.

A Feather in the Cap for Dassault

That being said, today’s announcement from Dassault Systèmes and BMW is important particularly from the perspective of competition from SAP, which has similar solutions in its arsenal in related areas such as Supply Chain Planning Solutions and Vehicle Routing and Scheduling. Of course, Siemens Digital Industries is also always relevant in German contexts, but at BMW it is not as heavy a PLM supplier as it is in other German vehicle giants, such as Mercedes Benz.

The fact that BMW is now choosing to bet on Dassault's DELMIA Quintiq is undoubtedly a feather in the cap for the French PLM developer. This is particularly interesting because SAP solutions in the product development area have traditionally been something BMW leaned towards in its software arsenal—although Dassault's CAD software CATIA played one of the main roles on the design side.

Master Production Disorders

But at BMW Group's E-Drive production facilities in Dingolfing, Leipzig and Regensburg, DELMIA Quintiq now plays a major role. Here, the solution must master the rapid development on the manufacturing side and be able to handle the potential disruptions that may arise in the complex manufacturing chain for vehicle components.

In short, the Dassault solution will provide better and faster decisions to improve manufacturing's key indicators.

In the press release, Dassault states that, “DELMIA Quintiq applications will continue to be distributed by the BMW Group to plan and optimize its own component production. This includes optimizing the production of all five presses in Germany.”

Dassault's Laurence Montanari, VP of transport and mobility solutions.

OEM Manufacturers Under Pressure

Moreover, Dassault’s Laurence Montanari, says in a comment:

“That specific components are produced on time is imperative. Each missing component directly impacts car sales. The risk of such shortcomings can be reduced through a new production planning approach that improves the flexibility and efficiency of the component supply chain, in order to better master the large amount of relevant data and synchronize all stakeholders.”

With the solutions in place, it is now only a matter of proving that they work in this demanding environment. This promises to be a tough challenge, which will be very interesting to follow.