Boosting Automotive Engineering Processes: A Technical Manager’s Guide to KanBo’s CAD Process and Method Platform

As the business world evolves, large enterprises are finding it increasingly difficult to coordinate their various teams, departments, and external stakeholders. This is where KanBo comes in – a work coordination platform that has been specifically designed to meet the needs of large enterprises.

At the heart of KanBo’s appeal lies its focus on both on-premises and cloud-based installations. This means that companies of all sizes and types can benefit from its unique features. From streamlining project management to fostering collaboration and problem-solving, KanBo has it all.

And for businesses in the automotive industry, KanBo is especially valuable. The Technical Manager – CAD Process and Methods, in particular, can benefit from the platform’s ability to define and develop CAD processes, methods, and tools. This provides strategic leadership in improving virtual capabilities, enabling effective CAD data exchange between VW brands, and ultimately improving engineering processes.

KanBo’s Whole Vehicle Systems team is also a crucial part of the platform’s appeal, providing a single source of truth through integrated engineering product data. With a focus on driving improvements based on the latest digital technologies and the requirements of processes, KanBo empowers teams to deliver the best value.

One of KanBo’s standout features is its emphasis on communication. With effective communication between internal and external business partners in areas of expertise, the platform delivers streamlined project management and problem-solving.

In short, KanBo is the go-to work coordination platform for large enterprises, providing a wide range of features that streamline workflows, foster collaboration, and solve complex problems. For businesses in the automotive industry, KanBo is particularly valuable, offering a strategic approach to CAD processes, methods, and tools, and improving virtual capabilities through effective communication.

Monday:

Start your week by logging into KanBo and creating a new workspace for your CAD Process and Methods project. Invite all relevant team members to the workspace and assign them to their respective roles. Create a board for each task you need to complete this week and assign each board to the appropriate team member.

Tuesday:

Today, focus on streamlining your CAD process by using KanBo’s card features. Create a card for each design and assign team members to review and make necessary changes. Use KanBo’s checklists to ensure that all necessary components are included in the design. Also, use KanBo’s timeline view to visualize the progress of each design.

Wednesday:

Use KanBo’s document management features to store all CAD files for easy access by the team. Create a document folder for each project and assign each folder to the appropriate team member. Use KanBo’s document versioning feature to easily track changes made to each file and ensure that everyone is working on the latest version.

Thursday:

Collaborate with team members using KanBo’s collaboration features. Use comments and @mentions to communicate and assign tasks to team members. Use KanBo’s email integration feature to send emails to KanBo cards or boards, making it easy to stay in sync with team members who are not actively using the platform.

Friday:

End your week by reviewing your progress using KanBo’s dashboard and report features. Use the data to identify areas where you can improve your process and make necessary adjustments. Finally, close out any completed tasks and plan for the upcoming week using KanBo’s scheduling features.

Yes, KanBo is much more than just a tool for communication. While communication is an essential aspect of collaborative work, there are many more features in KanBo designed to help teams work together more effectively.

KanBo workspaces and spaces help to organize work into different areas and enable teams to collaborate on projects and tasks, set priorities, and assign responsibilities. Multiple document sources in spaces allow for seamless integration with external systems and increases the accessibility of important information.

KanBo cards provide a structured way to manage tasks and projects and enable teams to assign people to cards, schedule them, add card elements, notes, checklists, and define card statuses and blockers. Card templates also make it easy to standardize processes and ensure everyone on the team is working to the same standards.

KanBo offers many views of work, including kanban view, list view, table (spreadsheet) view, calendar view, Gantt chart, timeline view, activity view, and document view. These views help to visualize work in different ways, making it easier for teams to understand progress, plan, and collaborate effectively.

KanBo also has powerful resource management capabilities that enable teams to assign resources, track utilization, and manage availability. This helps teams to effectively allocate resources across projects and ensure that work is always moving forward.

In summary, KanBo is much more than a communication tool. It is a comprehensive work coordination platform that enables teams to work together more effectively, manage work more efficiently, and deliver better results.

Q&A

1. Q: What is KanBo?

A: KanBo is a work coordination platform specifically designed to meet the needs of large enterprises. It streamlines project management, fosters collaboration, and solves complex problems for businesses of all sizes and types.

2. Q: Why is KanBo valuable for businesses in the automotive industry?

A: KanBo is particularly valuable for businesses in the automotive industry because it offers a strategic approach to CAD processes, methods, and tools, and improves virtual capabilities through effective communication. Its Whole Vehicle Systems team provides a single source of truth for integrated engineering product data, driving improvements based on the latest digital technologies and the requirements of processes.

3. Q: What features does KanBo offer for project management?

A: KanBo offers a range of features for effective project management, including board creation, card features for design reviews, checklists for component inclusion, timeline views for progress visualization, document management for easy access to CAD files, collaboration tools for communication and task assignment, email integration for syncing with team members not actively using the platform, and dashboard and report features for progress monitoring and process improvement.

Use Case: How to Use KanBo to Improve Communication in Automotive Industry

As a Technical Manager in the Automotive Industry, your daily workload involves managing different tasks, teams, and stakeholders within the CAD processes, methods, and tools. One of the challenges you face is the difficulty of keeping track of all the information and communication that takes place in the various areas of expertise. That’s where KanBo comes in.

KanBo provides a simple way to improve communication and collaboration between teams working in different areas of expertise. One of the most useful features to improve communication is KanBo’s Incoming Email functionality. This feature allows you to send emails to a KanBo board or card, so the contents of that email can become a new card or added to an existing card.

Here’s how you can use Microsoft Office skills with KanBo to improve communication and collaboration in the Automotive Industry:

Sending Emails to KanBo Board or Card:

1. Create an email address: To start using this feature, you need to create an email address. Go to the board menu by pressing the more button (three dots). Select Settings, then choose Incoming emails. Press on Add, and enter a custom or auto-generated them. Choose a template and click Add.

2. Send an email to the board: Copy the board email address to the clipboard and send an email. Go to board menu by pressing more button (three dots), select Get email address, and copy the board email address. After you send the email, wait for five minutes or the time set by your administrator for Incoming Emails.

3. Add extra information: In the subject line of your email, you can add extra information like #labelname to create a label to the new card. Use @mentions like @Name Surname or @Surname of user to assign users to the card.

Incoming Emails in Card:

1. Enter the card: To send emails to the KanBo card, enter the card you want to add information to.

2. Get email address: Press more button (three dots), select Get email address to get the Card email address.

3. Send email to Card: Copy the card email address and send an email to that address. The contents of that email will be added to that specific card.

Tips & Tricks:

1. Incoming emails won’t work when there is no list in the board.

2. If your email address comes under spam attack, change your public/private address and inform all the people who need to know.

3. You can set up some additional spam filter rules on your Exchange/Office 365.

4. You could also add a rule to delete all emails that are older than 48h to keep the KanBo incoming mailbox clean.

In conclusion, KanBo provides a straightforward solution for improving communication between teams working in different areas of expertise in the Automotive Industry. By using Microsoft Office skills, you can easily integrate Incoming Emails into your workflow, streamlining communication, and improving collaboration. Try out KanBo’s Incoming Email functionality today to see how it can improve productivity and efficiency in your work.