Transportation SOFTWARE SMARTS Planning a space mission is a complicated matrix of KBSI-developed software is also in use by a major people, hardware, and flight objectives. Knowledge Based American automotive company. With KBSI expert Systems Inc. (KBSI) of College Station, Texas, designed systems in place, the auto maker applied the tools to project management software that allows NASA project design car air conditioning and cooling systems. managers to script activities for the Space Shuttle. The Founded in 1988, KBSI’s initial mission was forward work was funded through a Johnson Space Center Small thinking: to advance the state of the art by developing Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract. The Mid- creative solutions for a wide range of critical problems Continent Regional Technology Transfer Center also faced by government, academic, and industrial communi- helped KBSI locate federal funding to later commercialize ties. The company has since evolved to set commercial the software, permitting it to move from demonstration and defense industry standards for the development and level into production. support of modeling, and analysis tools and methods. In commercializing the NASA-funded product, KBSI KBSI’s software products may be used as stand-alone was then afforded the opportunity to further modify the tools, or to automatically share information with a software, making it an add-on to a popular process growing list of other software vendors. Company custom- modeling and simulation software. ers include Lucent Technologies, Comprehensive Tech- The software’s analytical tools give users a way to nologies International, the Chrysler Corporation, and a gauge the impact of scheduling, monitoring, and manag- slate of government agencies. ing subcontractors and suppliers. Cost variances in The credo for Knowledge Based Systems Inc. is projects can be predicted and detected. Additionally, the direct. Take control of how you do and what you do. accuracy and consistency of cost estimates are improved. Prepare contingency plans for when the real world waylays Certainly an invaluable virtue of the KBSI software is your best-laid plans. Manage risk by doing business better, understanding relationships between people, tasks, and faster, and smarter. In the end, KBSI’s software promises costs related to a project. By capturing lessons learned, the its user that you can plan today for tomorrow’s success. software grows in value over time. One early software success story involves a multibillion-dollar service provider. The company needed its new-hire process redesigned. A previous procedure took seven weeks to place a new employee on the job. That resulted in long cycle times, poor-quality products, and unhappy customers. Using KBSI’s planning software, the key issues brought about by redesigning the company’s new-hire process could be mapped out, step by step. How best to execute the redesigned procedures and the appropriate cost models to enact those steps were established. Results were immediate. The new-hire process virtually elimi- nated processing errors, reducing system requirements by ninety percent. Once implemented, the company started to enjoy an entirely redesigned new-hire process—one that has a fresh employee processed and placed in just one day. In another instance, for a consortium of major U.S. semiconductor manufacturers, the software developer provided computer tools to model, design, and optimize manufacturing processes. An advanced system to capture KBSI’s project management software, allows you expert knowledge for design-to-cost analyses was also to translate process models into project charts, developed. and project charts back into process models. Commercial Benefits—Spinoffs 61