Program Critique Assignment: A Case Study On Panama Canal Expansion In Texas State

Project benefits management

The goal of the program is to expand the Panama Canal in Texas State. The benefits of the program can only be achieved by suitable benefits identification, analysis, planning, delivery, transition and sustainability (Adams Joseph, Aaron Davidson, 2012). The benefit management provides a suitable way of preparing Texas land and sea for the Panama Canal expansion in water infrastructural project.

Program benefits identification-Benefits of the program were identified by having meetings with stakeholder working group that involved sharing of ideas. Some of the benefits identified and discussed through the program included: The expansion is expected to dramatically open up and boost East and Gulf coast container trading, connecting the pacific and Atlantic oceans. Other benefits were to increase consumer options, getting a wider maritime service, and enhancing suitable supply chain maritime logistics reliability (Adams Joseph, Aaron Davidson, 2012).

Program benefits analysis and planning- the analysis and planning of the program included teams identifying the key deliverables to achieve the intended goal. The analysis of the benefits involves making a comparison of what the program is going to achieve with program goals. The Panama stakeholder working group settled on creating a pacific access channel that will expand trade to wider regions and markets, improving navigation channels linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and improvement of a water way that will increase maritime service and make maritime logistics reliable. Another planning done is on the basis of infrastructure planning by ensuring linkages from other mode of transports. The benefit of it is to allow easier inland and land transport that enhances cargo transportation and avoid congestions (Texas transport institute, 2014). Achievement of the three specific deliverables would lead to achievement of the desired program benefits.

Program benefit delivery-It involves process and activities that would be performed to achieve program benefits (Bryde, Broquetas & Volm , 2013). Program management team will need to set a suitable delivery method that will ensure program deliverables are met (Heagney, 2016). The program delivery would consist of constructing new set of locks on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the water way, creating a 3^rd way traffic and doubling cargo capacity of water way. In addition it involved improving water supply by developing 70 feet wider and 18 fronts that will recycle water basins (Walter. Armstrong & Wallance , 2001). The water will be reliable in recycle process and 60% of it will be used for transit.

Program benefits transition- After delivery of the program it is expected that outputs would be generated from the transition process (Lock, 2014). There are several activities that will be done to provide transition from deliverables to outputs. From the transition the project is expected to have increased water way capacity which has enabled meeting the demand of maritime trade using larger vessels. The project delivery has enabled to enjoy economies of scale, and new set locks have increased cargo capacity along the water way. Higher returns will be expected from the project achievement of economies of scale.

Project benefit sustainability- The expansion of Panama Canal is expected to be beneficial by enhancing long term strategic positions to several routes. The program ensures that environment sustainability is achieved by having water recycling process and ensuring water is used for transit purposes. Provide economic benefits options to clients from several transition routes and channels from affordable cost structure for services offered (Bello, 2016).

Program stakeholder management

Stakeholders are important component of any program management they provide information needs in which projects will need to be managed. The stakeholders represent those directly or indirectly influence/or not influenced by the project (PMI., 2013). The Panama Canal expansion program identified a number of stakeholders represented in a group known as Panama stakeholder working group.  Stakeholder identification: the stakeholders the following summarized in table 1.

Table 1 Stakeholder summary

No.	Stakeholder/representation	Role
A	Harris county representative	Provide state opinions and expectations of project deliverables
B	Union pacific representative	They will provide ideas on matters related to Pacific
C	Office of Governor reps	Provide compliances of how the project will need to be executed and mplemented
D	Texas motor transport association	Consultancy on motor transport metrics
E	Texas oil and gas association	Guidance in relation to oil and gas management. &safety
F	Texas port association	Provide compliance matters on port management
G	Port authority advisory committee	Guidance on port management and approvals on matters related to the ports
H	Program sponsor	They will be key in providing support and approvals to various activities
I	Metro political planning org	Represent client expectations of the program
J	Regional mobile activities org	Provide ideas of future expectations of the program

Stakeholder engagement planning- It is a critical part in management of stakeholders it involves mapping stakeholder on the basis of their influence to the project (Pritchard, 2013). The mapping will facilitate creation of a stakeholder register or communication plan for them (Bello, 2016). Table 2 shows how the Panama Canal stakeholders were mapped after identification. The mapping was based on stakeholder identification letters (A-J)

Stakeholder engagement: it is a process that involves sharing program information needs and provides a channel of managing different stakeholders (Bourne, 2015). Table 3 shows a communication plan for Panama Canal program.

Table 3 communication plan

Audience	Message	Delivery  Method	Delivery Frequency	Communicator
Harris county representative	Informed on program status	Formal meetings	Periodic	Program manager
Union pacific representative	Informed on program progress and expectation	Formal meetings	Often	Program manager
Office of Governor reps	Need to seek approvals on program progress	Meetings and mails	Often	Steering committee
Texas motor transport association	Consulted on transport matters	Mails and meetings	Frequently	Program manager
Texas oil and gas association	Consulted on oil and gas management planning	Formal mails	Periodic	Steering committee
Texas port association	Obtain approvals	Meetings and mails	Frequently	Program manager.
Port authority advisory committee	Consulted on matters relation to ports	Mails and meetings	Frequently	Steering committee
Program sponsor	Consulted and sought for program approvals	Emails, reports	Periodic	Program manager
Metro political planning org	Consulted on program deliverables & expectations	Meetings	Often	Administrator
Regional mobile activities org	Consulted on project benefit expectations	Meetings	Often	Administrator

1.3. Challenges and problems encountered

There are several challenges and problems that faced the implementation and execution of the Panama Canal expansion program. They included:

Competition from other canals- they are faced with stiff competition originating from the Suez Canal which has expanded in Mediterranean basin along the South and South East Asia.

Maritime shipping costs- the costs for running maritime activities keep on fluctuating which poses a threat to choice selections. Higher shipping costs make clients to reconsider alternative routes and canal channels. The users have to make choices among the options by comparing favorable cost structures offered by the routes.

Global sourcing- the rising labour and energy costs have incited supply chain managers to look for closer sourcing options as Latin America or within United States avoiding long distance shipping trade. Panama Canal management need to look for better ways of managing energy and labour costs to tap more business opportunities (Ferguson, B. C., Brown, R. R., Frantzeskaki, N., de Haan, F. J., & Deletic, A., 2013).

Larger ships have provided additional pressures on the existing port and inland infrastructure which requires management to plan for future expansions or create operational limits. The harboring of huge ships creates daily additional costs for maintenance and purchase of equipment’s (Burke, 2013).

The emergence of Savannah gateway brings out a different way of co-ordinating freight distribution which influences other routes to access the market. The gateway controls and co-ordinates major freight operations and distributions over a vast of the markets this makes the Panama Canal to factor major decisions of Savannah gateway.

1.4. Lessons learnt and recommendations

There are several lessons that can be learnt from the largest shipping infrastructural project the expansion of the Panama Canal. The lessons and recommendations are summarized as follows:

There are more business opportunities existing in Texas State. To be able to manage any competition and increase the demand for the opportunities along Texas as global gateway the management of Panama Canal need to provide a low cost, safe and secure multimodal and environmentally sustainable supply chain to tap opportunities.

Interdependencies of mode of transport are important for the project expansion. Texas authorities need to improve its freight plan for road, and railway transports. The improvement of the mode of transport will help in goods movements, relieve any form of congestion and provide several options to the clients to choose upon. The Panama Canal expansion program will highly depend on the in ways and out ways provided by other mode of transports.

Findings show that Texas is a leading State in the country in form of exports. The finding is an important business case of expanding the Panama Canal to take advantage of the increased bulk export accessibility and development.

References

Adams Joseph, Aaron Davidson. (2012). Prepairing Texas land and sea for Panama canal expansion. Texas: Texas transport institute.

Bello, D. (2016, January 10). Building and construction regulated design industry. Building and civil regulatory design industry, pp. 12-45.

Bourne, L. (2015). Making projects work:effective stakeholder and communication management. New Delhi: CRC press.

Bryde, Broquetas & Volm . (2013). The project benefits of building information modelling. International Journal of project management, 31(7), 971-980.

Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control tecniques. New Jersey: Wiley publishers.

Ferguson, B. C., Brown, R. R., Frantzeskaki, N., de Haan, F. J., & Deletic, A. (2013). The enabling institutional context for integrated water management: lessons from Melbourne. Water research, 47(20), 7300=7314.

Heagney, J. (2016). Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM: American management association .

institute, T. T. (2014). Short sea shipping, impacts on texas transport system technical report. Texas: Adventute state press.

Lock, M. (2014). The essentials of project management. New York: Ashgate publishing Ltd.

PMI. (2013). A guide to project management body of knowledge . Newtown Square: PA: PMI.

Pritchard, C. (2013). The project management communication toolkit. New York: Artech House .

Walter. Armstrong & Wallance . (2001). Case study of construction management on Boston Habour project reflections at project completion. CM ejournal, 1-22.