Solution sought for technical planning (R&D, automotive)

We are active in the automotive sector with over 50,000 employees worldwide and are looking for a software solution for our team in Technical Planning (R&D department with approx. 60 employees at our location in Germany).

The employees are divided into the following 3 teams:

• CVJ (joint, constant velocity joint) testing (testing/experimental area)
  32 test benches, 13 employees, 1 employee responsible for planning)
  
• Torque Test (Test/Experimentation)
  13 test benches, 25 employees, 15 of whom are responsible for planning)
  
• Test Equipment (Repair, Maintenance, Test Bench Upgrades, New Test Bench Procurement, etc.)
  17 employees, no hardware resources to plan, 1 employee responsible for planning)

The software should support us in resource planning. Resources for us include both employees and physical resources (test benches and equipment).

In our department, resources are only allocated to registered work orders (order scheduling). We do not cover higher-level project management, which is not part of this request.

Our current project planning tool is reaching its limits with the increasing complexity of projects (linking processes, handling priority shifts).

A core requirement is the parallel scheduling of resources for multiple tasks (scenario: Employee A works on project 1 with a workload of 30% during calendar weeks 17/18 and on project 2 with a workload of 40% from calendar weeks 17 to 20. In calendar week 19, employee A creates a report for project 3 with a workload of 50%).

Another challenge is the dynamic nature of our planning. Resource bottlenecks and task conflicts often arise. As a result, tasks and projects are frequently rescheduled. This dynamic planning is based on a prioritization process. The importance and urgency of tasks are coordinated in a weekly management board meeting and resource planning is adjusted accordingly. Priority changes for tasks are therefore part of day-to-day business – planning is highly dynamic and must be handled flexibly (postponing detailed tasks while taking into account and maintaining set milestones, such as the availability of test specimens or maintenance periods for test benches). One of the management's requirements is the visualization of scenarios as a decision-making aid (e.g., visualization of planning data and impact analyses in a “sandbox” mode).

In the torque test area, MS Office tools are used as planning tools (MS Project, MS Excel for statistics). In this test area, responsibility for detailed test planning lies with the test engineers supervising the project (15 employees). The details of the processes correspond to the scenario described above – the processes are divided into test bench-related and non-test bench-related activities.

With the current project planning software, project schedules are discussed across departments and locations. At this point, it is important to export the planning data (resource-related, department-related, and project-related). Another interface is available in Controlling. This is where the bookings for the projects are tracked. A comparison with the planning software is also necessary here so that only permissible projects are displayed when new processes and orders are created.

Further interfaces exist across departments: Processes in planning must be able to be linked across projects (e.g., for department 3, there is a maintenance order on the test bench that can only be started once department 1 has finished using the test bench).

Time recording for activities (man-hours and test bench hours) enables the progress of activities/projects to be tracked. The time spent on tasks is recorded by the employee using a simplified software tool. In addition, the times are used by Controlling for project billing. General activities must also be bookable (administrative tasks, training, etc.).

The software is to be used on premise.