Magazine Article | April 1, 1998

Toolkit Helps Boeing Build A Workflow Application For Submitting Design Changes To Space Shuttles

For many of Dade Behring's customers, next-day delivery is not good enough. The $1.3 billion laboratory instrument manufacturer often has to ensure same-day delivery. Integrating technologies with its new SAP system helps Dade Behring deliver the goods on time.

Business Solutions, April 1998
Written by: Nancy Senger
High-speed, global information networks, relational databases, the Internet and corporate intranets - today's technologies present exciting opportunities for enterprise-wide sharing and management of information. Yet they present challenges, too. To stay competitive, organizations must communicate, collaborate and coordinate work across organizational boundaries more quickly and efficiently than ever before.

Solution Needed To Meet All Needs
Meeting these challenges requires more than ordinary workflow and imaging systems. It requires a single, open and complete workflow and document management solution that gives an organization everything it needs to integrate diverse hardware platforms, operating environments, database engines, operating systems, and business processes that span organizational boundaries.

EDM Manages Over 200 Suppliers
For example, the Space Systems Division (SSD) of Boeing North America has improved productivity by implementing a workflow and document management system that manages the more than 200 suppliers of services and parts for the space shuttle.

Boeing's initial workflow application streamlines, controls, and reports on proposed engineering design change proposals (EDCP) in the NASA Space Shuttle Orbiter program. The EDCP review and communication process affects design changes submitted for approval for suppliers outside the program. This project is managed by the United Space Alliance (USA). The Space Systems Division is also expanding its efforts to improve productivity. The Division will be introducing a correspondence control application that will allow the electronic routing and notification of documents.

Workflow Used For Approval Process
To initiate a workflow, vendors propose contract changes to the SSD. These changes could involve many aspects of space shuttle production, such as materials or delivery dates. The proposed change is then catalogued and, based on its importance, is allocated to an approval cycle.

The requirements SSD compiled for the vendor of choice included an easy-to-use, rapid, graphical workflow builder; Web-enabled workflow status reporting; multiple platform support; and the ability to deploy other automated business applications.

Product Deploys Workflow Quickly
Step2000 was selected as the division standard because it allows Boeing's IT staff to quickly create and deploy reliable workflow applications. Step2000 supplies SSD with the tools to seek out and improve the efficiency of key business processes throughout the division. Step2000 is a product from Universal Document Management Systems, Inc. Of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Step2000 features a suite of integrated software components that guide the user, step-by-step through the application building process. The Workflow Builder provides the tools needed to design customized workflow applications. The Database Connector provides access to an unlimited number of databases. The Application Builder enables developers to customize user interface screens and commands and also allows developers to quickly customize the Application Templates that are included with the Step2000 product. Together, these modules enable developers to build complete solutions that make rapid development and a fast response to ongoing maintenance a reality.