Client: The BMW Group Challenge: Provide a common, secure enterprisewide platform to share testing data on new vehicle electronics in development. Solution: Test cases and test results are captured and managed in a standardized fashion using a solution called Quality Center by HP. They are equally available for all relevant participants of the engineering process. Results: Automatic exchange of data for divisions like sales and accounting is widely established along the entire logistics chain, from suppliers of motor vehicle components to the forwarding agent to the motor vehicle manufacturer. A large portion of the business process is performed digitally. Related Information Learn about CSC's automotive and manufacturing expertise. Read Renault Sharpens Global IT Focus: a CSC case study. Contact us and let our experience help you produce results.

As the world's finest automakers vie to keep their products on the cutting edge, the design and production of new vehicles is becoming increasingly complex.

Modern vehicles feature everything from computer-driven safety equipment to high-end audio and video systems to hands-free communications and navigational devices. Today, a driver of a typical premium car operates technology more sophisticated than that aboard the Apollo spacecraft, which put the first men on the moon.

Manufacturers now turn to IT service providers to design and perform test management procedures for motor vehicle electronics. The extensive testing fuels the continued development of the latest gadgetry while helping to slow growing warranty costs of good tech going bad beyond the showroom. For this, the BMW Group turned to CSC.

Aligning automotive IT with business IT
Today, CSC is helping BMW better define its vehicle IT processes. Since 2004, CSC has been a strategic partner to the Munich-based automotive group, developing ways to drive the car business from a business IT perspective.

"BMW is not an easy customer," says Heiko Morgenweck, CSC's account executive for BMW. "They want only the best solutions. CSC's culture of experience and innovation fits their needs precisely."

One challenge BMW faces is managing and sharing data on all of the new vehicles in development across the enterprise. A common IT platform was crucial to sharing test results automatically and securely. All partners involved in delivering the highest quality in products and services throughout the engineering process needed to be networked within a flexible platform.

"BMW wants to have leading-edge electronics in their cars, but managing the complexity of those is challenging," Morgenweck says. "Warranty costs are also a critical business impact for electronics in the car.

"This project is an important part of a program which BMW started several years before, in order to save several hundred million euros per year in the electric/electronic environment and improve quality," he adds.

CSC led the change management on how to test vehicle electronics. This included testing parts received from outside vendors before they were incorporated into the product lifecycle.

"Already in the early phases, CSC, with great commitment and competency, assumed typical BMW core product development management responsibilities, ensuring a timely program launch despite tight IT capacities," says Erich Henkel, a BMW program manager.

Building ultimate driving machines
CSC conceptualized new functions for testing electronic components, which helped the BMW Group efficiently involve its suppliers in the development of new vehicles.

Test cases and test results are captured and managed in a standardized fashion using a solution called Quality Center by HP. They are equally available for all relevant participants of the engineering process.

Automatic exchange of data for divisions like sales and accounting is widely established along the entire logistics chain, from suppliers of motor vehicle components to the forwarding agent to the motor vehicle manufacturer. A large portion of the business process is done digitally in the background of employed Enterprise Resource Planning systems by CSC. Manual effort is minimal.

Now it is possible to devise tests more efficiently across company boundaries. While the supplier concentrates on the functionality of the individual control device, the motor vehicle manufacturer can pay more attention to the coordinating of relevant electronic components. Both parties know the interpretation of the implemented requirements through an exchange of test cases and test results. Misinterpretations are thus prevented earlier.

The testing supports the supplier in further development of its own products and helps the BMW Group interpret the degree of maturity of supplied development items more quickly. Both parties thereby have a chance to get ready for production components faster and more efficiently.

"With the new test system, the same test management procedure is applied in all vehicle sectors like chassis, interior, carriage and engine," says Waldemar Gerlach, CSC's head of industry, trade and logistic systems in Germany. "An important advantage is the platform uses the standard format XML, which allows the test management process to be performed independently of the system and without transfer of media."