SAE International Workflow and Asset Management Challenges in a Distributed Organization 2008-01-1279

Increasingly Automotive OEMs and their suppliers find themselves spread across different continents. This in turn gives rise to knowledge, physical assets and key decision makers also being spread across the globe. This poses significant challenges for the companies to effectively manage and keep track of their resources. It is also challenging to work with teams spread across globe and for the team to arrive at intelligent decisions quickly and efficiently. In last few years we have spent significant amount of person hours trying to create systems and Software to help manage Workflow and Assets spread across diverse Geographic and Political areas. This paper intends to discuss some of the key factors involved such as: Keeping Track of Assets in a diverse and distributed Organization Controlling the movement of Assets Implementing workflow Software for change management in a distributed Organization Using workflow Software to manage/approve the movement of Assets Challenges in implementing common Workflow and Asset Management Solution in a global Organization Technology/Infrastru cture Challenges Security Challenges Organization Silos/barriers Cultural Challenges Language Barriers