DISPO 4.0 – simulationsbasierte Optimierung von Bestelllosgrößen

This paper presents the development and evaluation of a digital planning method for the operational purchasing that enables an automated and product-specific optimized material requirements planning. With materials planning today facing a volatile and complex market environment, the trend towards automated processes in procurement is the key to competitiveness. Although simulation-based optimization for one of the key tasks in material requirements planning, purchase order lot size planning, offers great potential, these digital tools are not yet readily available and thus not widely used in the industry. Thus, this paper develops a simulation-based optimization of purchase orders and evaluates the method in two case-studies in the capital good industry, using 15 purchase order lot sizing algorithms. The results point to a significant cost savings potential and provide insights into the comparative benefits of the algorithms.