SharePoint system transforms manufacturing collaboration at BorgWarner

Sandra Short, director of ERP systems for BorgWarner, explains that the systems, which is powered by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, is all about improving global collaboration across 60 internal locations, and with outside partners. "Our old intranet required employees to retrieve information from up to 50 different sites that differed in look, function and content. It was a static environment with information that was inconsistent, redundant and often outdated," she says. "Our goal was to create a platform that drove collaboration, not just archived information. SharePoint Server enabled us to speed the process of design, workflow and collaboration, bring products to market faster, and reduce steps in engineering, development and manufacturing processes." This is not just about design collaboration. Short says BorgWarner implemented its new intranet, dubbed ICE (Information Collaboration Environment) to provide decision-makers, buyers, marketers, engineers, researchers and accountants with accurate, up-to-date information across its global offices. Similarly, BorgWarner's extranet (ExtraICE) gives suppliers and partners a single portal through which they can gather company information, supplier manuals and performance scorecards. Short says that BorgWarner's geographically dispersed management teams are now communicating with consistent data, and that the company has found ways to improve its service and reduce costs. "With SharePoint Server, the intranet has taken on a whole new level of importance at BorgWarner," she says. "By putting the power of ICE into the hands of our staff, we're seeing people in every functional area finding innovative ways to use the technology on a regular basis." She gives the example of BorgWarner's noise, vibration and harshness group, which now provides engineers globally with results from tests, via the SharePoint Server-powered site, as soon as they become available. In another ICE application, the BorgWarner Morse TEC Engineering Processes Team re-engineered its worldwide ESO (engineering sign-off) process, using online workflow processes for document approval, with scheduling and calendaring to coordinate meetings across time zones, while automatically enforcing version control. Equally, on its manufacturing floor, one BorgWarner plant improved the manual process of tracking defective materials by launching an ICE site that alerted its quality manager whenever materials were found to be defective. Another location facilitated lean manufacturing by using webcams to allow a vendor to manage its inventory through the extranet.