Drupal is a powerful application framework that integrates content, business logic, e-commerce and service connections to other applications. Even for industry use cases Drupal can be "the tool" to improve business processes of any kind. Due to its high flexibility regarding application development and integration with other software systems, it delivers unique possibilities for integrated web applications.

What?

Our client is situated in the manufacturing industry of individual foam packaging systems with mostly clients form the automotive industry. For instance they create individual foam packaging inlays for tools.
The challenge was

• to build an online 2D CNC configurator with best possible usability
• to seamless integrate with the existing ERP / manufacturing IT landscape
• to connect a shape recognition software and a mobile scanner app
• to prepare the online constructor for mobile devices
• to keep the system flexible for further requirements
• to rock a project that already failed twice with other technology and other vendors

As the construction process is rather complex and the customer is mostly new to software projects, the challenge was also to discover all detailed requirements to deliver a system that aligns exactly to the needs of the customer.

How

We convinced the customer that Drupal is the right tool to cover all his requirements. In a first prototype we have proven the understanding of his requirements from a technical as well as from a business point of view.
In this case study we will show for instance how we used the Rules, Views, Services, WSClient and ECK modules to cover all requirements and integrate custom code natively with Drupal.
I will also discuss the project management methods which we used to deliver an agile project at a fixed price.

Why?

Our client decided to build a web application with an online configurator to

• let their customers construct and order their individual foam packaging products 24/7 in the browser
• let customers scan individual tool shapes with a mobile app and use these shapes directly in the online configurator
• automate ordering and manufacturing processes
• save time and costs for construction up to 75%
• let the software do the construction quality assurance

Who

The team at the customer consists of

• their CEO doing the overall project controlling
• a separate non technical project manager
• other stakeholders added for certain sprints

I will show our 6 person team setup consisting of Drupal developers, themers, business analysts and how we managed the project with a distributed team and a local client.

When

The project had a strict timeline of only 6 months including testing. It was delivered for a fixed price with agile project management. Changes and flexibility where managed strictly to keep this fixed price for each iteration.

Results

We realized again that

• Drupal is powerful enough to meet real needs in the industry and win the race with other closed systems
• Drupal is an unique system to save time in application development by configuration instead of custom development
• Drupal's connectivity to other systems is amazing
• Use less but flexible Drupal standard modules instead of niche modules with specialized functionality to decrease complexity
• Detailed analysis of all requirements are a must have to succeed in a agile fixed price project