CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
12 April 2007
Implementation Investments
MKS Integrity and SAP: Linking Software and Production Processes at Continental Automotive Systems
MKS Inc. and its partner ILC PROSTEP announced that they have provided Continental Automotive Systems with an integration between MKS's application lifecycle management platform, MKS Integrity and mySAP PLM (Product Lifecycle Management). This integration enables a vital process link connecting software engineering to production planning and control, allowing project managers to automate and monitor the flow of process from development to production.
MKS and ILC PROSTEP have integrated Continental Automotive Systems's software engineering workflows, housed in MKS Integrity -- the company's corporate standard for application lifecycle management -- with production planning and control processes housed in mySAP PLM.
On demand, mySAP PLM generates development requests and transfers them to MKS Integrity which releases the completed module for testing or production. Process automation has removed the need for manual deployment of software releases, and enabled complete visibility into projects for Continental team leaders, allowing the organization to plan more effectively and utilize resources more efficiently.
The MKS-SAP-integration was developed using SAP NetWeaver and has been certified under the 'POWERED BY NetWeaver Program.'
"ILC PROSTEP brought to this integration effort a depth of experience with software engineering processes in embedded systems and the automotive sector coupled with SAP integration competence. Together we were able to provide a solution that would address the complexity of Continental Automotive Systems," says Holger Schmiedefeldt, Director Business Development, MKS GMBh"
"By linking MKS Integrity with mySAP PLM we have an integrated automated process now from the software development to the production planning and controlling. We gain time savings, security and transparency," says Dr. Thomas Knapp, Manager Software Tools und Verification Competence Center Control Systems Software, Continental Automotive Systems. "This integration allows us to save significant time in the approval and release process, and our next step will be to share the planning data in mySAP PLM with MKS Integrity, and extend the integration to link MKS Integrity's requirements management capabilities with mySAP PLM."
With systems, components, and engineering services for intelligent automotive safety, comfort, chassis, powertrain performance as well as embedded telematics and hands-free communication systems, Continental Automotive Systems has secured itself a top position as a reliable partner of all major car manufacturers worldwide. Automotive Systems is a division of the Continental Corporation, a leading automotive supplier of brake systems, chassis components, powertrain controls, vehicle electronics, tires, as well as technical elastomers. In 2006 the corporation realized sales of approximately Euros 14.9 billion. At present it has a worldwide workforce of around 85,000.
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