Automotive & Mobility

Automotive logistics is the transport, storage, distribution, and management of materials, parts, and products throughout the automotive supply chain. This can include:

• Storage and transport of materials and parts between Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 suppliers and automotive manufacturers.
• Integration with suppliers and original equipment manufacturers across systems, data, teams, and processes.
• Sequencing and support for automotive production and assembly lines, particularly for just-in-time manufacturing.
• Secure storage for highly valuable or sensitive products like lithium batteries. 
• Order and inventory management to ensure maximum availability for the production line process.
• Tracking and visibility for automotive products anywhere in the supply chain. 
• Transport and distribution across national networks to supply automotive dealers and aftermarket vendors. 
• Supply of spare parts for maintenance and repair.
• Light assembly and kitting to prepare components for assembly lines, dealers, or end customers.
• Delivery of cars, trucks, and other vehicles for sale. 

The automotive supply chain is the collection of the steps needed to get an automotive product into the hands of a customer. This includes sourcing raw materials, manufacturing into parts, assembly into finished products, and ordering, storing, transporting, and distributing automotive goods. 

Different aspects of the automotive supply chain can include:

• The transport of raw materials such as aluminum, lithium, or rubber. 
• Storage and order management for raw materials until they’re needed for manufacturing.
• Supply of raw materials into early production and assembly lines for components and parts.
• Storage of components and parts until they are required for assembly.
• Transport of automotive parts and components to supply downstream production lines.
• Storage of finished automotive parts and products until they are required by dealers, aftermarket sellers, and others.
• Transport and delivery of finished automotive parts and products to vendors, dealers, and customers. 

There are several different levels or “tiers” of manufacturers:

• Original Equipment Manufacturers or OEMS: These are the automotive companies that produce certified parts or finished vehicles. These can include automotive brands such as Ford, Chevrolet, Honda, or Subaru, and equipment manufacturers that make the parts that the automotive brands use to build cars, trucks, EVs, motorcycles, and other vehicles.
• Tier 1 Supplier: A Tier 1 automotive supplier provides the parts used by OEMs. They are a key input into the manufacturing and assembly lines that create finished parts and vehicles.
• Tier 2 and 3 Suppliers: These suppliers provide raw materials and parts to Tier 1 providers and occasionally to OEMS themselves.

Exact needs vary between automotive manufacturers and suppliers, but will likely include the following:

• Order management and product flow optimization to take account of long lead times and ensure the availability of materials, parts, and products for manufacturing.
• Support for a variety of automotive assembly lines and methods, especially lean manufacturing and just-in-time assembly. 
• Resilient supply chains that can ensure the flow of goods during times of marketplace, economic, or other disruptions. 
• Compliance with strict automotive regulations in the U.S. and around the world.
• Rigorous security and quality control across all components, parts, and finished products.
• Deep data, systems, process, and team integration between the manufacturer / seller and the automotive logistics provider.
• Integration across automotive logistics services including freight forwarding, import, customs clearance, drayage, storage, warehousing, distribution, and delivery.
• Special handling and transport for raw materials, parts, and finished products.

Some of the issues within automotive supply chains are:

• Complexity: Vehicles are comprised of tens or hundreds of thousands of parts. Coordinating all of these raw materials, components, parts, and products requires deeply sophisticated technology, enhanced data and tracking, and an expert workforce.
• Lead times: The lead time between ordering a product and it being available for an assembly line could be weeks or months. Automotive manufacturers need expert forecasting, inventory, and order management to ensure they have the right products in the right place at the right time. 
• Demand: Due to long lead times, automotive companies must carefully plan around demand generation activities and peak seasons. 
• Regulations: Some states in the U.S. have stringent regulations on auto manufacturing and vehicles. Manufacturers must comply with these frameworks to ensure they can compete across all state and national marketplaces.
• Resilience: the failure of one small part of the supply chain can have significant impacts elsewhere in the supply chain. For example, a shortage of computer chips can delay the manufacture of a finished car.

There are many ways to improve the automotive supply chain, including:

• Deploying artificial intelligence and machine learning to create various scenarios, models, and forecasts for supply and demand, and building those findings into automotive order management. 
• Sourcing secondary suppliers and manufacturers for various components across the supply chain to build resilience.
• Using a wide logistics transport network for proximity to ports, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, and dealers.
• Staying ahead of changes in the automotive and logistics industry to reduce risks and issues due to changes in legislation, regulations, or marketplaces.

We’ve been supporting automotive logistics for more than 30 years. We offer end-to-end, integrated logistics solutions that work effortlessly with OEMs and all tiers of suppliers. Our range of supply chain services includes freight forwarding and customs clearance, warehousing and storage, order and inventory management, and distribution.

We focus on:

• Integrated supply chain and logistics services
• Just-in-time automotive manufacturing and supply chains
• End-to-end visibility and tracking of automotive logistics
• Wide automotive logistics network for distribution across national, regional, and local suppliers, vendors, and dealers
• Deep control and compliance across spares, parts, and products
• Logistics tailored to the unique nature of automotive products
• Strong focus on CSR and ESG responsibilities