Digitalization Concepts for the Supply Chain Management in Battery Manufacturing

Logistics and supply chain management are subject to a constant process of change and development leading towards a global, network-oriented field of activity. Individual customer wishes and demands for shorter delivery times as well as increasing cost pressure are both current and future challenges for manufacturing companies. Also, the battery industry is affected by this dynamic change. This chapter therefore covers specific challenges along the entire supply chain in the battery industry as well as solution approaches in the form of digitalization potentials for overcoming these. Corresponding concepts and technologies for implementing digital supply chain management are presented along the Plan, Source, Make, Deliver and Return processes of the SCOR model. In particular, a digitalization concept for testing raw material quality in battery cell production is detailed based on the slurry manufacturing process, in which inline and online measurement and testing equipment can be integrated to determine raw material quality characteristics. The approach underlies a cloud-based database for shared storage of characteristic data in a material ID. Supplier information on the condition of the raw material can be digitally registered before delivery and thus viewed in an integrated manner during incoming goods inspections. The concepts presented here offer the potential to optimize logistical targets such as capacity utilization, on-time delivery, inventory and lead times, and thus increase efficiency along the supply chain.