Large Project Management in the Automotive Industry: A Flexible and Knowledge Based Approach

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach on flexible and knowledge intensive process management, driven by a large automotive industry case study. The automotive company in analysis requires a very dynamic behaviour, based on high flexibility of both people and equipment. Market has been imposing a decreasing of automotive products life cycles, increasing the number of line adaptations during the entire value chain, resulting in an increased complexity from product design to production. To handle this complexity, new knowledge-based methods and technologies to model, simulate, optimize and monitor planned and existing manufacturing systems are required. Existing large Enterprise Information Systems impose totally structured and predictable workflow, while knowledge intensive processes are flexible and unpredictable, involving high amount of human-decision and interaction. This lead to the need of development of highly specialized applications. This paper presents a novel hybrid approach, including work, information and communication management, to support knowledge intensive processes. The application of the new solution in the automotive engineering process management proved to be very effective and efficient, leading to significant savings.