Summary: |
The basic objectives of the CABMaS research project (EC-DG XII, BRITE-EURAM II, CRAFT) had been the definition and the organisation of a computer platform aimed at managing the information flows needed by the various actors involved in the numerous stages of the building process, from the first contact with the client to the final compliance checking. Efforts have been made to produce a set of computerised tools easily manageable by non-IT specialised users, supporting these different processes and managing their associated information.The SME involved in the project has specialised in single-family house production. It was highly concerned with its quality management and already had the ISO 9000 certification. Wishing to further improve the quality of its production process, this SME asked an evaluation of its internal information flows management so that to develop an integrated, coherent computerised solution to improve it.Information flows management was considered by the research team as a significant source of knowledge that could be used by the company to improve its production process. The information had thus to be stored as a dynamic knowledge base, of successful (and unsuccessful) past experiences. This knowledge base consists in an actual management support system, integrating the information coming from the many sub-groups of the SME. Thanks to the structure of the information system, concrete experiences coming from the working-place can be exploited by company's commercials at the early stage of the process to guarantee coherence between the client needs and the enterprise capabilities.The computer platform in its state of development is presently used in the company every day practice. |