Using Pro­ject Manage­ment Soft­ware for Effi­ci­ent Race Car Development

Pro­fes­sio­nal work during your studies

KA-Race­Ing is a renown uni­ver­si­ty group at the Karls­ru­he Insti­tu­te of Tech­no­lo­gy (KIT). Every year, around 85 dedi­ca­ted stu­dents deve­lop and pro­du­ce a new racing car to take part in For­mu­la Stu­dent, one of the world’s lar­gest design com­pe­ti­ti­ons. They are sup­port­ed by around 850 alum­ni, who are the­re to advi­se them with their valuable knowledge.

Rennwagen KA-RaceIng

Chall­enge: Orga­ni­zing Capa­ci­ties and Team Members

In the past, KA-Race­Ing has repea­ted­ly faced chal­lenges in orga­ni­zing capa­ci­ties and team mem­bers. The­se chal­lenges were tack­led by intro­du­cing the PLANTA Pro­ject and PLANTA pul­se pro­ject manage­ment soft­ware solutions.

Pro­ject Manage­ment Soft­ware Replaces Excel Sheets 

At the begin­ning of the sea­son, KA-Race­Ing uses PLANTA Project, to plan the upco­ming tasks, appoint­ments and the agen­da and to get a good over­view. This pro­vi­des them with a com­pre­hen­si­ve over­view of all pro­ject steps. In the cour­se of the sea­son, the tasks are then plan­ned in depth using PLANTA pul­se. For exam­p­le, team mem­bers and tasks can be mana­ged effi­ci­ent­ly during events such as the roll­out of the new racing car. Befo­re the intro­duc­tion of PLANTA, KA-Race­Ing used Excel spreadsheets. Howe­ver, they did not offer the neces­sa­ry func­tions for effi­ci­ent pro­ject management.

Advan­ta­ges of PLANTA Pro­ject and PLANTA pulse

PLANTA Project is pri­ma­ri­ly used by the team lea­ders, while PLANTA pul­se is used by all per­sons invol­ved to plan sprints or to prepa­re lar­ger events. 

PLANTA Project allows the team lea­ders to find out at the begin­ning of the sea­son at which point of the pro­cess pro­blems may ari­se at a later point in time. This means that cri­ti­cal paths can be avo­ided from the begin­ning. 

Howe­ver, PLANTA pul­se also plays an important role. It pro­vi­des a good over­view of the tasks and work of the indi­vi­du­al team mem­bers, but also of the team as a who­le. This agi­li­ty helps the mem­bers of KA-Race­Ing enorm­ously, for it means that they can always react in good time and adapt their pro­ces­ses. They can do all of this from their smart­phones while they are working on the race car and don’t have a PC to hand. The PLANTA soft­ware offers KA-Race­Ing a good over­all packa­ge that sup­ports them in the stressful plan­ning and design pro­cess. They alre­a­dy have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with pro­fes­sio­nal soft­ware during their stu­dies — as will be the case later in their careers.

Logo KA-RaceIng

Using PLANTA sin­ce 2022

Bene­fits of the Soft­ware Intro­duc­tion 

The intro­duc­tion of the PLANTA soft­ware solu­ti­on at KA-Race­Ing has pro­ven to be high­ly advan­ta­ge­ous. Accor­ding to KA-Race­Ing, the fol­lo­wing aspects have been par­ti­cu­lar­ly con­vin­cing: 

  • Quicker solu­ti­ons for orga­niza­tio­nal pro­blems 
  • Sim­pli­fied and more effi­ci­ent pro­ject plan­ning and exe­cu­ti­on 
  • Sche­du­ling 

“[…] That’s why PLANTA is gre­at for us, becau­se it sim­pli­fies many things and offers us quicker solu­ti­ons for such orga­niza­tio­nal pro­blems.” 

sandelmann karaceing bei af24

Jonas San­del­mann, gene­ral mana­ger at KA-RaceIng