Five project management issues that software must solve in the industry

What can software accomplish in engineering projects? What typical project management problems do digital tools have to solve in industry? Which functions are required for this? And how can small and medium-sized companies manage digitalization in this area with relatively few resources? 

The requirements for product development are continuously increasing. This is driven by the growing share of electronics and software components, the high number of product variants, as well as new laws and compliance regulations. All of this inevitably impacts the complexity of engineering projects. Therefore, project management issues, particularly those affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), can no longer be resolved without digital support.

Digital tools for project management are abundant: from Excel spreadsheets and SharePoint to dedicated software solutions. However, SMEs in the industry often encounter limitations with these tools. This becomes apparent when examining five common problems that suppliers face in project management:

It is crucial for the success of industrial projects that everyone involved has access to up-to-date project and product data at any time. Such a data foundation requires software that can be connected to all data sources in the development organization (ERP, CAD, CAx, etc.) via interfaces. Project management tools without integrated data management cannot achieve this.

This leads to various problems. Project participants often work with isolated solutions that are used only in specific departments, locations, or companies. The resulting lack of interfaces forces team members to exchange information manually, for example, through emails or SharePoint.

This approach generates a lot of work. Data must be continually updated, which distracts employees from more important tasks. Additionally, they need to regularly exchange information about the current status of the data. It is also common for data to get lost among the multitude of emails so that it has to be requested manually.

All of this creates delays that negatively impact project progress, costs, productivity, and customer satisfaction.

If project teams do not have access to a consistent data foundation, the risk of misunderstandings during data exchange increases. When product and project data have to be entered manually into documents or spreadsheets, it is only a matter of time before transfer errors occur.

In the industry, such errors can have serious consequences. For instance, a transposition error made by an engineer can affect ordering processes in procurement. Similarly, the design team might develop their designs based on incorrect or unclear product data.

Such mistakes are not just annoying. They jeopardize the success of the project, drive up project costs, and damage the company’s reputation with customers and partners.

In development projects, it is not uncommon for customers to spontaneously change the requirements for a product. This often creates chaos, especially in small and medium-sized companies. To implement these changes, close coordination with the customer’s interdisciplinary teams is essential. Furthermore, suppliers must optimally time their own supply chains and implement changes as quickly as possible.

Both skills require flexible processes and clean data handling. Project managers must be able to plan and implement necessary processes at short notice, even after the project has started. In addition, data statuses must be precisely documented and reconciled between the departments and companies involved.

Otherwise, changes become expensive and time-consuming. For example, today only a few suppliers still use prototype tools. Instead, due to tight project timelines, they immediately move to steel and iron. This approach is faster but creates significant difficulties in the event of changes, which could be avoided through greater flexibility.

Insights gained from a customer project are rarely incorporated into the planning and execution of subsequent orders. This often impacts costs. For example, factors that caused delays in working with customers or partners are not considered when preparing the next quote. As a result, expensive mistakes or misunderstandings frequently occur.

When companies do not systematically document insights and lessons learned – which is not possible with every project management tool – the dependency on individual employees increases. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many experts left their companies due to poor order volumes. This loss of knowledge is particularly difficult for smaller businesses to compensate for in times of skilled labor shortages. In many companies, it still has an impact today.

New laws and regulations bring numerous additional requirements for traditional industries. Many of them are aimed primarily at large companies. These, however, have to pass on specific requirements to their suppliers and partners.

Processes that companies have successfully used for decades no longer work under these circumstances. At the same time, suppliers lack the know-how and resources to adapt to the new conditions. For instance, customers are increasingly demanding that suppliers provide the carbon footprint of the parts they produce. This requires suitable processes and IT systems that companies must integrate alongside their day-to-day operations.

Laws and compliance requirements will continue to change the industry in the coming years. Those who ignore this trend risk losing their customers and, in the worst case, even face legal consequences.

Project management software that is designed to meet the requirements of the industry must be able to solve these problems. If it doesn’t, project planning, management, and controlling will suffer, as will collaboration between project teams and external stakeholders. The results are

• financial losses,
• waste of resources,
• delays,
• unsatisfied customers,
• loss of reputation,
• frustrated employees,
• internal tensions within the project team, and (in worst-case scenarios)
• legal consequences.

Many of the problems described in this article will become more pressing in the next few years. This is due to new laws and compliance requirements, but also the increasing use of new technologies. To address these issues, effective communication, efficient data exchange, integration of project and product data, and a high degree of standardization are essential. For this, you need software that not only offers project management functions but also includes PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) capabilities.

Our software CIM Database Cloud is such a solution. It is a powerful PLM tool that helps companies with product development as well as project management. The project management functions enable you to link schedules, tasks, and documents and support project managers in completing projects on time and budget. The cloud solution also makes it easier to connect globally distributed locations and implement laws and regulations.

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