Internal technology catalog on Power Apps for an automotive parts manufacturer in Thailand

How the brief came about

The brief for this case was to bring the technologies that internal teams developed for use at each factory into a central catalogue that employees can search themselves. The customer is an automotive parts manufacturer in Thailand with several factories. Each entry in the catalogue had to state how it is used, the problem it solves and the factories that have already adopted it.

When a team at another factory can see the problem, solution, cost, limitations and contact person in one place, it can decide whether to adopt the work and knows whom to talk to. The catalogue therefore serves as a knowledge register of improvement work, covering both items already in actual use and items under development.

Requirements and constraints

The system had to let employees add information themselves and had to run on tools the organisation already uses. The main requirements from the requirements document were as follows.

• Each technology must record the background to the problem, objective, difficulty, cost, production cycle time, limitations, images, attachments and contact person.
• General employees can add and view information, while editing, deleting and announcing are administrator rights.
• New entries must pass an administrator's review before becoming visible to everyone.
• It must be possible to show which factory uses each technology, by process.
• The system must be built on the Microsoft Power Platform the organisation already uses, with data stored in the organisation's SharePoint, so that the customer's team can maintain and modify it themselves.

Why build on Power Apps and SharePoint?

We chose Power Apps and SharePoint because the customer specified that the system must sit on the Microsoft Power Platform the organisation already uses, so that its team could maintain and modify the app themselves after handover. All information is held in the organisation's SharePoint lists, and the administrator notification step is handled with Power Automate.

The step of having an administrator review entries before announcing them helps keep catalogue information in a consistent format, while employees can still add new topics themselves rather than sending them to an administrator to type in.

Deliverables

We delivered the Power Apps app according to the 12 requirement groups, together with the Power Automate administrator notification step and the user manual. The app works as follows.

1. 1

   Register technologies, one topic per sheet

   The developer fills in the Technology Detail Specification page with details such as company and department, process, background to the problem before and after improvement, objective, difficulty, cost, production cycle time, limitations, images, attachments, search keywords and contact person.

2. 2

   Notify the administrator by email

   On submission, Power Automate emails the administrators named on the administrator page. At this stage the new entry is not yet visible to others.

3. 3

   The administrator reviews, adds information and presses Announce

   The administrator checks the accuracy of the submitted information, fills in the parts the administrator is responsible for, such as the map number and development type (Common or Individual), and then presses Announce. Only then does the entry appear on the summary page, search page and maps.

4. 4

   Search and filter

   The Catalog Search page searches by keyword across almost all data fields and offers 8 types of filter, such as category, process, level (Rank), factory, product and status, and immediately shows counts of all entries, entries in actual use and entries under development.

5. 5

   See which factory uses what

   The maps (MAP) cover 3 processes: Productivity improvement, Vision Inspection (inspection with cameras) and Load Unload (robotic pick-and-place of workpieces). They show the technologies and the factories that have adopted them, and map images can be uploaded. Users click a factory name to open the details of that topic. Each topic also has a Rating button and displays its average score.

In addition to the steps above, the app also has these other delivered parts.

• Start page on the customer's SharePoint site: a link button into the app
• Summary page: a list of announced technologies, with the Developer and Expansion Plant columns added at the customer's change request
• Manual and knowledge pages: linked to the manual library in SharePoint
• Administrator page: sets the list of administrators who receive emails and have the right to announce
• User manual, delivered on 3 Sep 2024

How long did this work take, and what steps did it follow?

This work took place in Aug–Sep 2024, from development against the requirements document, through testing and adjustments at the customer's request, to delivery of the manual. The sequence was as follows.

1. Developed the app according to the 12 requirement groups
2. Progress meeting: the customer's team tried the app with general user rights and asked that new entries appear only after an administrator has reviewed them and pressed Announce
3. Adjusted the system at the customer's request, for example adding the Developer and Expansion Plant columns to the summary page, then tested every item and recorded the results in a software test report dated 26 Aug 2024
4. Delivered the user manual on 3 Sep 2024

Confirmed results from testing and delivery

Our test team checked the Tech Catalog system against every item in the 12 requirement groups and recorded this in a software test report dated 26 Aug 2024. The columns added at the customer's change request passed review in the same report. We delivered the user manual, and the project was completed in 2024.

This case has no usage metrics, such as the number of topics registered or the time spent searching, so we report only results backed by documents.

What we learned

This work offers 3 principles for knowledge catalogues to which employees add their own information.

• Agree the registration form's data fields clearly before building other screens, because search, filters, counters and maps all refer to the same set of fields.
• A catalogue that anyone can add to needs named reviewers, and new entries must not appear until a reviewer announces them. In this work, the customer asked to adjust this step after trying the app with general user rights.
• Bring the customer's change requests into the same test round as the main work, so that a single test report covers the whole system. In this work, the columns added at the customer's request passed review in that same test report.

How can you apply this approach in your organisation?

If your organisation has several factories or departments that develop their own improvements, and already uses Microsoft Power Platform and SharePoint, you can use the same approach as this case: a one-topic-per-sheet form, administrator review before announcement, and a search page with filters. What needs adapting is the data fields, the processes in the maps and the list of administrators.

• Check usage rights for Power Apps, Power Automate and SharePoint in the organisation's Microsoft account
• Decide who will administer the system after handover and who will review new entries
• Arrange for reviewers to announce new entries promptly, so that entries are not left waiting so long that registrants stop using the system