Discuss about the Project Management Methodologies for Evaluation and Continuous Improvement.
A continual improvement process, often referred to as a continuous improvement process can be defined as those sets of continuous efforts made by project teams and manager that are directed towards the further development of the services and products to be delivered to the client at the completion of the project, or towards the enhancement of the processes that are being utilized for conducting the project (Barnett et al. 2016).
The primary objective of this essay is to present a continuous improvement plan to be used in a engineering and construction project. A short discussion would be made on the background of the project, so as to provide the audience of the paper with a clear context of the essay. In the next step, references to some continuous improvement theories, as reflected in existing literary works, would be made. This particular section would be followed by the description of the continuous improvement plan proposed for the project. Last but not the least, a concluding section of the essay would be presented, the section being aimed at comprehending the findings presented in the paper.
Background of the study: Defense Housing Australia or the DHA owns the property located at the 35 – 51 Queen Victoria Street Fremantle. The Toyota group held the possession of the said site previously: hence the site is also known as the Toyota Fremantle site.
The higher authorities of the Defense Housing Australia are currently aimed towards earning significant amount of revenue from their prized possession: they have expressed their interests in developing a residential complex in the said region. The tender released for the construction of the said complex indicate that the DHA authorities are aimed at developing apartments for residential accommodations, while the ground levels of these apartments would be sold out as commercial or retail suites: the approximate area of such commercial sections being 13,000 to 15,000 square meters. Besides this, the tender documents also mentions the fact that the DHA aims to retain at least 60 ( which is approximately one third of the total residential apartments being constructed) so as to accommodate their service personnel: the remaining apartment and commercial areas would be sold out in the open market.
The said documents also indicate that the apartment units having three, two and one bedrooms require to be constructed, along with parking region for private cars in the basement region. On the other, the architectural designs of the apartments have to be developed in a manner which ensures all commercial suites to have their frontage on the Queen Victoria Street.
Review of literature. Experts Drost and Chaney (2014) are of the opinion that continuous improvement processes ensure incremental enhancement of processes or products, which are considered to be much more effective than that of breakthrough improvement processes aimed at bringing about drastic changes, all at one go. The authors have also cited the reason behind their opinion: the efficiency and flexibility of continuous improvement methods are much effective at providing customized solutions than that of breakthrough improvement processes, as the concerns and the issues raised by the customers can be addressed to when enhancements are included in incremental fashion.
Researchers Kumar and Mittal (2015) are of the opinion that every business organization, irrespective of the domain they function in must incorporate simple strategies (or processes) that could be utilized in steadily enhancing their work processes, thus meeting the external and internal needs of the business in a better manner. The authors identify the ‘simple processes’ to be the following: planning an activity, performing the activity, studying the results of the activity and acting according to the said results (Duffuaa and Raouf 2015).
Researchers Eaidgah et al. (2016) have commented that the ‘planning’ phases is perhaps the most important part of the continuous improvement process: organizations require to identify the work process that need to be improved to meet their business (or project) goal in a better manner. As for example, organizations aimed at expanding their target market need to concentrate on market domains and the demography of the customers whom they should target so as to fulfill the said expansion plan (Owen 2013) .
However, the task of acting upon the plans designed and developed in the first stage is an equally important part of the continuous improvement process. Researchers Dunbar and Sawa (2013) are of the opinion that the while well developed and well documented improvement plans are capable of pin pointing the strategies, activities and actions that can be utilized in bringing about incremental enhancements of work processes or products, it is the successful completion of the ‘activity stage’ which determines the effectiveness of the continuous improvement process.
The third phase of the said process is associated with the evaluation of the activities performed in stage one and two: researchers Kaupp and Frank (2015) are of the opinion that studying the changes incorporated in the system (due to the actions performed in stage1) provides a valid evaluation of the said actions (along with the plan that identified it). The authors have utilized an example for supporting their comments: an organization that is aimed at improving the safety levels in the manufacturing units requires study the impact of the continuous improvement plan being used to do so. Exerts Kaplan and Atkinson (2015) have commented that an enhancement in the safety levels of the factory would indicate a successful implementation of the plan: whereas a decrease (or no alteration) in the safety level would indicate that the said plan has been ineffective.
Once an evaluation of the initial improvement plans and that of the actions taken for implementing it has been conducted, it is needless to say that the issues or problems identified by the evolutionary study needs to be worked upon. According to April and Abran (2012), in case the results of the actions taken are found to be favorable for the organization (or project) in consideration, the very same plan can be continued to be put in to use. On the other hand, in case the implementation of the said plans is found to have generated unfavorable results for the organization in concern, a revision of the said plans becomes essential (Dessinger and Moseley 2015) .
Authors Carver and Klein (2013) have pointed out the factors that are essential for the successful implementation of continuous improvement plans, a full fledged commitment of the higher management being the first and foremost criteria. Next in line lies the fact that all employees of the organization ( or the entire project team in case a project is being considered) should be provided with the opportunity of sharing the opinion about the processes that need to be changed and the manner in which these processes can be changed for better. The authors have also mentioned the fact that employees or project team members participating in the improvement plan requires to be made aware of their roles and responsibilities in the said process: besides which the authors advocate the utilization of proper management methodologies for overseeing the performance and the contribution of the employees in the said process.
On the other hand, researchers Ulhassan et al. (2015) consider the incorporation of well strategized and well documented communicational plans within an organizational infrastructure (or a project team) is essential for the successful implementation of a well drafted continuous improvement plan. The authors have also emphasized on the fact that providing the employees with appropriate skills trainings sessions also increases the chances of the improvement plan being successfully implemented.
Along with the above mentioned factors, the incorporation of the standardized quality assessment systems and efficient performance measurement systems are also considered to be essential for the effective utilization of continuous improvement plans (Kamal, Williams and Liddle 2014).
Proposing a continuous improvement plan. This section of the essay is aimed at developing a continuous improvement plan for the project aimed at developing the residential apartments (and the commercial sites) at the 35 – 51 Queen Victoria Street Fremantle, in a accordance to the plans provided in the DHA tender. Since the project is still in the initial stage, the primary objective of the continuous improvement plan would be to decide on strategies and actions that would be essential for the success of the project. Thus, the very first activity that needs to be performed requires the project management team to research on the factors that have led to the success or failure of similar projects: the entire effort being aimed at documenting the “to do” and “not to do” lists of the project. Besides this, the research work should also unveil the current trends in similar projects, along with the issues and problems that teams handling similar project have experienced. The team requires to emphasize in the lessons that can be learnt from such projects, besides making an assessment of the current status of the project.
The participation of all members of the project team in identifying the processes that need to be improved, along with the other changes that might be incorporated in the project, would put an end to the planning phase.
The plans developed in stage one needs to be acted up on in stage 2: and appropriate evaluation metrics should be utilized in this stage to measure the efficiency of the plans being acted upon. In case the plans being used are found to be less effective than what expected, a change management process need to be conducted, including the identification of the changes that need to be included, their successful implementation, managing the process of incorporating the change and including the change in a sustainable manner.
It is needless to say that the changes being incorporates would require further evaluation: thus resulting in a cyclic process.
Expected benefits of the continuous improvement plan. The discussions made in the sections above indicate that a wide range of management techniques and processes are used so as to ensure the systematic implementation of continuous improvement plan. Needless to say all these efforts are aimed at reaping the benefits available from such processes. Authors Jurburg et al. (2015) have made an attempt of enlisting the most remarkable benefits of using a continuous improvement plan within an organization: the fact, that the improvement of the business process eventually lead to an increase in the financial profit of the organization in concern, tops their list. The other organizational benefits include improvement in the levels of client satisfaction, along with the increased job satisfaction of the employees leading to high staff morale (Hutchins 2012) . Authors Yang, Lee and Cheng (2016) have pointed out the fact that one of the very primary benefits of implementing continuous improvement plans is that the communication strategies utilized for inter organization processes also improve the communications with the other stakeholders associated with the project, thus resulting in the enhancement of the relationship that currently exists among them. Last but not the least, researchers Boltić et al. (20116) point out the fact that the incorporation of the said plan would also result in effective planning and utilization of resources available for the resources.
In the light of the discussions made in the paper, it can thus be concluded that the incorporation of a simple continuous improvement plan consisting of a “plan-do-check-act” routine would be extremely beneficial to the DHA project in consideration, both in terms of financial gains and quality of products developed. The mangers of the project are thus being recommended to take the advantage of the plan depicted in the paper and utilize it in an optimized manner.
References
April, A. and Abran, A., 2012. Software maintenance management: evaluation and continuous improvement (Vol. 67). John Wiley & Sons.
Barnett, M., Carter, R., Murray, R. and Tiep, B., 2016. Long Term Management Of COPD Via A Clinical Guidance System: 14 Years Of A Continuous Improvement Model. In C66.’WALK THIS WAY’-UPDATE ON EXERCISE TESTS AND PULMONARY REHABILITATION (pp. A5729-A5729). American Thoracic Society.
Boltić, Z., Jovanović, M., Petrović, S., Božanić, V. and Mihajlović, M., 2016. Continuous improvement concepts as a link between quality assurance and implementation of cleaner production: Case study in the generic pharmaceutical industry. Chemical Industry and Chemical Engineering Quarterly, (00), pp.19-19.
Carver, C.L. and Klein, C.S., 2013. Action Research: A Tool for Promoting Faculty Development and Continuous Improvement in Leadership Preparation. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation,8(2), pp.162-177.
Dessinger, J.C. and Moseley, J.L., 2015. Confirmative evaluation: Practical strategies for valuing continuous improvement. John Wiley & Sons.
Drost, D. and Chaney, J., 2014. Core Course Outcomes Assessment and Program Continuous Improvement Using an Integrative Business Plan –an Empirical Evaluation. Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, 28.
Duffuaa, S.O. and Raouf, A., 2015. Maintenance System Performance, Productivity, and Continuous Improvement. In Planning and Control of Maintenance Systems (pp. 281-310). Springer International Publishing.
Dunbar, M. and Sawa, M., 2013, January. Use of Benchmarking to Identify Areas for Continuous Improvement among ABET-accredited Occupational Safety and Health Educational Programs. In ASSE Professional Development Conference and Exposition. American Society of Safety Engineers.
Eaidgah Torghabehi, Y., Maki, A.A., Kurczewski, K. and Abdekhodaee, A., 2016. Visual management, performance management and continuous improvement: a lean manufacturing approach. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma, 7(2).
Hutchins, M.D., 2012. Hoshin Kanri: the strategic approach to continuous improvement. Gower Publishing, Ltd..
Jurburg, D., Viles, E., Jaca, C. and Tanco, M., 2015. Why are companies still struggling to reach higher continuous improvement maturity levels? Empirical evidence from high performance companies. The TQM Journal,27(3), pp.316-327.
Kamal, S.Z., Williams, J. and Liddle, J., 2014, April. Continuous Improvement of Assets Through Existing and New Digital Oilfield Technology. In SPE Intelligent Energy Conference & Exhibition. Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Kaplan, R.S. and Atkinson, A.A., 2015. Advanced management accounting. PHI Learning.
Kaupp, J. and Frank, B., 2015. Approaching the Loop: A Brief Review of Effective Practises in Continuous Program Improvement. Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association.
Kumar, A. and Mittal, V., 2015. Minimizing the Rejection of Lever Combination Switch by removing the problem of Erratic continuity in Assembly line using Continuous Improvement Process.
Owen, M., 2013. SPC and continuous improvement. Springer Science & Business Media.
Ulhassan, W., von Thiele Schwarz, U., Westerlund, H., Sandahl, C. and Thor, J., 2015. How Visual Management for Continuous Improvement Might Guide and Affect Hospital Staff: A Case Study. Quality Management in Healthcare, 24(4), pp.222-228.
Yang, Y., Lee, P.K. and Cheng, T.C.E., 2016. Continuous improvement competence, employee creativity, and new service development performance: A frontline employee perspective. International Journal of Production Economics, 171, pp.275-288.
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