Robust Plastics

Robust Plastics - Modern Project Management in Industry

Robust Plastics is a production company specializing in high-quality plastic products and is part of the Robust Industries Group, which currently has 1,500 employees at four locations in Austria and in Central and Eastern Europe. Robust Plastics is predominantly active in the automotive, packaging, electronics, and recycling industries, and depending on the industry requirements it covers all the services in the value chain, from product and tool development to the actual production.

As a supplier to the automotive industry, Robust Plastics produces injection-molded parts for renowned brands like Audi, Volkswagen, BMW, and Mercedes. The development and design of the tools required to produce the injection-molded parts are just as important as the manufacture of the plastics parts itself.

Project Management in the Tool Production

Each year, Robust Plastics develops about 150 such tools, and the corresponding production processes are handled and processed as separate projects. The project up until production includes the quotation submission and the development and design of the tools. Each project is concluded when the actual production starts (i.e., production of the injection-molded part). The project duration is generally between three and nine months.

In order to limit the coordination effort resulting from such a large number of simultaneous project activities, modern project management tools are needed among other things. In this context, Robust Plastics decided to use ProjectNetWorld®. This state-of-the-art software is web-based, can be deployed with no installation expense and with relatively little training expense, and is fully scalable regarding the number of projects, project employees, and the use of modules. It offers a central, easy-to-use user interface, which – as a result of the Software-as-a-Service (Saas) principle – can be accessed from anywhere and at any time.

This is a decisive advantage especially for the multi-location projects of Robust Plastics, because all project-relevant information, such as the different in-house standards of the customers, can be centrally stored and continually updated. This ensures that each project employee has the same level of information, which makes the communication flow within the project work much easier and significantly increases the efficiency of the work processes. In addition, important project information (such as design or material standards, plans, etc.) can also be provided to the project customers.

Because ProjectNetWorld® has a modular design, the software can be adapted to any particular project requirements – for example, in the case of Robust Plastics, new form interfaces and also a project-internal discussion forum will soon be activated to make it easier to coordinate project-specific processes between project management, project employees, and customers.

Summary

Wherever employees must be brought together regarding place, time, or organization, creating a central platform that records, combines, and provides project-related information in a clear form is indispensable. This makes it possible to represent complex processes and information flows and to optimize them within the project work. With the help of ProjectNetWorld®, these conditions are created: the software can be rapidly deployed, is easy to use, and can be easily adapted according to the project and company requirements. If you are interested in a free trial, please register at https://enw.projectnetworld.com.