Successful completion of the agileKMU research project - The small PLM for SMEs

The agileKMU research project was successfully completed at the end of 2022. It involved the development of a collaboration platform for the agile and distributed design of production systems. The platform enables seamless collaboration. It enables companies to react methodically to changing (customer) requirements and to integrate stakeholders into the planning process.

The research project started with an analysis of available open source and commercial project management software. In parallel, the requirements for the platform were defined together with the partner companies. The combination of both results enables a targeted selection of project management software. Furthermore, the design of the production system was broken down into working steps to make it available as a template.

The development of the agile cooperation concept, the workflow management, the data provision functionality and the visualisation concept formed the central core of the research project. The technical implementation of the platform is based on Microsoft 365. The methodological framework for the design of the agile production system is an adapted SCRUM framework with a Kanban board and a project management dashboard. Workflow is managed via the Kanban board and knowledge management in the form of a wiki. The task-oriented data provision links the relevant data with the Kanban board and thus provides up-to-date information. The visualisation concept includes a process model for the development of visualisations in VR or AR for the design of production systems.

We would like to thank all project participants for the good and constructive cooperation. Special thanks go to the members of the project monitoring committee as well as to the sponsor for their support during the project.