In the hyper-competitive automotive industry, materials handling is emerging as an indispensable tool for driving down supply chain costs.

Agile, Flexible, Efficient. - Those may be the three most important characteristics of the automotive supply chain today.

Automakers and suppliers can no longer mass produce the cars they want to build with
the hope that the public will buy them. Instead, they have to build to order, offering thousands of different combinations of options all the while taking cost out of the supply chain.

What’s more, they need to adjust their schedules and models on the fly to optimize throughput and minimize costs.

Doing so requires synchronized and flexible supply chain practices to streamline the flow of parts from the factories and warehouses to the auto plant floor.

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