Data Driven Avanade Issue 1 | Page 9

“Those two weeks are time we treat as being non-existent in terms of our planning schedule,” explains Dirk de Beer. “there’s a four week gap between the Hungarian and Belgian Grand Prix but in practical terms it’s two weeks. That is all we have to work with, and we use our scheduling tools to ensure all the deadlines are met as normal in preparation for the next race and in our 2014 development.” With the design and manufacturing timetable for the following two races met before the Formula One

vacation, the Lotus F1 Team is able to take two weeks off work safe in the knowledge that they are ready for the next race. Normally in F1 if you stand still you go backwards, but, with every team bound by the same restrictions, Avanade’s scheduling tools ensure that the Lotus F1 Team is at no disadvantage and ready to hit the ground running as soon as they clock back in for work. In addition, although the team is prevented from working on its 2013 and 2014 car in the break it is

allowed to do maintenance, so the IT department remains busy. “Three years ago we had four different planning sections of the company and they were not communicating with each other,” explains Patrick Louis. “With the help of Avanade we created one unique tool for the company which ensures all the divisions are linked together and interfaced so that we deliver our new performance parts on time.”

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