PROCESS STABILITY THROUGH WORKFLOWS - THE KEY TO EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS

摘要

Mature engineering processes are widely recognized as an important factor for the efficient development of high quality and innovative products. Car manufacturers as well as suppliers have therefore set up process improvement initiatives following the best practices that are provided by maturity models such as CMMI or Automotive SplcE.However, a return on investment (ROI) can only be achieved if the process improvements can be stabilized in the long run. Our experience shows that organizations often fail in achieving a sustainable change in behavioural patterns and that process compliance often diminishes after a successful start. As a consequence, the investment in process improvements does not pay off.A constructive and elegant solution to this problem is the application of a workflow-system, in which the essential steps of the development processes are implemented and can therefore be performed in a tool-supported manner. In this way, project members are guided through their role-specific development activities and the application of the processes becomes an integral part of their daily work routine. This results in processes that have a demonstratively higher level of conformance and stability as well as a significant increase in development efficiency.Translated into process models such as CMMI and SplcE, this means that a workflow-system not only allows specific practices to be supported but also ensures that the generic practices are fulfilled. This shows that project leaders and the project team can be significantly relieved of their workload whilst still ensuring a high level of process maturity. The resources that then become available can be invested in the key engineering activities or other projects.The advantages of tool supported process implementation are illustrated through means of a case study based on Vector's practical experience. A number of key processes were mapped to tool-supported workflows at an early stage of the process improvement and rolled out across the organization. Both a CMMI appraisal that took place two years ago, as well as regularly performed audits since then have confirmed a sustainable institutionalization and a stable implementation of the processes. The increase in efficiency compared to non-tool supported implementation of the processes varies, according to project size and complexity, between ca. 10% and 20%. Furthermore, the system is expandable - at present, the next phase of processes are being implemented.