The Planning Challenge

Forvia is a global automotive technology group serving more than 80 vehicle manufacturers worldwide. The company operates a large industrial network where manufacturing workshops must continuously supply components to downstream vehicle assembly lines.

Within this environment, plastic injection workshops play a critical role in feeding production flows across multiple manufacturing stages.

Automotive manufacturing operates under extremely constrained production conditions. Multi-stage production flows, frequent equipment changeovers, and tight sequencing constraints leave very little margin for planning error.

As product variety increased and production networks expanded, coordinating scheduling decisions across machines, processes, and plants became increasingly complex.

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Results at a Glance

• 16% reduction in machine format changeovers
• 30% reduction in work-in-progress inventory
• 5% improvement in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
• 50% reduction in shortages on final assembly lines

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The Operational Environment

Forvia operates complex multi-stage manufacturing flows across its global production network. Its operations combine:

• Hundreds of industrial production sites
• Multi-step manufacturing processes feeding final assembly
• High product variety and frequent machine changeovers

In this environment, scheduling decisions directly impact manufacturing efficiency, inventory levels, and the reliability of downstream assembly operations.

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The Transformation

Forvia partnered with Sunstice to industrialize scheduling across its manufacturing operations.

By introducing constraint-based scheduling and connecting planning decisions with shop-floor execution systems, the company improved how production flows are coordinated across machines, processes, and plants.

This enabled more reliable scheduling decisions while maintaining flexibility across complex manufacturing environments.

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Customer Perspective

“Sunstice Scheduling had a strong impact on the daily work of the teams managing the injection machines, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks and reducing the stress associated with scheduling."     
‍Stéphane Rivenq
Central Logistics Team, Forvia

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Structured Agility™ in Action

Forvia’s transformation illustrates Structured Agility™, Sunstice’s operating framework for planning in environments of constant industrial complexity.

By improving how scheduling decisions anticipate constraints and coordinate production flows, Forvia gained greater control across its manufacturing network.

Production plans can now adapt more effectively to operational variability while maintaining synchronization between upstream manufacturing steps and downstream assembly lines.