Development of a decision-making system for make-or-buy choices. Dallara Group S.r.l. case

This thesis project involved analysing supplier performance by creating an interactive dashboard using Microsoft Power BI software for Dallara, the company where I completed my curricular internship. The dashboard is designed to facilitate the decision-making process by mapping external suppliers and analyzing data from 2009 to 2023. To create the dashboard, the operation manager and I conducted an analysis of the literature and the current state of the art on supplier performance analysis and selecting appropriate KPIs. It is important to choose the right KPI for each measure. The thesis highlights important concepts by demonstrating how the supplier's performance objectives (quality, speed, flexibility, dependability, and cost) are affected by the decision to produce in-house or outsource to external companies. The dashboard specifically presents data on the past performance of 28 composite suppliers. We have considered only the supplier of composite materials as it represents the largest portion of purchases made by Dallara in the external environment. The report presents several metrics for evaluating suppliers, such as on-time delivery, quality level, purchase trends, financial stability, and a vendor rating index based on expert interviews. Additionally, a new report has been included that analyses back orders, historical orders, and turnover to assess the supplier's ability to fulfil Dallara's request, taking into account previous purchases made by Dallara in previous months. Comparing the two dashboards, the operations manager can run different types of simulations to determine the best supplier based on availability, production capacity, skills, supplier capability, and geographic position. The dashboard provides important information for estimating the Total Cost of Ownership. These visualisations help Dallara's Operation Manager in making make-or-buy decisions. Understanding the external environment is crucial in assessing whether to produce in-house or outsource. This thesis describes my experience at Dallara as a Strategic Production Planning Analyst. It outlines the challenges faced, the problems encountered, and the solutions implemented to improve the decision-making process in the operations department of an automotive company in the motor valley.