Project Management Software

the part-book is a project management software solution for automotive suppliers

What is Project Management?   Leading the work of a team to complete different tasks using their specialized skills, tools and knowledge to achieve a goal within constraints. 

Responding to a request for quote (RFQ), launching a new part or making an engineering change are examples of common types of projects for an automotive supplier; and the common constraints are scope of work, time and budget.

As a Program, Part and Project Management (3PM) software solution; Project Management is at the heart of what the Part-Book does.  In fact, our approach to project management is the secret sauce that separates the Part-Book from other software solutions. 

As far as the Part-Book is concerned, Project Management is about defining the lifecycle phases of a part.  Here’s how it works:

You may call some of these activities by different names and that’s perfectly fine; however, if your company is an automotive supplier, we think you’ll recognize that each box (above) triggers the supplier team to complete different tasks using their specialized skills, tools and knowledge to achieve a goal within constraints. 

For automotive suppliers, the lifecycle of a Part usually begins when they receive a RFQ (Request for Quote).  Generally the first RFQ is a New Business inquiry, but there are different types of RFQ’s:

RFQ Project Types:   

• New Business – request for quote for a new production part.
• Change Study – request for quote for an engineering change to an existing part.
• Special Project – request for quote for a one-time order, such as prototype, pre-production or service parts.

A supplier may quote a part multiple times based on different design or manufacturing options; and each time a new Part-Book is created (or copied) to capture the specific details of that version. 

By the way, RFQ is short for Request for Quote; and in terms of the Part-Book that means capturing all of the details associated with the feasibility, cost, price and timing of the part.

Eventually the supplier will receive a Purchase Order (PO), Letter of Intent (LOI), or Authorization to Proceed (ATP) for one of the quotes they’ve submitted; and when that happens a Kick-Off Project is created by copying the RFQ project that was awarded. 

Just like there are three types of RFQ projects there are also three types of Kick-Off Projects:

Kick-Off Project Types:

• Kick-Off New Business – signifies that the company has been awarded a new production part; and initiates the part launch process.
• Kick-Off Engineering Change – signifies that the company has been authorized to make an engineering change to an existing part and initiates the engineering change management process.
• Kick-Off Special Project – signifies that the company has received an order for prototype, pre-production samples, service parts or other “special” one-time order parts; and initiates the process of getting them produced.     

Kick-Offs can vary in size and scope:  you might kick-off a project for a part that is associated with a group of other parts that requires building expansion, new tooling and capital equipment -or- a small, simple, paperwork only engineering change that has no effect on the fit, form or function of a part.  A Kick-Off Project is generally considered complete once the new part or level is in  production or the special parts have been shipped, which includes receiving PPAP approval from the customer and making sure all tooling has been paid.

Once a company has received PPAP approval for a Part they move into the production phase of a Part.  During the Production phase of a Part the Part-Book also recognizes three different types of Projects:

Production Project Types:

• Regular Production – as the name implies, this signifies a part is in regular, or serial, production.  During this phase most business activities are managed by a company’s ERP/MRP (Enterprise / Material Resource Planning) system; however, the Part-Book does one important thing:  The Part-Book takes actual production results from a company’s ERP/MRP system and makes it possible to compare that to what was quoted and planned – this insight is key to understanding part profit while uncovering underlying risks and opportunities.  
• Quality Issue – when a quality concern or issue has been identified, a Quality Project is created to notify the team; and the Part-Book facilitates completion of the 8D Problem Solving method to contain the suspect parts, determine the root cause of the issue and implement the corrective action.
• Deviation – when things don’t go as planned; a deviation project can be created to track the use of an alternative material, process deviation, delayed delivery, tolerance variation, etc.

     The Part-Book is the ideal Project Management solution for automotive suppliers, because it was built specifically for them, with workflows and project teams to facilitate completion of the different tasks that need to be done for each project type; plus clear visibility of the schedule and financial metrics to help ensure things get done on time and budget.  

The Part-Book comes with our proprietary Project Tracking Matrix™ report.  The Project Tracking Matrix shows every quote, part launch, quality issue and engineering change (project) with a status of “In Process”.  The Project Tracking Matrix is helpful, because it makes it easy for everyone to see what’s open and where things are in the workflow; and management can quickly figure out where additional time, attention or resources may be needed to keep things on schedule.