The Channel Tunnel Project and the Way in Which It Was Planned and Expected To Be Carried Out - Essay Example

Channel Tunnel Project Project Management Process Introduction According to Heerkens (2002 this refers to the management process of planning and controlling the performance and execution of a project. It provides an incorporated structure for organization t, planning and control of a project. All these are aimed at keeping suitable quality standards, guaranteeing timely and cost-effective production of the required end-products and attaining benefits which is the sole reason for investing in the project has been made. This process is made up of three stages namely; Project Initiation, Control and Closure (Chitkara, 1998).2 Project Initiation- This marks the beginning of the project management process. It is majorly concerned with taking up ideas and opinions regarding the purpose as well as scope of the project, the outlook of the final project product and how the entire project process will be undertaken By providing a definition of what the project intends to achieve and information on its scope of interest, a benchmark is created for the purpose of assessing the quality of project’s final product. This stage must also define what resources and associated time commitment can be used to calculate an end date for the project and its estimated cost. It also entails recruitment of the right personnel to undertake data capture and decision-making. These people are recruited at the start of the project and the project organization structure is also defined (Richman, 2002)3. Another aspect considered here is the establishment of the procedures applicable by the people within the Project Organization Structure in carrying out and control during the project work. Finally, in order to put in place a resourced and funded project, it is of essence to establish a clear business case on the purpose of the project. This should be appraised for its feasibility by the management. The business case will help in identifying the intended benefits of achieving the objectives and then scale these against the costs and risks related to realizing these benefits. On the other hand, the business case can also be used effectively as a yardstick for comparing against actual results, incurred costs and benefits so as to evaluate the final project success of the. Generally, the Project Initiation Stage is described as a sequence of steps which include the Kick-Off Stage, the Project Objective and Scope, Project Schedule and Budgeting, Stage Schedule and Budgeting, Project Organization, Project Control Procedures, Business Case, and Project Initiation Stage Assessment (Leach, 2005).4 Project Control-This stage involves arranging of various project activities into a series of steps. These steps fall into four categories, namely; a step to initiate the stage, steps that are continuously undertaken throughout the stages. There should be clearly recognized control measures for all the processes. The project control procedures should be incorporated into the project plan. Such procedures include quality, progress, change and version controls alongside issue resolution. In the project control, there should be a proper administration system, detailing the role that each person is going to undertake in order to ensure the success of the project. There needs to be a quality control procedure (Wysocki, 2004)5. The management should have in place mechanisms sable in ensuring the quality products from the project. There needs to be change control procedures on the project. This should be taken into account to avoid it impacting on the schedule, costs and quality of the final product. There should also be established issue resolution procedure to tackle any issues that may arise during the project control process. Finally, there should be a regular review of the project control procedures. This should ensure that the Project Controls are in place. Project Closure- This stage helps formally close the project in a way that institutes instruments for the continuous development and upgrading of the final project product standard process for this project by updating the models of estimation so that the project resources can be re-deployed. Projects are normally designed to end at some point.6. The lessons learnt on how to undertake similar projects better in the future should be captured for future use. These will help the project management team have a better idea of how long the various activities on this type of project will take to do. There will be a lot of data generated in the process of undertaking a project, and this should been stored with diverse degrees of procedure by team. This information needs to be officially filed for possible future reference. Generally, the project closure undergoes through several processes. These include final product evaluation, project completion, and process improvement (Winch, 2010).7 Evaluation of how the tunnel project was planned and expected to be carried out The Tunnel Channel project was carefully planned to ensure its achievement. The planning detailed procedures to be followed by the project team throughout the project life cycle. These procedures were as follows; excavating up tunnels and setting of rails, construction of the rail control centers and adoption of service tunnel vehicles. Each of these steps was to be carried out in detail to ensure the project lacked any deficiencies that would lead to future failure. The Tunnels- The channel tunnel is one of the longest in the world. It consists of three tunnels were to be bored very deep below the sea bed to link various cities that it served. The section under the sea was designed to be thirty eight kilometers long during the planning and each tunnel was supposed to be fifty kilometers long. The average depth below the sea bed was to be forty meters. It was designed to allow different trains to run in only one direction and the tunnels were are joined to a central service tunnel by cross-passages situated every tree hundred and seventy five meters. Te two rail tunnels were also to be thirty meters apart, each with a single track, overhead line equipment and two walkways. Rail Control Centers- these were designed to control the transport system. These are two centers, one on each terminal, and each could take turns to take over the control platform. The system was designed in dual parts, the Rail Traffic Management which focuses on track and equipment maintenance and the Engineering Management System which aids in efficient execution of rail functions and processes. Signaling- The signaling system was to have devices to transmit data and instructions along the track and to the train controller by use of indicator lights in the locomotive. Service Tunnel Vehicles- this was planned to be a train, short in size and used to do repair work in the tunnel and the whole rail network. It was also meant to be multi-functional. Evaluation of how the Tunnel Project was Planned and Carried Out The planning entailed documentation of project scope, objectives and stakeholder requirements and funds requests. The scope covers the extent to which the project should be undertaken with regard to available funds and resources. Objectives and stakeholder requirements of the project are also clearly spelt out and the project team work to ensure these are achieved. There should be an evaluation of the funds requirements as without funds the project will never be a success. The funds should be enough to cover the whole project cycle. A project team is therefore formed with each member assigned a specific task to perform. There should be no duplication of duties. The next step is the identification of the outputs and deliverables after which tasks are now identified and sequenced or arranged in a logical order of importance. The team should then compile time lines and dependencies and then identify other resource requirements. Besides, measurements against which to measure performance should be set to check for any variations. Finally, a budget is prepared and the plan is submitted for review. The plan can then be carried out. The project is then rolled out and the results evaluated to check if the objectives are met, outcomes are achieved and team effectiveness is put into play. Then a close-out stage follows. At this stage, the project and lessons learned are therefore documented, followed by celebration of success and disbandment of the team. How the Project came together in the Actual Execution This is the project implementation phase and constitutes the following steps: Preparation of Infrastructure- It is important to consider the features of the production environment. It entails review of hardware, in this case railway construction inputs, software and communication gadgets. The project had adequate supply of materials required which helped in its timely completion. Co-ordination with the organizations involved in Implementation- this entails liaising with the various entities that will in one way or another be involved in the undertaking of the project. Since the project involved several governments and their various departments, proper consultation was at the core of the project’s success. Implementation Training- All members of the project team underwent training to improve their knowledge on the requirements and scope of the project. This enabled each of them to comprehensively understand the tasks required to complete in the whole project with success. Installation of production solution- The project team made use of existing modern in drilling the tunnel and also incorporated some old railway construction old ideas and technology that were found useful for the ultimate success of the project. Perform Final verification in production- test the production solution to ensure everything is working as required. Ensure everything is up and okay and then push data around in the solution, to make sure the solution performing well. For the tunnel project, test runs were undertaken on safety, communication and performance which after several tests confirmed functionality. Implement New processes and procedures- With all the work on the tunnels complete, it was now time to change how Eurotunnel did business from ticketing, scheduling of departure and arrival time to adoption of new safety and communication procedures. Monitor the solution- The operation of the tunnel was closely monitored for any problems that came up immediately after implementation, the project team was all systems go to address any shortcoming. Role of Risk Management, Time Frames, Staffing, Costing, Evaluation of the Project Risk management involves use of critical measures in the design of the project to prevent any bad incidents that could occur in this transport system. Several risk management techniques have been employed to take care of this. The tunnels are made in such a way that the trains can travel on a single track and in one direction only. This is of great importance as the trains and shuttles would never experience any accidents in the form of head-on collisions. At the same time, the service tunnels are designed to allow access by the maintenance and emergency rescue teams. For example, in case of any accidents the rescue team can quickly reach the scene and carry out their rescue operations effectively. The maintenance team can also carry out their maintenance operations with ease without any hitches to ensure that the entire system remains in good condition all the time. The service tunnels also act as safe havens if passengers need to be evacuated during an accident. The system is also enabled with higher pressures in the tunnel. This is designed to help prevent the ingress of smoke in case of fire in one of the rail tunnels. Each rail tunnel has two walkways; one of which is used for maintenance purposes and the other is used as exit route during emergency evacuation. These also help maintain shuttle upright and in a straight line of travel in case of derailment. There also exists two undersea cross over which help a great deal in bringing flexibility of operations. This is also a 24 hour system where staff works in shifts to ensure that staff is present at any moment of the day to attend to any incidents which could arise. Key ‘–’ Data not available Evaluation of What Went Wrong A project is considered a failure if it does not meet the expectations of the stakeholders. Project failures could be caused by several factors. For example, the management may not embrace full participation by project members thereby owning the project himself. The members would feel isolated and thus never work hard for the project’s success. For the tunnel project, machine failure and environmental issues were the major setbacks. The geological variations in the tunnel route had its toll on the machines and equipments which led to delays in project completion. Several demarcated routes were found to be places of great environmental significance which meant that there was to be either a change of route and subsequently plans or re negotiations with all the parties involved to ensure that the tunnel did not only cause offence to the environment but also to the conservationists and human inhabitants of these ecosystems. The management also set aggressive time schedules that were difficult to meet (Carroll, 2009)8. It was important that they did not set time limits beyond the scope of the project team to ensure minimal pressure in construction of the tunnel. The project team also faced scarcity of resources in terms of machinery that took long to get to the intended sites for seamless flow in the drilling process. This was made more difficult with the absence of room for modifications of machinery and equipment that were manufactured purposely for drilling (Dinsmore & Brewin, 2011)9. Finally, the management team did not carry out comprehensive review regular review of the project as a whole to check for any variations well in advance to help avert foreseeable challenges How to improve the process Effective project and quality management is critical for operational success. Therefore, several techniques should have been employed to help improve the tunnel project. These are clearly discussed below. Development of a strategic quality plan- This entails the use of a well set-out plan to achieve project success. The plan is should be well formulated with a set objective that is achievable within a given period of time and fall back plans should there be any challenges (Winch, 2002).10 Monitoring the effectiveness of Project teams- Each project team should be constantly monitored to ensure that there is no laxity in while carrying out their roles. Progress made by a team should be evaluated to check for any deviations from what is required or if what the team has so far achieved is within the schedule. For any deviations, quick and necessary actions should be taken to remedy the situation (Pinto & Morris, 2004).11 Training of Employees- The employees should be regularly trained to improve quality and project management performance. Training on the jobs will help the employees effectively implement the project and make corrections for any discrepancies which could be noted during project implementation (Berkun, 2008)12. Benchmarking Current Organizational Performance- A benchmark should be set against which current organizational performance will be measured. Performance by each project team is evaluated against the set benchmarks to check for any deviation from what is required of the project. If any variance is noted, a corrective action be quickly taken to bring the project back on track and avoid any further variations (Larson & Gray, 2011).13 Evaluate the effectiveness of project and quality processes and tools- The project quality processes and tools should be carefully evaluated to check if they give a true reflection or feedback of what happens on the ground. The tools act like performance measuring devices and if they are ineffective, feedback on the efficiency of drilling equipments from the responsible staff be reflected as positive. The latter would be very dangerous for the project itself and would lead to failure. Audit Projects to Identify Challenges and Improvement Opportunities- The project should be regularly reviewed to check for any challenges that could be affecting the project as a whole. The noted challenges must be dealt with within whatever means available and very quickly to avoid them hurting the project as a whole (Wysocki, 2009)14. Any improvement opportunities must also be noted to ensure that the necessary adjustments are undertaken to ensure the success of the project. Coaching of Project leaders and project teams to close any performance gaps- The project leaders and teams should be regularly coached on the implementation of the project. This would work to enhance their performance, thus leading to the success of the project (Campbell, 2007).15 Create a structure to increase the success of the project- There should be a clearly designed organizational structure detailing clearly the roles of each member of the project team. The organization structure will ensure that there is no duplication of roles for the team members and each person will be liable for the role assigned to him if not properly undertaken (Carroll, 2012).16 Establish a productive project management culture- A proper and productive management culture should be inculcated within the organization to ensure the project is a success. For example, a management that allows for participation of all members in the implementation of the project is highly likely to achieve a successful project process than a management that does not allow full participation (Bruijn & Heuvelhof, 2010)17. If members are allowed to fully participate in the implementation of the project, they will feel like they are truly a part of the process and therefore diligently work hard to see the project through. Conclusion Therefore, to achieve success of a project, the various stages involved in the whole process must be strictly adhered to. All requirements must be readily available including financial and human resources. The management must ensure that the all the project team members are involved fully in the undertaking of the project and in decision-making. At the same time, the team members must be adequately motivated. If all these factors are taken into account, there is no doubt that eventually the project will be a major success. The tunnel project, in as much as it had it shortcomings, took into account the above concerns and that was the reason for its success and subsequent operational sustainability after completion in 1994. Bibliography Berkun, S. (2008). 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The Wiley guide to managing projects. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Kerzner, H. (2001). Project management a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (7th ed.). New York: John Wiley. Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2011). Project management: the managerial process (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Leach, L. P. (2005). Critical chain project management (2nd ed.). Boston: Artech House. Levy, S. M. (2012). Project management in construction (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Richman, L. L. (2002). Project management step-by-step. New York: Amacom. Smith, N. J. (1999). Managing risk in construction projects. Oxford: Blackwell Science. Winch, G. (2002). Managing construction projects. Oxford: Blackwell Science. Winch, G. (2010). Managing construction projects: an information processing approach (2nd ed.). Chichester: Blackwell Pub.. Wysocki, R. K. (2004). Project management process improvement. Boston: Artech House. Wysocki, R. K. (2009). Effective project management: traditional, agile, extreme (5th ed.). Read More