Acknowledgement: The following case study is taken verbatim from

https://www.theprojectgroup.com/blog/en/integrated-project-management-case-study/
(Full Credit is attributed to this source)

Integrated Project Management Solution for Automotive Supplier (Case Study)

Precision Engineering Company Alfmeier Präzision SE Completes Complex

Projects on Time and on Budget
“Precision engineering company Alfmeier Präzision SE refers to the tiny components it makes with the
inspiring phrase: “Small things set large ones in motion”. Starting with small steps, a change of system
supporting its project management organization has also moved the company forward, making it more efficient
and competitive. A key component of the enterprise project management solution is the bidirectional data
synchronization between SAP and Microsoft Project, making cost and resource planning simpler and more
accurate”.

A Quick Overview of this Customer Story

“The Company: Alfmeier Präzision SE is a global manufacturer of precision system solutions using
valves, actuators, pumps, and controllers. Based in Treuchtlingen (Germany) and with a global workforce of
about 2,000 employees world-wide, its core competencies include plastic technology, electronics,
mechatronics, fluid technology and industrial solutions. Alfmeier is a leading supplier to the automotive
industry as well as medical technology and other sectors”.

“The Challenge: The company’s project managers were all using a mix of different project management
solutions, including a variety of Microsoft Office applications. If a manager wanted an overview of project
costs, he or she had to ask each project manager individually. This made cost and resource planning, as well as
scheduling and reporting, difficult and time consuming”.

“The Solution: The project management solution is based on Microsoft Project Server, which TPG has
customized with over 100 user-defined fields. As SAP is a central business solution at Alfmeier, the
company has also implemented TPG PSLink to synchronize information between the project management
and ERP systems. TPG ProjectLink is used for multi-level scheduling in the case of large-scale components
with multiple sub-projects”.

“The Benefits: All aspects of project planning – including scheduling, resource planning, actual and planned
costs, reporting and more – are significantly faster and more efficient since the company has been using the
enterprise project management solution. It has saved time and money through across-the-board project
visibility and accelerated reporting, while facilitating the firms’ capacity to complete even complex
projects on time and on budget”.

Detailed Description of the Case:

The Company Alfmeier Präzision

SE
“Alfmeier Präzision SE is a global high-tech company serving the automotive and other industries. With about
2000 employees worldwide, it is a recognized specialist in plastic injection molding and fluid systems as well
as electronics, mechatronics and car seat solutions. The Fluid Systems business unit develops intelligent
solutions for applications such as fuel supply, servo assistance, flap control, crank case ventilation as well as
thermal management. The Seat Comfort division focuses on a range of advanced solutions for car seats that
adapt to the anatomy of the vehicle’s
occupants. The company is headquartered in Treuchtlingen (Germany) and has subsidiaries in the USA,
Mexico, Czech Republic, China and Korea”.

Patchwork of Different Tools

“With the implementation of SAP PS and other tools for project planning, the precision engineering company
ended up using a plethora of different systems. Each project manager had their own preference, so if
management wanted to know how a specific project – or even the overall project cost – was progressing, they
had to ask each project
manager individually. This was a particularly complex undertaking in Alfmeier’s case as the company operates
in multiple different countries. Project managers would request and create projects in SAP PS, while
documents produced by the teams during the course of the project work were in other formats, such as Word
and Excel – particularly for cost estimates, proposal approvals and change requests”.

“The staff entered their timesheet information in SAP and managers produced reports in Excel, PowerPoint,
Access and Word as well as APIS and QlikView. This made it challenging to consolidate all the information as
a basis for planning and decision-making. As each project manager was using his or her preferred planning and
scheduling tool, there was no quick way to review the teams’ schedules and ensure optimal staff resource
utilization”.

Centralize and Streamline Project

Planning

“Erich Taube, Head of Project Management Office (PMO) at Alfmeier Präzision SE, headed up a team
tasked with finding a suitable solution for streamlining and standardizing project planning processes. With our
fairly intensive use of Microsoft Office products, we thought Microsoft Project Server would be the best fit, so
we set about looking for potential partners,” says Erich Taube.

“What really clinched it for TPG was their PSLink product for bidirectional data synchronization between SAP
and
Microsoft Project Server, along with their ability to customize Microsoft Project Server to our
needs.”

“Meeting specialists from The Project Group (TPG), Erich Taube and his team were impressed by their
experience and their quick grasp of the project management situation at Alfmeier. The team drew up a matrix
comparing the offerings of the various providers, and TPG came out clearly on top”.

“But what really clinched it for TPG was their PSLink product for bidirectional data synchronization between
SAP and Microsoft Project Server, along with their ability to customize Microsoft Project Server to our
needs,” adds Taube.

Customized Functionality

“The first step was for everyone involved to get round a table and define the project’s specifications and goals.
This was followed by the implementation of a test system to run alongside the production system on both the
Microsoft Project and SAP sides. The two teams worked together to implement over 100 user-defined fields in
Microsoft Project, mainly SAP-related. Alfmeier staff ran a sample project through the systems to test both
sides, including the planning process as well as schedules and costs”.

“TPG was then tasked with developing a custom function for Alfmeier’s project managers. “We
wanted a profitability indicator, updated in real time, to enable project managers to see at a glance how
profitable their projects were,” comments Erich Taube. That way, project staff could work with their familiar
tool without needing any expertise in the use of SAP. TPG developed the custom feature and implemented it
together with the rest of the system. On the Alfmeier side, Erich Taube and his team facilitated user acceptance
by organizing multiple training courses”.

“We’re really pleased with the new EPM system, as it standardizes the entire planning procedure. We’ve set
up a project cockpit that enables us to see the status of every project at the click of a mouse.”

They also designated individuals in the PMO who could intervene immediately in case of any problems in the
field. In addition, the team supports several power users in the local offices who are able to help their
colleagues quickly when queries arise”.

Result: Production System Running

Well
“The production system has been running smoothly since May 2016 and supports all new projects. Although
the previous system is still being used to support some older projects, it will gradually be retired once these
projects are completed. Erich Taube believes this stage will be reached by the end of 2017. “We’re really
pleased with the new Microsoft PPM system, as it standardizes the entire planning procedure. We’ve set up a
project cockpit that enables us to see the status of every project at the click of a mouse,” he says.
“The bidirectional synchronization between Microsoft Project and SAP, based on TPG PSLink, is also running
satisfactorily. It sends project information, WBS elements, actual hours and planned costs from Microsoft
Project to SAP; and actual costs, profitability information and resource updates from SAP to Microsoft
Project. TPG ProjectLink is used for multi-level scheduling. As a Microsoft Project Server extension, this
product enables cross- project links. These are used for large-scale components handled in a master plan and
several sub-plans. The master plan contains the requirements which the sub-project managers have to observe.
The information from the sub- plans is reported back to the masterplan”.

Benefits of the New Solution

“The solution’s main benefit to our business is clearly better and more efficient planning, which in turn helps
us ensure we complete our projects on time and on budget,” notes Erich Taube.

“We also save a lot of time on reporting, as we no longer need to ask each project manager individually to
produce a report – we simply roll them all up together as everyone’s using the same system.”

“These reports compare actual costs, profitability information and completed milestones. They also visualize
the differences between target and actual values with a traffic light display. The PMO also has more visibility
into the workloads of project managers and teams, another factor that contributes to better planning”.

“We also save a lot of time on reporting, as we no longer need to ask each project manager individually to
produce a report – we simply roll them all up together as everyone’s using the same system.”

“Alfmeier has about 100 projects in the new system, of which approximately 60 are running in parallel.
Around 80%
of the projects comprise 300-350
tasks”.

“The larger ones can have up to 1000 tasks, so the new enterprise project management solution is essential to
help
us ensure these complex projects are completed efficiently from a cost and resourcing point of view,” adds
Taube.

Next Steps

“Erich Taube and his team are expanding usage of the project management system to more users –
there are currently around 35 people using Microsoft Project Client and 150 using Project Web App – while
increasing the number of projects running on the system”.

“We’ve started with fairly small steps to ensure we got things right before extending it to a large group of
users,”
concludes Erich Taube. “As we say at Alfmeier, it’s small things that set large ones in
motion!”

Assignment task

Write a report on the above case study that addresses the following issues; and carry out research on
project management practice and discuss the ethical implication. In your report, you must use the
headings given in Table 1. We encourage you to use 5- 10 key peer reviewed sources for your analysis (a
combination of journals, conference papers, website links or any other reliable source to support your
analysis).
Table 1: Report headings with description and marks distribution

Heading Description
1. Executive Include executive summary providing a succinct
Summary overview of the case, issues and your analysis
of the case
2. Key issues Explain the key issues described in the case.
In your opinion, why do you believe these issues
need to be resolved? Review it from a business
risk management perspective
3. Leadership Explain the leadership characteristics that Erich
characteristics Taube exhibited in the case. Use
relevant examples from the case in your
analysis
4. Project Success Explain the key factors that led to this project
success.
What benefits were achieved by implementing
the new solution
5. Ethical issues As a project manager what PMI ethical values
does Erich Taube need to adopt to build
reputation to his team and his
organization
6. References List all references and give in-text referencing
5 using IEEE referencing style.