The Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools
and Forming Technology IWU
Reichenhainer Straße 88
09126 Chemnitz, Germany
Email: info@iwu.fraunhofer.de
“With InLoox, our team can see immediately which tasks of which projects have to be done in which order. This helps to prioritize work and organize it simply and efficiently.”
Sören Scheffler
The Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (IWU) is an organization engaged in research and development. It operates in the field of production technology for the automotive and mechanical engineering sectors. The main focuses of research are the development of intelligent production systems as well as the optimization of their related manufacturing process. In brief, Fraunhofer IWU helps enterprises to plan and launch new products effectively. This requires a solution which streamlines the development processes for individual projects and optimizes resource and task allocation. In order to fulfill these demands, Fraunhofer IWU was looking for an enterprise-proven software solution.
“We have tested different products but after just a few days InLoox proved to be the right solution. We were convinced with the intuitive user interface of the software and its outstanding integration in Microsoft Outlook“, as Sören Scheffler, the group leader from the Fraunhofer IWU recalls the decision process.
Fraunhofer IWU uses InLoox for the efficient planning, team coordination, document management, and progress control of development contracts. “As we always work on several projects at the same time it is very important for us to keep an instant overview”, Sören Scheffler explains. “With InLoox, our team can see immediately which tasks of which projects have to be done in which order. This helps to prioritize work and organize it simply and efficiently.” Also, the project management tool supports the group leaders of the institute during the distribution of new tasks. In addition, the resource planning clearly displays which team member has free capacity and who is overloaded. Group leaders can thus specifically allocate new tasks.
Efficient development of magnesium forming technologies
InLoox organizes all information such as emails and documents of the project, e.g. the development of magnesium forming technologies. In the future lighter body cars will be built with this light alloy. Thanks to the InLoox the minutes of past meetings are always available even during a telephone conversation. Also, InLoox provides a powerful notification feature: project managers and group leaders can be informed about the current status of ongoing projects. Redundant work is drastically reduced, as are reporting and meeting overheads
50 employees of Fraunhofer IWU are using now the project management software InLoox. The two day training course helped them to exploit the full function range of InLoox. That way, the software was ready-to-use within only one week from shipment.