Project Management in Manufacturing Industry - Essay Example

Topic: Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction The manufacturing industry involves the application of tools and human resources to develop products for trade. Modern manufacturing involves the application of machinery to make things. However, manufacturing began prior to the invention of machines which were as a result of inventions to make work easier. Hand craft is also a form of manufacturing while modern manufacturing tends to be high tech. The laborious processes of developing items for trade were carried out by experienced artisans who depended largely on the things they produced. All items were custom-built and every task was inimitable. Before the industrial revolution, training in artisanship was associated with manufacturing and was significant in developing new artisans. Since the 18th century after the industrial revolution, many ideas emerged to enhance the manufacturing process, not withstanding the type of goods produced. This paper describes the historical processes that have shaped manufacturing over the last century leading to project management in the construction industry. It refers to management theories such as those put forward by Henry Fayrol, Latham and Egan. It contrasts the views of these theorists. The paper also compares the construction and manufacturing industries with particular reference to their differing methods of manufacturing, and the apparent contemporary convergence from the bespoke image of the construction industry at present to its move towards just in time deliveries etc. Historical Processes which have shaped the Manufacturing Industry Henry Fayol significantly contributed to the development of strategic management techniques in the construction industry through establishing five functions of management. Planning was the first function of management which up to date is fundamental to the success of an organization. Cole (2003) observes that all the aspects of manufacturing depend on the initial plan to a large extent. It involves conducting an analysis of the present situation of an organization, as well as its future. After this analysis, the managers set the strategies for accomplishment of the organizational goals that are based on where the management would like the organization to be in future. Planning continues through out the life of the organization especially due to the fact that changes may be necessary so that an organization can cope with the dynamics of the operating environment. In other words, planning helps the managers to strategize to come up with solutions to emerging issues. It is important for the managers to deal with challenges facing the business as well as the utilization of opportunities for the success of the organization. Bradford (2000) observes that strategic planning is the practice whereby an organization develops its course of action to accomplish upcoming objectives. The managers are in charge of evaluating the operating environment and the internal factors that affect business through strategic planning to ensure that the organizational goals are accomplished. This involves conducting a SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats) analysis to ensure that the business remains on track (Cole, 2003). Managers in the construction and manufacturing industries have a role to play in ensuring that just in time deliveries are accomplished. Modern production is demand driven and therefore planning is necessary to ensure customer satisfaction. Egan emphasized on customer focus as an important aspect in regard to the success of the construction industry. Adoption of Egan’s theory of customer focus has significantly contributed to the emergence of just in time deliveries in the construction industry whereby contractors deliver the product before customers get anxious about their needs. Organizing is the second among Fayol’s functions of management in which the managers prepare for implementation of the plan. This is accomplished through evaluating and allocating the available resources to aid in the accomplishment of organizational goals. Shen (2005) observes that without proper organization, a company may face the problem of insufficiency of resources in some departments while others may be operating with a surplus of resources. Such a situation may hamper the realization of organizational goals. Through organization, managers are able to establish working teams and assign tasks to the workers. Departments are assigned roles and the organizational hierarchy is determined through organization. Commanding is the third management function, which Fayol depicted as involving overseeing the implementation of plans. Through this function, the managers are able to assess the performance of staff as well as their capabilities for the accomplishment of organizational objectives. Managers use their capabilities and skills to lead the workers to accomplish tasks (Hannagan 2007). It involves regular interactions with employees and ensuring that the organizational rules and regulations are adhered to. Workers are assisted to accomplish career and personal development goals as well as accomplishing work-life balance. Managers generate enthusiasm in the workplace through good leadership whereby employees are rewarded for good performance. Fayol’s theory of commanding advocates for one supervisor per worker with the view that errors are corrected through careful consideration of the ability of each worker. Managers are expected to observantly help the employees who make errors to get back on track thereby maintaining productivity in the workforce. Egan supported Fayols theory of commanding in view of committed leadership. He emphasized on leaders in the construction industry who challenge the change process to motivate their followers to open up and view things differently from the conventional way. Transformational leaders inspire people regarding new ways of approaching issues in life, which helps them to accomplish their professional goals. Such leadership is usually maintained by strong personality and ability to influence followers to act towards accomplishing particular organizational goals (Lester 2006). Alldredge et al. (2003) observe that transformational leadership has been significant in the success of the contemporary organizations. Leaders who are able to motivate and inspire workers to discover their talents and put it in practice usually accomplish organizational goals and also promote personal development among employees. Motivation can be as simple as appreciating the contribution of workers towards the success of the organization. Whenever the subordinates come up with a new idea that can enhance the success of the organization, transformational leaders motivate them to carry on with their inventiveness. The leaders help their followers to discover new ways of solving their problems as well as stimulating them intellectually to understand themselves. They generate enthusiasm amongst followers, and also use their eloquence to convince them regarding their vision (Krug and Weinbert, 2004). Controlling is the fourth of Fayol’s functions of management whereby the managers clearly define the standards of performance measurement. He illustrated the act of controlling as the process whereby the manager is obliged to receive feedback on a particular process for the necessary action to be taken, including adjustments or enhancement of the process. Workers are informed on the targets that they are expected to accomplish in order for the organization to achieve its goals. Performance management is accomplished through controlling. Managers conduct an assessment regarding the worker’s performance. It helps the management to determine the strengths and weaknesses of workers, which is important in strategizing on hiring and conducting appraisals. It also helps in planning for organizational learning to improve the skills of workers where weaknesses are evident (Druker 2006). Just as goal setting was illustrated by Fayol in terms of leadership in one of his functions of management; controlling, Latham’s management techniques emphasized on the goal setting theory. The path goal theory was developed by Robert House in 1971 and was focused on motivation of subordinates by leaders. House explained the significance of having leaders who are able to enhance the pursuance of a common purpose. This is done by ensuring that the subordinates are capable of relating their needs to the organizational goals. Leaders also enhance performance by offering direction and helping the subordinates to keep focused on the path that they are supposed to follow to satisfy their needs in addition to the organization’s needs (Krug and Weinbert, 2004). When the employees are aware of the goal that they are intending to achieve, they are motivated to be effective in the accomplishment of tasks. The experienced employees ensure that they maintain good performance and are encouraged to make the right decisions that can facilitate realization of the goal. The leader generates expectancy among the employees thereby modelling their behaviour. Generally, the path goal theory made the assumption that workers are motivated by realizing that their actions are likely to culminate in good results. Leaders who encourage creativity are able to maintain a competent workforce. Employees derive enthusiasm from coming up with workable ideas that can be attributed to their ability to think critically. Failure to get such a chance to demonstrate inventiveness may cause low spirits in the workplace especially when the employees are used to rely on the leader for decisions (Avolio & Bass, 2002). Leaders who promote creativity in the workplace also promote organizational learning since workers are able to learn from the diverse inventions. They also learn together with the workers. Clients are usually attracted to the organization where people cooperate. There are four leadership styles that emerge from the path goal theory. These include directive, supportive, participative and accomplishment focused leadership styles. Directive leadership involves guiding the subordinates to follow the right path in accomplishing their tasks. Supportive leadership style involves the leader establishing a strong relationship while demonstrating concern for the subordinates. The leader employs his skills to facilitate the accomplishment of personal and organizational needs among the subordinates. Participative leadership involves the leader engaging his/her subordinates in the decision making process. The leader promotes ownership of the organizational goals among the workforce, which is significant in the accomplishment of the organization’s strategic objectives (Kouzes & Posner 2007). However, despite Latham’s theory agreeing with the other theorists regarding goal setting, it diverges by emphasizing that goals need to be challenging rather than simple to accomplish. He believed that the greater the challenge in a goal, the greater the motivation among people involved in the tasks. This theory proposed a situation whereby the greater the challenge the greater the reward a person should be entitled to. Modern construction and manufacturing firms tend to borrow to a great extent on this theory. Workers involved in activities involving complex technicalities are entitled to greater rewards than those involved in casual tasks. People are motivated to achieve greater rewards and therefore work harder hence the current advancements in the construction and manufacturing (Lester 2006). The modern operational management theory largely draws from Fayol’s management techniques. He developed management principles that are applied in modern manufacturing such as division of labor whereby performance is expected to increase when tasks are shared among individual workers and teams that specialize on particular sections of the task. According to Fayol’s theory, division and specialization of labor are significant in maximal utilization of human resources within an organization. In modern construction industries, various workers that possess different skills are assigned separate tasks to speed up the process of manufacturing and increase efficiency. For example, electrical installation, building, plumbing and air conditioning are tasks that are performed by specialized workers whose activities are distinct. The degree of specialization is pronounced to the extent that some tasks are dealt with by companies that are not involved in any other venture (Kerzner, 2009). Specialization in modern manufacturing has led to the development of various disciplines in the education system that are closely related such as plant mechanics and automobile mechanics, structural engineering and civil engineering among other engineering disciplines that have resulted from the idea of specialization. Specialization has led to professionalism in construction and manufacturing and clients’ needs are satisfied with ease since each task is assigned to a specific person who possesses extensive skills in the area (Krug & Weinbert 2004). Fayol also established the concept of authority which has a close association with the idea of responsibility. He portrayed authority as the privilege to give orders and the power to demand obedience from subordinates. In the contemporary construction and manufacturing industries, an experienced supervisor exercises authority over a team of workers to lead them in accomplishing the organizational goals. The supervisor acts as the team leader and is responsible for the activities of the workers he/she supervises. He/she is therefore accountable to the outcome of the team’s tasks. This arrangement allows a hierarchical structure in organizations whereby authority and responsibility ascends from the top most governing organ to the lowest cadre of supervisors. Discipline is also one of Fayol’s concepts of management whereby workers are required to work towards accomplishing a common objective. A successful organization is characterized by the level of effort among workers and the capacity of management to judicially apply rewards and punishments to promote workers’ efforts (Kerzner, 2009). Unity of command as depicted by Fayol requires that one manager gives instructions to employees. Despite the presence of a hierarchical structure, instructions need to be uniformly communicated to all levels of authority. This is a significant strategy for modern construction and manufacturing industries that ensures understanding of the organizational goal by all the employees. Similarly, Fayol suggested the principle of unity of direction whereby the organization is expected to act as one through shared objectives. This has been important in enhancing the success of modern manufacturing whereby production is accomplished through a combination of processes and hence each has to be completed in the right way or else the end result will be undesirable (Krug & Weinbert 2004). Fayol also emphasized the significance of putting the interests of the organization ahead of personal interests. Organizations with this principle entrenched in their strategic approach to management are able to promote accomplishment of organizational goals through selfless leadership and team work. This principle corresponds to Egan’s quality driven agenda whereby all activities of are geared towards improving the quality of products. Modern manufacturing and construction companies are engaged in stiff competition whereby creativity and quality are necessary to attract potential clients (Druker 2006). Remuneration of employees was viewed as a significant aspect leading to the accomplishment of organizational goals. For competitiveness in the market to be achieved, organizations were required to engage the right human resources with skills matching the task in question. Fayol viewed workers as human capital whose rate of pay should be equivalent to the cost of living and qualifications. This strategy in modern construction organizations has led to the presence of highly qualified personnel as workers strive to upgrade their skills, which allow them to take greater responsibilities (Harold 2009). To enhance job satisfaction and teamwork in the organization, Fayol postulated that all workers were supposed to be treated equally. Modern manufacturing and construction organizations have maintained equality in the workplace. This strategy has helped companies to avoid legal issues regarding employee relations. Employee retention has been one of the significant aspects of strategic human resource practices since it allows organizations to invest in human capital. Fayol emphasized on the significance of the process of recruitment and selection as the basis for organizations to acquire the desired skills. Continuous upgrading of skills through workplace learning and maintaining them in the organization saves cost and organizational productivity (Druker 2006). Fayor found it positive for managers to encourage creativity among employees in accomplishing tasks as well as self direction. This strategy has been adopted by modern construction and manufacturing organizations to reduce the need for supervision. The principle of employee satisfaction was emphasized by Fayol as a significant strategy to encourage workers to love their work despite the difficulties encountered. Successful accomplishment of organizational goals is dependent on the ability of managers to encourage the employees to feel good about what they do. Similarly, Egan emphasized on commitment to people through ensuring that their needs are satisfied to enhance their capacity to accomplish tasks (Kendrick 2009). In his goal setting principles, Latham also suggested that the management should enhance commitment among employees by involving them in goal setting. Promotion of shared goals is accomplished through participative management whereby decision making is an all inclusive process. Latham believed that goals should be agreed between the managers and the subordinates unlike Fayol’s top down decision making process. He argued that centralization of activities decreased the significance of the role of subordinates. Nevertheless, he found it necessary for managers to use their discretion to decide the appropriate degree of specialization. This strategy depicts managers as key decision makers for the organization (Harold 2009). Fayol’s management technique focused on a hierarchical distribution of authority whereby each manager had a degree of authority which is linked to the others in a scalar chain. The executive possesses the greatest authority followed by senior managers who should remain informed regarding the organization’s operations by the middle and low level managers. In the contemporary construction and manufacturing industries, workers directly involved in accomplishment of day to day tasks understand the challenges and difficulties faced and might provide essential information to guide the decision making process. Egan’s suggestion of integrated processes and teams supports Latham’s idea of teamwork and agreed goal setting (Lester 2006). The theories that have been significant in shaping management in the construction and manufacturing industries have been adopted differently due to the divergent tasks involved in the production processes. Construction activities involve development of structures that may be inhabited by humans or which may house manufacturing equipment and therefore require great attention to detail since they may affect the lives of people. On the other hand, manufactured goods need to conform to safety standards especially those directly applied on the body or in food stuffs. People involved in the production processes are significant determinants of the outcome and therefore the theories have played a significant role especially regarding emphasis on commitment to people (Kerzner, 2009). Contemporary project management within the construction environment has become more result oriented rather than the conventional way of focusing on project time frame, financial plan as well as terms and conditions. It is concerned with the outcome for which the project was set. Project management in construction and manufacturing generally takes the form of a decision tree (Fig. 1). Figure 1: Decision Tree of Project Management in Construction and Manufacturing                                        No Yes No Yes In relation to the decision tree above, Harold (2009) observes that after developing the strategic objectives, the managers evaluate the current situation or status of the organization. This is a starting point that is necessary to determine the next course of action. Project management is therefore preferred because it answers the question of whether the organization has attained its maximum capacity (Chapman and Ward, 2003). If not, the managers engage in assessing the constraints to establish if their cause is known or not. From this point, if the causes of the constraints are known, ways of alleviating them can be determined. If they are not known, investigations are undertaken. Such procedures help organizations to apply a straightforward approach to problem solving (Kendrick, 2009). Conclusion Fayol, Latham, Egan and House contributed significantly to the historical processes which have shaped manufacturing industry over the last century, and which have led to project management as it is known today within the construction environment. The theorists focus on the application of project management as a tool whereby the strategic objectives are aligned to the organizational goals. Human resources are viewed as significant capital that is essential to the accomplishment of goals. Committed leadership and customer focus are considered to be fundamental to just in time deliveries. The theorists share many ideas that have been relied on extensively by modern project managers in manufacturing. They also have divergent views with regard to distribution of power. Nevertheless, accomplishment of strategic objectives is the fundamental aspect that is emphasized by the theorists. Project management in the contemporary manufacturing and construction industries is accomplished in tandem with strategic management. References Alldredge, M., Johnson, C., Stoltzfuz, J., & Vicere, A. 2003. Leadership development at 3M: New process, new techniques, new growth. Human Resource Planning, 26,3, 45. Avolio, B. J. & Bass, B. M. 2002. Developing Potential across a Full Range of Leadership: Cases on Transactional and Transformational Leadership, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Barrett, D. A. 2006. “Leadership Perspective”. Leadership Excellence, Vol. 23,4, p 10. Cole, G. A. 2003. Management Theory and Practice, Thomson Learning. Chapman, C., and Ward, S. 2003. 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