Automotive SPICE Toolchain Replaces Excel Matrices

The Client

As an automotive supplier, I.G.Bauerhin GmbH is one of the global market leaders in the development and production of electric seat heating systems. The product range also includes steering wheel heatings, sensors for seat occupancy detection, components for air-conditioned seats and electronic control units.

As an internationally operating company, I.G.Bauerhin employs more than 4,000 people worldwide. With leading-edge technology, the medium-sized, owner-managed company has earned a reputation for outstanding products and services and is represented in many products of the premium vehicle brands.

Initial Situation and Challenge

I.G.Bauerhin was faced with the task of defining Automotive Spice processes in its Electronics Development Department (EEW) and implementing these processes in a further step.

In order to meet the required requirements, compliance matrices in Excel format were used. However, the tables became too complex. In some cases, Excel could no longer capture the complexity and the overview got lost. The high amount of work – setting up Excel within several weeks and then laboriously maintaining it – was no longer in proportion to the benefits.

To get this problem under control, several approaches and tools were evaluated.

itemis ANALYZE Integrates the Whole Toolchain Compliant with Automotive SPICE

In the course of the evaluation, itemis ANALYZE proved to be the best solution.

itemis ANALYZE provided the most important arguments with regard to its extensive process support, in this specific case for Automotive SPICE. The mapping of the process enabled the requirements manager to trace the requirements into the modeling and source code while considering different software versions. It was also possible to analyze new and revised versions of OEM requirements specifications much faster than before.

By means of itemis ANALYZE all, even lightweight engineering tools could be connected. The necessary coupling of itemis ANALYZE to EasyRedmine was produced by itemis in a very short time. Working with the tool chain, which was very well integrated by this method, turned out to be more efficient than the simultaneously evaluated approach of integrating the data into a large requirements management tool.

Implementation and Customer Advantage

All in all, itemis ANALYZE undisputedly offered the best price-performance ratio for I.G.Bauerhin’s project. In addition, the tool integration and analysis features enabled the company to exploit additional optimization potentials in the organization of the development process.