How Quality Management and Improvement Processes Have Contributed to the State of London Underground - Research Proposal Example

School: BUSINESS PROJECT AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT Lecturer: Table of Contents 0 Introduction 3 1 Summary 3 1.2 Statement of Problem 3 1.3 Background to Research Problem 4 2.0 Literature Review 6 2.1 Principles of Quality Management 7 2.11 Customer focus 7 2.12 Leadership 7 2.13 Involvement of people 8 2.14 Process approach 8 2.15 System approach to management 9 2.16 Continual improvement 9 2.17 Factual approach to decision making 10 2.18 Mutually beneficial supplier relationships 10 2.2 Lean Production of Continuous Process Improvement 11 2.3 Research Objectives 12 3.0 Research Design and Methods 13 3.1 Research design 13 3.2 Population and sample 14 3.3 Data collection instrument 15 3.4 Data collection 15 3.5 Scope of Studies 16 3.6 Risk and Ethical Issues 16 4.0 Project Outcome 17 4.1 Significance of Study 17 4.2 Expected outcomes and Results 18 References 21 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Summary London Underground has been seeking to execute the replacement of its old signalling system in two of its major stations, which are the Jubilee Line and Northern Line with transmission based train control technology (TBTC). This is a very huge business project that has required the application and usage of all the necessary project management principles known in academic practice and professional practice. This is therefore a comparative case study that looks into how quality management and continuous improvement processes have been used in the two projects and how these have turned out for the projects in terms of quality and delivery time. It has long been the expectation of managers of London Underground to replace its old signalling system, which has been noted to lack qualities of modern data signalling technology with the TBTC, which would come to improve both efficiency and effectiveness at the railway (Drnevich & Croson, D. C. (2013). The two outcomes of quality and delivery time can therefore not be overlooked as part of the core issues that would concern managers of the projects, based on which the success of the projects will be judged. The more quality the projects turn out to be, the more effective the TBTC will be at use. What is more, the earlier the projects are delivered, the more efficient the TBTC will be in serving the needs of the modern day rail user. 1.2 Statement of Problem In terms of size, Northern Line has about 43 stations and Jubilee Line has 20 stations. However, it has taken the Jubilee Line over 7 year to finish and commission, whiles completion and commissioning for the Northern Line project lasted only 3 years, ending April 2014. Indeed for projects of this nature, the ability to complete them within specified time is very important because delays in the project cause a lot of inconveniences to the public and managers of the railway. What is more, delays push the realisation of the goals of the railway back and render the stations involved highly ineffective for the purposes they are meant to serve. This study would therefore seek to evaluate how quality management and continuous improvement processes have contributed to the states of the two projects. 1.3 Background to Research Problem There are different reasons for which various business projects are started. But most importantly, each of these business projects is started with the aim of accomplishing very specific goals. Because of these goals for which business projects are undertaken, it is very common to see projects having very specific time schedules, deliverables, budgets, and labour requirements. For most project managers, a successful project is the ability to complete the project according to some of these scopes that have just been mentioned. Unfortunately though, there are very clear examples of instances where business projects have not been delivered according to the scopes that were set for them. The proposed project focuses on the issues of business project and quality management. Quality management would be noted to be a multi-variant term that comprises several aspects of quality of projects, including quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality improvement (Juran and Feo, 2010). This means that quality management is about ensuring quality of work, right from the pre-construction phase, through to the construction phase, to the post-construction phase of a project. As a multi-variant phenomenon, it can be expected that there is no single thing to do to ensure or achieve quality management. Rather, it is important to bring together a series of principles that can help in achieving such quality management with business projects. Given the fact that quality management is expected to be present from the beginning to the end of a project, it has been linked with continuous improvement process (CPI), given the fact that CPI also comes with the same principle of ensuring that quality is not just achieved at one point in time but in a very progressive and improve manner through all phases of the project (Meredith and Shafer, 2014). In the case of the two business projects understudy which are the Jubilee Line and Northern Line railway projects, it is hypothesised the application of quality management and CPI have been very instrumental in the way the two projects have turned out to be now. Very clearly, there is every indication that the two projects have not been approached in exactly the same way when it comes to the application of quality management and CPI. Whereas the application of these two phenomenons has been effective in Northern Line project, not the same can be said about the Jubilee Line project. If this was not so, the Jubilee Line project, which is smaller in size would not have been delayed as much as it has currently been delayed. From the research problem, it can be deduced that what goes into the outcome of a project in terms of quality is not just about the size of the project (Deisell, 2011). This means that smaller projects cannot be assumed to come out with much quality than bigger projects, just for the mere thinking that smaller projects are easier to handle. What rather determine quality are the inputs that project managers make to their projects such as the effective application of quality management and CPI. Whiles applying quality management, there are about 8 major principles that project managers would have to consider. These principles include customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making, mutually beneficial supplier relationships, and system approach to management (Nederpelt, 2012). Once project managers of the two projects had approached these principles from different perspectives, it can be expected that outcomes of the projects, including the time of delivery would be totally different. Especially where most of the principles involve other stakeholders, it is expected that the shared responsibility model would have to be followed and so unless the interest of all stakeholders are met while delivering the project, there will be delays (Pyzdek, 2012). On the issue of CPI, most of the methods of CPI such as the lean method have been noted to focus very much on the need to avoiding waste (Deisell, 2011). In this context, waste will be used not to refer to the waste of time only. Rather, other forms of waste such as waste in resources, money, personnel, and time can all be identified to be factors that could cause delays in projects (Meredith and Shafer, 2014). Through the effective implementation of the lean method therefore, most forms of these wastes are avoided so as to ensure efficiency. Very importantly, CPI and for that matter the lean method seeks to promote efficiency by avoiding waste. Meanwhile, efficiency also ensures that much output will be recorded with the most minimum resources available, including time. For a project like the Jubilee Line therefore, one would expect that should the principles of lean production had been applied to make the project efficient, then for every little space of time, greater part of the project would have been covered to ensure that at the end of the day, putting the collective quantum of time available to the project managers would have added up to a quality project that was delivered on time. 2.0 Literature Review This section of the proposal focuses on theories in the two major areas of the study, which are quality and delivery time. As far as quality is concerned, the theoretical concept of quality management shall be studied. Particular emphasis shall be put on 8 principles of quality management that are expected to ensure that large projects such as those being undertaken at the London Underground turns out to be of premium quality. In terms of delivery time also, emphasis shall be put on the concept of lean production of continuous process improvement, where 7 principles in avoiding waste shall be analysed. 2.1 Principles of Quality Management 2.11 Customer focus In the execution of projects of the nature at the London Underground, Littlefield and Roberts (2012) admonishes the need for both the current and future needs of customers to be taken into critical consideration. Adding to this point, Thareja (2008) stressed that the reason quality has eluded most projects is because project managers only look at the present without giving critical thoughts of how the needs of customers will change in the future. As a result, completed projects become useful only for a small time. With this said, TBTC installation project would have to be programmed in a manner that addresses not just the needs of today’s rail passenger but the needs of future passengers as well. However, Littlefield and Roberts (2012) indicated that the only time that customer focus can effectively function is when the internal and external customers of the organisation is well identified and known. 2.12 Leadership In project management, the ideas of leaders have been said to be the embodiment of the completed projects (Cianfrani and West, 2009). This means that the eventual outcome of the evaluation of the quality level of the project is very much dependent on the guidance and leadership qualities that leaders of the project exhibit. According to Thareja (2008), for projects such as the ones at the Northern Line and Jubilee Line, leaders that can be identified are the project managers and other managers in charge of the construction. Leaders are said to influence the quality outcome of projects as they are expected to be responsible for creating and maintaining internal environment that involves all stakeholders to putting in their best to delivering quality (Westcott, 2003). This means that the leaders do not work in vacuum to bring quality but act as inspirers to others to function effectively. 2.13 Involvement of people As it was rightly stated above, there are stakeholders who are concerned with the completion of any project. According to Paul (1998), projects that have only concentrated on the internal stakeholders who are directly involved in the construction process will not be as successful as those that open up to other external stakeholders. This point will be rightly agreed with. This is because without recognising the inputs and contributions of backroom stakeholders such as managers and owners of the company a contractor is working for, there is the likelihood that not only will quality be affected but there could also be problems with delivery. For example, owners may raise objections to their projects only when they are half way or have been completed. But where there is involvement right from the onset, there are chances that matters that could possibly arise will be dealt with in the easiest time (Rose, 2005). 2.14 Process approach Quality management theory provides that the whole management concept be approached as a process. This means that the project managers responsible for the projects must not be looking at a quick or one-way out to completing the whole project (McConnell, 2007). Indeed, once this is done, the quality of project becomes affected because there becomes lack of proper planning and things are carried out in a haphazard manner. But where the project is seen as a process that must be approached from one point to the other, it becomes easier to execute the project, whiles learning to do one thing at a time. As noted by Rose (2005), a process approach is systematic and ensures that other components of the principles such as involvement of people are honoured. This is because by breaking the project down into processes, the project manager gets the understanding that each component must be assigned to someone to execute. 2.15 System approach to management Apart from the process approach, system approach has also been found to be very workable for project management when mention is made of quality. By system approach, reference is being made to the need to assign an equal level of importance to all components of the project and joining all these components together to achieve the objective of the project (Ross, Ellipse & Freeman, 2004). Very often project managers have been criticised for refusing to acknowledge how important every stage or component of project management is. Because of this, they tend to favour some parts and leave out others. The result of such an attitude towards project management is that projects will always finish with some parts, rather than all parts of it, achieving quality (Bessant and Buckingham, 2003). Meanwhile, when quality is denied, chances of redoing parts of the project over and over again and thus causing delays are higher. 2.16 Continual improvement By continual improvement, reference is being made to the need for project managers to be concerned about the need to ensuring that quality is not a temporary standard (Bessant and Buckingham, 2003). This means that from the beginning of the project to its end, factors that result in quality must be put in place every now and then. Ross, Ellipse & Freeman (2004) also explained continual improvement as a situation where the level of quality for the project will not be static but changing towards an upward level. In effect, the metrics of quality must constantly grow from one level to the other. In its most ideal format, one would expect that given the difference phases of the project lifecycle, the project manager can be able to boast of bettering the standard of quality from one phase to the next phase. 2.17 Factual approach to decision making Factual approach to decision making seeks to advocate the need for project managers to be conscious of the role that effective data analysis and information has to play in the delivery of work (Treven, 2003). This is like saying that decision making must not be merely based on speculation or assumptions but on evidence based outcomes. Clearly, when dealing with facts, the chances of making mistakes that affect quality is less. The same applies to mistakes that affect the delivery of work. This is because the need to rescind on decisions that have already been made on projects is very unlikely. Instead, project managers are afforded the opportunity to be accurate with their decisions as they do not make them based on personal feelings or thoughts but on facts. 2.18 Mutually beneficial supplier relationships In a study by Ryding and Shalin (2013), it was noted that supply chain management is one of the most important elements of quality outcomes for projects such as the Northern Line and Jubilee Line projects. However, some project managers have reported that they have not claimed or redeemed the kind of benefit they expect. This has been found to be due to the fact that the managers seek their own interests of benefit rather than promoting the mutual benefits of other stakeholders on the supply chain. For major projects such as the ones under study, creating a mutually beneficial atmosphere for all stakeholders, particularly suppliers serves as an intrinsic motivation for these to give off their very best towards the quality completion of the project (Tyler, 2003). 2.2 Lean Production of Continuous Process Improvement Lean production of CPI has also been used very extensively by various project handlers to ensure that the issue of waste is dealt with. Very important, Masaaki (1997) shared the opinion that lean production looks at waste as a multi-variant factor that impacts on every aspect of the project. This means that waste is spread across several areas of the delivery of work. In the context of the study, the Toyota Production System (TPS), which has long been used as a model of the lean production, is reviewed. The TPS focuses on reduction seven forms of wastes, which when done very effectively come together to ensure that overall waste is avoided so that projects can be finished on time and in accordance to their original plans (Linnarsson and Molin, 2008). The first aspect of waste is overproduction. Very commonly, over production has been identified to cause waste in material resources, human resources and time (Holly, Coyle and Koshiba, 2010). This is because overproduction involves giving out an outcome of components in quantum that is excessive. Once this happens, there is the possibility that other areas will be affected, causing delays. Waiting for people and parts is another form of waste that deserves to be reduced. According to Maccormack (2008), poor supply chain management would also cause a situation where experts and raw materials would not be readily available. Once this happens, the project manager is left with virtually no other option than waiting for there to be supply. Meanwhile, such forms of waiting account for time and thereby leading to delays in delivery of work. As much as there must not be waiting, it is also important to ensure that there is not too much inventory. Reducing too much inventory is therefore seen as one of the key principles of the TPS. Masaaki (1997) noted that panic purchases that lead to too much inventory creates waste not only in the form of the materials that are not used but also causes delay because it has tendencies of creating shortage of funds due to poor budgeting. To this end, project managers are advised to ensure that their inventory will be as accurate as possible so that the possibility of taking from other portfolios to make purchases that are not needed will be avoided. The fourth principle focuses on unnecessary motion, which must be avoided if work can be finished on time. For major works such as the Jubilee Line and Northern Line projects, motion comes in the form of moving people and equipment around the project site and outside of the site. In such an instance where unnecessary motion is present, it is possible that people that must work on parts of project will not be around when needed most. There can also be wear and tear to materials and equipment (Mccord and Eppinger, 2003). This is closely linked to the fifth principle of unnecessary transportation. The sixth principle is over processing, which is directly linked to the first principle of over production. This time however, emphasis is the processes that must be created as part of the quality management (Masaaki, 2006). Lastly, producing defects or rework must be avoided because they create the need to either start the whole work again or part of it, causing delays. 2.3 Research Objectives The study is being conducted with the overall aim of evaluating the place of quality management and CPI in the two major projects of London Underground. To achieve this aim, the following objectives must be pursued. 1. To identify principles of quality management applied in the Northern Line project that can be replicated in the Jubilee Line Project to enhance the quality of the latter. 2. To find out how CPI has been used in the Northern Line project and how this can be a yardstick for the Jubilee Line project in completing it earlier. 3. To establish the relationship between quality and delivery time of projects if quality can affect the time of delivery. 3.0 Research Design and Methods 3.1 Research design The proposed study is going to be conducted as a case study. The case study will be approached as a mixed research, comprising the use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The emphasis on qualitative research will however be on the data collection, whiles quantitative method will be used extensively for the analysis of findings. As a quantitative research, the researcher is going to emphasise on the collection of numeric based data that can be quantified and analysed using statistical data collection software. The rationale for choosing a quantitative study is because of how empirical such research methods are (Vrijling, Hengel, and Houben, 2005). For example, by assigning scores to the degree to which quality management and CPI strategies are applied at the various research sites, it will be easier for anyone with understanding on the interpretation of the numeric findings to draw conclusions on the implications of the findings and what they represent. The case study also indicates a condition whereby the researcher shall identify a specific situation that is taking place at a research setting and use data collection procedures to critically look into the situation. In this context, the situation at hand is project management at the London Underground projects, which are the Jubilee Line project and Northern Line project. The two lines also serve as the research setting where data collection will take place. The two projects were started at different time and contained different sizes of installation of TBTC. However, one of the projects is progressing better than the other. The role of quality management and CPI strategies in this development shall be investigated with the case study. As a way of backing the qualitative research with quantitative research, the researcher shall make use rich pictures and casual loops to describe and analyse some management structures within the projects. This will help in giving a very thorough and empirical perspective of the two projects. 3.2 Population and sample Site managers and project manager at the two lines, which are Jubilee and Northern, shall comprise the population of the study. As the population, not all these people shall be directly engaged in the collection of data. Rather a sample size shall be developed. Information available to the researcher indicates that there are close to 30 managers managing different aspects of the projects under study. Each of these people is relatively of the same level of importance and command the same level of authority at the project site. The implication here is that when any of the managers is selected at random for the data collection, they can be equally useful for the study. To this end, a random sampling technique shall be used to select 5 managers from each of the sites. This means that there shall be a total of 10 respondents in the sample size for the study. It is from these people that the researcher shall collect data for the study to find the state of quality management and CPI strategies at the two sites. The random sampling will ensure that there will be much reliability with the study because the researcher is not going to have any control or manipulation over the respondents as they will be selected by chance (Remenyi, Williams, Money and Swartz, 1998). 3.3 Data collection instrument The data collection instrument to be prepared for the study shall be a questionnaire. This means that a piece of paper with set of questions to be answered through writing shall be prepared and presented to the respondent. There are a number of reasons for selecting a questionnaire. In the first place, it would be noted that the questionnaire is ideal for quantitative studies of this nature, especially when close ended questions are used (Remenyi, Williams, Money and Swartz, 1998). With such close ended questions, it is possible for the researcher to easily quantify the responses that will be collected from the respondents. This is because the close ended questions require that all respondents will select their answers from a set of pre-determined responses to be provided by the researcher. In most cases, it is possible to develop a likert scale for the responses, making the scoring of performance such as the practice of quality possible. The questionnaire shall be prepared, based on the research questions of the study. It will be noted that there are three major research questions being considered for the study. Each of these shall serve as a theme, under which series of questions will be asked. The questions will be asked in such a way that makes it possible to score the application of quality management and CPI strategies within the two project sites. 3.4 Data collection Data collection is expected to take place that research setting after all necessary permission has been sought to conduct the study. First, the researcher shall meet all the 10 respondents in mini-conference where the content of the questionnaire shall be discussed into detail. It is important to note however that this is not going to be the point where the responses for the questionnaire are going to be taken. Rather, the researcher is going to use the conference to explain any forms of misunderstanding that the respondents may have with any portion of the questionnaire. What is more, the rationale behind each question on the questionnaire shall be given so that the respondents can have a better understanding as to what is required of them so that the answers they produce will be in line with exactly what the questionnaire is intended to collect. After this, a consensus shall be drawn on the date that the completed questionnaire should be returned. It is expected that an average of 5 working days shall be agreed upon with the respondents. Within the five days, the researcher shall be contacting the respondents via phone call, SMS and email to remind them of the deadline so that there can be a 100% turnover. Since the respondents shall have up to 5 days to finish the questionnaire, it is expected that each of them will have adequate time to research into the questions before producing the answers so that the study can be rendered as authentic. 3.5 Scope of Studies The proposed study is delimited to focus on two major projects namely the Northern Line project and the Jubilee Line project. What is more, there are two major outcomes of the projects that will be emphasised, which are the quality of work and the delivery time. These two outcomes will serve as the variables of research, with the variable of quality, tested with quality management, and delivery time tested with CPI. As a case study, limiting the research to the two projects will make it possible to understand business project as a whole and how business projects are affected by the concepts of quality and delivery time. 3.6 Risk and Ethical Issues The conduct of the study is subject to various risk and ethical issues, for which there must be risk and ethical considerations. Generally, these risks and ethical issues arise because there will be human participants as part of the study. Because the researcher shall be travelling to the site of the projects to deliver questionnaire, it is important to first seek permission from the necessary authorities who are concerned with the management of the projects. The researcher shall also prepare a consent form that specifies the goal and objectives of the study and why it will be important for the study to take place at the research setting. What is more, the role of all participants will be defined and explained in the consent form. After this, ethical assurances on how the researcher shall keep the identities of the respondents confidential and anonymous shall be given. For example, because the data to be collected is concerned with the projects and not the people working on them, respondents will not be expected to produce their names or any form of identities. What is more, the researcher shall be the only person to handle the data to be collected from the respondents and will not make this available to any third party. There are no known risks that the respondents will carry by taking part in the study but the presence of the researcher at the site may pose some occupational risks, which are expected to be identified by the managers and advised accordingly. 4.0 Project Outcome 4.1 Significance of Study It is expected that the research will serve two major significant importance. There is expected to be the academic significance, where various gaps in literature concerning the simultaneous application of quality and time will be bridged. In most studies, it has been thought that for business projects to be of high quality, they would have to be delayed. The cases of the two projects will however disprove this academic phantom. From a more practical and professional perspective also, it is expected that project managers, especially those working on the Jubilee Line project will be equipped with best practices that they can adopt in ensuring that the project becomes both quality and delivered on time. 4.2 Expected outcomes and Results It is expected that the research will show that the application of quality management and CPI strategies at the Jubilee Line project has not been as effective as it has been at the Northern Line project. This outcome and result is hypothesised in line with outcomes of preliminary literature review, which has showed that quality management and CPI strategies actually have a direct effect on quality and delivery time of projects respectively(Wong, 2005). With the data collection instrument that has been designed to measure the correlation between the application of quality management and CPI strategies, and quality and delivery time respectively, it is expected that there will a positive significant relationship. This means that where quality management is best applied, the quality of projects will be higher. In the same way, where CPI strategies are better applied, there will be quicker turnaround of work (Ranong and Phuenngam, 2009). In line with the third objective of the study, which seeks to find the relationship between quality and delivery time, it is expected that there will be positive correlation instead of a negative correlation. This means that quality will not go down with time going down. In effect, an ambition to finish a project on time will not necessarily mean that the project will be of poor quality. Rather, elements with quality management that ensure quality will account for CPI in the sense that the promotion of quality will actually lead to an automatic management of time and therefore early completion of projects. In conclusion, the Northern Line project will be an aspiration to the Jubilee Line project to effectively apply the principles of quality management and CPI strategies to finish the latter with the best of what and on time. This is because the study will indeed proof that quality saves time. References Bessant J. and Buckingham J. (2003). Innovation and organizational learning: the case of computeraided production management. British Journal of Management. 4(4):219–37. Capron L. (2009). The long-term performance of horizontal acquisitions. Strategic Management Journal. 20:987-1018. 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