Case Study: General Motors achieves reduced after-hours lab visits and improved engineer efficiency with BlackBerry

Major Auto Manufacturer Develops BlackBerry App to Help Improve Engineer Efficiency in Battery Systems Lab

General Motors’ Global Battery Systems Lab, which tests lithium‑ion batteries for GM vehicles, faced a costly around‑the‑clock monitoring challenge: expensive prototypes can be damaged by temperature or voltage faults, and engineering leads had to be constantly on call and sometimes travel onsite at odd hours to investigate alarms. This created operational strain and risk to high‑value prototypes.

Two lab engineers built LABerry, a custom BlackBerry app using GM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server and support from RIM’s Corporate Developer Program, that links to the lab’s monitoring software to deliver an overview, dashboard, near‑real‑time test data and graphical views on smartphones. The app—secure and integrated with the corporate directory—lets engineers address many alerts remotely, nearly eliminating off‑hours trips, speeding responses and improving overall efficiency; the team is now exploring a tablet version.

General Motors

Tony Modafferi

Engineering Group Manager