Team McLaren Mercedes has selected SAP® software to help optimize the engineering and production operations of its high performance Mercedes-Benz's Formula One engine division, Mercedes-Ilmor. The team is rolling out it.automotive -- a qualified mySAP™ All-in-One solution from itelligence, an SAP business partner -- to integrate all engine design, development, and production data in a single, enterprisewide system and improve collaboration among its project groups. By providing management, engineering, and track-side teams with reliable, real-time information on the lifecycle status and performance of its more than 5,000 engine components, the company aims to achieve best possible performance of each engine and more quickly deploy engineering innovations.
On any given racing weekend across the global circuit, Team McLaren Mercedes runs six engines, each expected to endure 800 kilometers over a strenuous two days of test laps, qualifying rounds, and racing. For Mercedes-Benz, success hinges on quickly making the best decisions about which engine parts to reuse, replace, rebuild, or scrap. In order to exchange engine lifecycle data between the design and production teams and racing crews more quickly and reliably, Mercedes-Ilmor needed to replace the various legacy systems it had accumulated during its 20-year growth from a company of 25 employees to an international organization with a staff of 500. It also needed to ensure integration with Mercedes-Benz's Formula One Technical Team based in Stuttgart.
"Team McLaren Mercedes' success depends on our ability to quickly and consistently develop, assemble and deliver our products from the workshop to the racetrack in the best possible quality," said Martin Whitmarsh, CEO, Formula One, Team McLaren Mercedes. "With itelligence's integrated SAP solution, we will gain more time to act on information, rather than spending time accessing it. With greater transparency and availability of essential information, our project teams are best equipped to bring peak-performance engines and product innovations to the racetrack more quickly, improving the competitive edge for the Team McLaren Mercedes Formula One racing team."
The solution for Mercedes-Ilmor is enhanced with itelligence's tailored applications for automotive and engineering companies and draws on product and project management functionality from mySAP™ Product Lifecycle Management (mySAP PLM).
From development and production in the workshop to testing and delivery at the various race locations around the globe, the mySAP All-in-One solution will provide Mercedes-Ilmor project teams with faster access to a single, integrated data source on the lifecycle of parts for its engines. The entire track record of each component -- test results, production status, and stock and shipment status -- will be accessible in near real-time from anywhere in the world, enabling reliable analyses of cycle time, durability, performance, and need for repair, replacement, or engineering optimization. The software's integration with the company's computer-aided design (CAD) applications will help ensure high availability and consistency of parts lists, CAD drawings, and technical documentation used internally and shared with Team McLaren Mercedes.
Project teams will manage their data and documentation with cProjects, a collaboration tool in mySAP PLM. The tool will enable tighter coordination among the various teams in fitting parts together for each engine, supporting the continual core tasks of race preparation, midterm optimization, and long-term development for the next generation of engines.
The SAP software will maintain master data on part specifications and automatically link bills of materials to capacity planning and back-office financial processes. By mapping its procurement processes to the SAP software, Mercedes-Ilmor will also be able to better shortlist its best-quality suppliers, control costs, and clearly define quality standards and delivery times.
SAP has been a corporate partner of Team McLaren Mercedes since 1997.
