Intelligent logistics for innovative product technologies within the EU 5-Day-Car initiative

It is apparent that the business model currently employed by the automotive industry of mass-producing identical products, is flawed and becoming dysfunctional. The industry suffers from global over-capacity and rising stock levels and exhibits inherently low profitability. The automotive industry is a major contributor to prosperity worldwide. The ILIPT project adresses the conceptual and many of the practical aspects of the automotive industry's exciting and radical new concept: The delivery to the customer of a bespoke product to his exact specification, only several days after placing the order. The project represents a radical leap for the European automotive industry from the "stock-push" and "mass production" thinking of the last century, to a stockless "build-to-order" (BTO) production strategy. This will require the re-invention of the complete automotive value stream and its components, from material producers to end consumers of cars, through a cost-optimized system delivering what the customer really wants without delay.