Panasonic Automotive Uses Tasktop Hub to Operationalize New Traceability Requirements in Less Than 30 Days

Overview

Panasonic Automotive Systems Europe GmbH provides sales, marketing and engineering operations to the automotive industry. From entertainment systems to
green energy solutions, Panasonic’s advanced technology and expertise expands the possibilities of future car development. An indispensable partner to European automotive manufacturers, Panasonic provides the industry with both systems and components that improve safety, energy efficiency and connectivity.

Since 2017, Panasonic has been using Tasktop to comply with the more stringent regulations required for automotive components like electric vehicle chargers. Tasktop helps provide automated traceability from requirements to code — within Panasonic’s internal systems and with its OEM customers.

“Thanks to Tasktop, we have become much more flexible in how we manage our toolchain. We know we can rely on Tasktop when we need quick integrations between our tools and with our clients’ systems.”

- Michael Zey, Head of IT Tooling Panasonic Automotive Systems Europe

A Rapid Response to New Regulatory Requirements

Panasonic has been providing advanced technology solutions to the automotive industry for many decades, ranging from car infotainment and navigation systems to audio and display systems and rearview cameras. However, when they began a project to supply electric vehicle chargers to one of Europe’s largest automotive manufacturers, regulatory compliance requirements changed overnight.

“The solution we had in place for traceability could not meet the new requirements,” says Michael Zey, the Head of IT Tooling. “We were given 30 days to identify and implement a new and better traceability solution for ASPICE compliance.”

Michael’s team set out to procure a new solution and operationalize it within a single month. Within this condensed time frame, they evaluated many vendors. Knowing the requirements were new and likely to change over time, Panasonic preferred a solution that met the known use case but was also expansive and flexible. Tasktop met the bill and its superior support for IBM DOORS and Atlassian Jira tipped the scales further in its favor. Shortly after, Tasktop was deployed in production. “This was the first tool implementation project where we were actually ahead of schedule,” says Michael.

“This was the first tool implementation project where we were actually ahead of schedule.”

- Michael Zey, Head of IT Tooling, Panasonic Automotive Systems Europe

Tracing Requirements to Code Across Company Boundaries

At Panasonic, requirements are authored and managed in IBM DOORS and the implementation work is tracked in Atlassian Jira. Tasktop synchronizes data between the two systems in near real-time, embedding cross-referenced hyperlinks in related artifacts. Changes and status updates in one system appear automatically on its related artifact in the other system, which makes accurate status and traceability reporting possible.

In addition, thanks to Tasktop, planning information from Panasonic’s OEM customers flows directly from the OEM’s Jira instance into Panasonic’s DOORS for cross-organizational traceability and improved collaboration.

Panasonic now use Tasktop for an additional OEM and have seven unique integrations running seamlessly in the background as the technologists do their work. The solution benefits project leads, system engineering and software development, who have all come to rely on the automated synchronization and traceability Tasktop provides. “We strive to be an essential partner to European automotive manufacturers and in turn, have high expectations of our own vendor partnerships. In Tasktop, we have found a partner to replace several manual operations and in-house tools with a single robust and reliable traceability solution,” says Michael.

“We strive to be an essential partner to European automotive manufacturers and in turn, have high expectations of our own vendor partnerships. In Tasktop, we have found a partner to replace several manual operations and in-house tools with a single robust and reliable traceability solution.”

- Michael Zey, Head of IT Tooling, Panasonic Automotive Systems Europe

Working with Tasktop since the initial smooth deployment and over three years of stable operations has continued to be a pleasure. “Tasktop’s experienced team is always quick to respond when we reach out and offers rapid and effective support. Tasktop understands our business and use case really well,” says Michael.