CMII Blog

On Nov 10, 2011 OHB System joined the R2 Initiative as a member to support the reduction of rework.

OHB System AG is a mid-size German space technology company and a subsidiary of the OHB Group. OHB System AG specializes in low-orbit and geostationary small satellites for scientific research, communications and earth observation, leading-edge technologies for manned space flight, models and studies for exploring our solar system as well as reconnaissance satellites and instruments for broadband wireless transmission of reconnaissance image data for greater security and reconnaissance.

For more information: http://www.ohb-system.de

The R2 Initiative has been initiated by GfKM - CMII Europe and partner organizations to focus on the reduction of rework that still exists in most organizations. R2 member companies like OHB System will network to share experiences on how to optimize processes in order to reduce rework.

If your organization would like to join the network simply fill out the registration form.

As of today the course dates for public CMII courses in 2012 have been published. There will be 3 series in the German language in Stuttgart and Hamburg, GERMANY and 5 series in the English language in the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Sweden.

Course schedule for courses in French, Spanish and Italian to be anounced soon.

For the latest schedule visit http://www.gfkm.de.

On October 24, 2011 - Delphi signed the enrollment form to become a member of the R2 Initiative to reduce rework. Delphi is using CMII principles globally since years and has reduced corrective action a lot. The R2 initiative is very proud to have Delphi on board to share experience on how to reduce rework with other R2 initiative members.

Delphi is a leading global supplier of electronics and technologies for automotive, commercial vehicle and other market segments. Operating major technical centers, manufacturing sites and customer support facilities in 30 countries, Delphi delivers real-world innovations that make products smarter and safer as well as more powerful and efficient.

Connect to innovation at www.delphi.com

On October 26, 2011 - Oracle signed the enrollment form to become R2 Specialist in order to support the R2 initiative and to help organizations with reduction of rework using Agile PLM solutions.

Oracle's Agile product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions enable companies to accelerate product innovation and maximize product profitability by managing the information, processes, and decisions about products throughout their lifecycles and across the global product network. With a broad suite of enterprise-class PLM applications and time-to-value focused implementations that are, built on a proven track record of delivering value and enabling best practices across more than 1,300 global companies, Agile applications provide the broadest and most comprehensive end-to-end PLM solutions in the industry.

For more information: http://www.oracle.com

For more information on the R2 Initiatiative to reduce rework go to the R2 web site at http://www.r2initiative.org.

On September 2011 Eurocopter decided to join the R2 Initiative as a member to support reducing rework. Eurocopter is the leading helicopter manufacturer in the world. For more information on R2 and other members see the R2 webpages.

Great things spread fast - in August 2011 three organizations signed membership of the R2 Initiative to support the reduction of rework.

RUAG is the center of excellence for military and civil aviation with headquarters in Emmen, Switzerland.

Autoneum, formerly known as Rieter Automotive, specializes in acoustic and heat management solutions for the automotive industry and is headquartered in Winterthur, Switzerland.

In addition to those 2 new members DataSquare signed up as a member of the network of R2 Specialists with experience in PLM consulting and Aras Innovator software tool knowledge.

The R2 Initiative is looking forward to welcome additional members in September 2011. It is planned to have a first initial members meeting when there are 10 or more member companies.

To follow todays trends Course CMII-01 will be offered online as eLearning version by the Institute of Configuration Management (ICM). This will simplify your entrance into the CMII certification series enormously. This online course will become available in September 2011. Course language is the English language. Availability of other CMII Courses as Online version has not been defined yet.

Get your budget today and register online. Fee for this online course is USD 750. If you would like to get an invoice in Euros let us know via email: info(at)gfkm.de or call GfKM at +49 711 49097 530.

The Lean Advancement Initiative (LAI) at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has published a very interesting white paper about a similar topic to the R2 Initiative: "Waste in Lean Product Development".

They call it "Waste" - at R2 we call it "Rework".

Reading this whitepaper provides a concise overview of the most important waste drivers in product development, that is, the most common project deficiencies that lead to cost and schedule overrun, as well as to performance issues. It will enable those involved in process improvement initiatives to include specific lean-related factors into their process analysis. It provides both managers and engineers with a common language and concepts to enhance the efficiency of their product development projects.

The white paper can be downloaded here free of charge. Other publications of the LAI can be downloaded here.

Many thanks to LAI for allowing us to reference the white paper on the R2 web page.

Effective today, Marenco Swiss Helicopter signed the R2 Membership enrollment form as  R2 Champion to support the R2 Initiative. Marenco is the first organization world-wide that will support the R2 Initiative.

Marenco is looking forward to network with other organizations that are going to become members of the initiative soon. Marenco is a swiss-based startup company designing and building the next generation of helicopters. More information about the company can be found here.

The Program for our Main Conference Days Sep 27+28, 2011 is now online!

Thanks to all the excellent submissions. We are confident, that the selected themes and speakers will contribute bringing the Conference to an unforgettable event!

If you need a printed version of the program or PDF flyers for exposing or spreading this event to friends, colleagues, bosses etc. please send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with the number of flyers needed.

Please register online to get the early bird special until July 31, 2011.

The online registration process for the CMII Europe 2011 conference in Stuttgart has started today. This is your chance to save money by registering now in order to get the early bird rate. It is as simple as filling out the online registration form.

The following activities are planned for the conference week:

• Mon Sep 26, 2011: Pre conference with CMII Tutorial for CMII prospects
• Tue & Wed Sep 27 - 28, 2011: Main conference with with Get Together Tuesday evening
• Thu and Fri Sep 29 - 30, 2011: CMII-09 (CMII Refresher Course for CMII grads) or PCM-02 (Practical CM Planning)

In the last days and weeks we did receive many responses from possible speaker candidates. Several have send-in their topic already - many thanks for it. Others will deliver their topic in the next few days. We will then evaluate all submission forms received and compile the official program in the next weeks. Hopefully you'll be as curious as we are to get interesting presentations from employees of the following companies (preliminary list with possible candidates - subject to change):

• Airbus
• ADSE
• AIT
• Aegor
• Bentley Systems
• Delphi
• NedTrain
• Software Engineering Institute
• Robert Bosch
• ESA
• Eurocopter
• Ericsson
• Siemens PLM
• Marenco Swiss Helicopter
• Roche Diagnostics
• Porsche
• Baxter Healthcare
• Ethicon Endo-Surgery
• Insitu
• Thales Rail Signaling
• INTECSEA
• ...

Looks like all important industries will be represented (Aerospace, Automotive, Rail, Medical, Communication, Software and IT).

Named "CMII NG (Next Generation)" we did an online survey asking our customers about input for improving CMII trainings. The survey was published during March and April 2011 and ended with the drawing of one iPad.

... and the winner is: Joerg Begau. The pictures below were taken during the drawing by our neighbor kid - many thanks to Kyran.

A summary of the online survey results can be downloaded from the GfKM web page.

The online survey on "CMII Next Generation" has been ended. We received feedback and inputs from 137 customers - thanks to all that participated. 

We are going to analyze all inputs in the next days and will publish a summary in the first week of May. 

The drawing of one iPad will also be in the first week of May - everything is still open, no winner has been elected yet ;-)

On March 31, 2011 the first 3 individuals received CMIIA (CMII Advanced) certification in Europe. The CMIIA certification is based on CMIIC (CMII Comprehensive) certification and is awarded after successful participation in courses CMII-07 and CMII-08. More information on CMII certification levels can be found here.

The picture shows CMII grads from the following organizations plus the trainer Guido Weischedel: HDW - Howaltswerke Deutsche Werft, Giesecke & Devrient and Airbus CIMPA.

For continuus improvement of CMII courses GfKM - CMII Europe needs your valued input. It would be of great help if you could take 5 minutes and participate at our online survey about "CMII Next Generation".

On April 23, 2011 we will give away one iPad 1 with 16 GB to one of all participants of the survey. If you would like to win an iPad and give us your input to the next generation of CMII - this is your chance.

To start the survey click here.

Managementforum Medizintechnik - Praktische Leitfäden für zukunftsorientierte Prozesse am 14. April 2011 in Nürnberg und am 10. Mai 2011 in Düsseldorf.

Die Kunden der Initiatoren Oracle PLM, Unity AG, Dentronic Group und GfKM - CMII Europe berichten in Ihren Fallstudien über Lösungsansätze aus den Bereichen der Produktionssysteme, KVP im regulatorischen Umfeld, Anforderungs-/ Konfigurationsmanagement und Informationsdurchgängigkeit bei der Entwicklung von Diagnoseplattformen, Produktentstehungsprozess von der Idee bis zur Marktreife und das dafür erforderliche Innovations- und Entwicklungsmanagement.

Weitere Details und die Online-Anmeldung sind hier zu finden:

http://oracle-marketing.com/medizintechnik

Want to share your experience regarding Requirements Management, Configuration Management and/or Product Change Management?

Want to share your experience regarding PLM/ALM and how it relates to CM?

Want to share your experience using principles of the CMII Standard for process improvement?

Want to share your experience in reducing corrective action?

If you would like to speak at the CMII Europe 2011 in Stuttgart you should send in your abstract until May 13, 2011.

More information is available in the Call for Speakers flyer. For submission use the Submission form.

More information available at http://www.cmconference.com.

INGOLSTADT, GERMANY — Delphi Automotive is one of the five companies to be selected by the prestigious Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT) to receive its 2010 "Successful Practice Award" for targeted and efficient technology management. The award was created in 2005 by the IPT — an arm of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft — the largest organization for applied research in Europe, and was presented during a ceremony held on February 16 in Ingolstadt, Germany.

The "Successful Practice Award" recognizes companies with demonstrated and validated best-in-class global practices. Selection criteria from the Fraunhofer IPT included clear structure in technology management and consistent processes to identify new technologies as well as pro-active and consequent IP-management and recognition process for new innovations.

Following the site visit, Delphi was commended for its strong and visible vision, its clear portfolio focus on safe, green, and connected product technologies, the strong connection across its technology management processes, and its leadership-led process for employee recognition.

"It’s clear that Delphi took the opportunity to remake itself during the company’s recent restructuring process " said Toni Drescher, group leader of technology management for Fraunhofer IPT, following the Delphi site visit. "They have clearly demonstrated the ability to sustain these practices over time"

Delphi is one of the largest CMII users in the world. To download the full press release go to http://www.gfkm.de.

With the term "R² Initiative" GfKM CMII Europe – Center of Expertise for Cost Avoidance – is starting the year 2011 with an initiative for cost avoidance thru reducing the re-work/corrective actions in businesses.

In the opinion of business experts the crisis is over and businesses will be profitable again in 2011, this is the good news. But are we equipping ourselves for the next crisis?

"Larger turnover, higher market share, amalgamations, innovations" are the typical business goals for the coming years, which themselves partly depend on the market and therefore lie beyond our sphere of influence.

With this R² Initiative, GfKM is going in another direction with its customers: More profit and business stability by cost avoidance with the aim of "efficiency improvement by process improvement".

For more information on this unique initiative and to download your personal copy of the R² White Paper (English Issue or German Issue) with step by step instructions go to the GfKM web site at http://www.gfkm.de.

We had to change our course numbering scheme because we do offer practical CM courses (PCM) in addition to our CMII certification courses. Effective today the following rules apply to all our CM Courses in Europe::

CMII-nn = CMII Certification Courses with nn = course numbers 01 - 16 (formerly Courses I - XVI)

PCM-nn = PCM Courses with nn = course numbers 01 - 03

Here you'll find an overview of all courses offered by GfKM - CMII Europe and its partners.

Close to the end of every year is the perfect time to look back and summarize the year ending. We at GfKM - CMII Europe have been very busy with lots of activities in 2010.

For networking and social media we organized 1 CMII Europe Conference (http://www.cmconference.com) and established 1 internet platform (http://www.cmii-network.com).

In 2010 6 individuals received CMII Professional certification.

For marketing we did speak about CMII on 4 Webinars and 5 Conferences and did send 11 mailings with actual information for our prospects and customers.

We did organize 16 onsite courses and together with our partners 52 public courses.

86 individuals got CMII certified.

111 individuals attended the CMII Europe conference in Amsterdam.

On 125 days we did consult and coach our customers with the implementation and automation of CMII.

In total our partners and us had 592 course attendees in 2010.

Thank you all for your ongoing support. We all look forward into an even more successful year 2011.