Developing a Resource Management System for National Water Company and Marafiq Company - Case Study Example

National Water Company In 2012, the National Water Company (NWC) of Saudi Arabia successfully executed a project by largely depending on Primavera software in project timing, planning, scheduling which in turn, helped them conceptualise different aspects of the project including Highsmith (2013). The project involved development of 46 water purification stations and 43 wells in 27 different locations to provide sustainable as well as potable water systems close to Riyadh (Hwang and Ng 2013). Introducing Primavera in the management of this project, the main function of National Water Company was to ensure time management the project, schedule, plan, control and monitor the timely completion of the water purification stations’ scope of work. According to the manager, at each of the 43 developed well sites, drills bore down up to 2000m to sub ground water application of Critical Path Method (CPM) was the main scheduling approach that necessitated timely completion of the project (Badiru and Osisanya 2016). This section therefore critically assesses NWS’s application of CPM and how the approach helped the company determines critical activities that comprised the critical path. Taking data from the Company’s project processes, this section applies CPM by further indicating different sub-categories such as ES, LS, EF and LF in the project so that project start date and completion cannot only be understood from the perspective of Primavera but other variables such as activities with time, activities with cost, and the performance are conceptualized within the framework of the entire project. The Critical Path Within the context of the project the company was undertaking, our approach defines critical path as the longest but continuous path of the project activities from its launch date on 4th November 2012 (taking considerations of its data date) to the final date it was completed and how these activities determined the overall duration of the project. The activities that comprised the critical path will include data that this study captured from progresses as follows: CST Storage providing 17 Aquastore glass-fused-to-steel coated Drills bore down up to 2000m to sub ground water Reverse osmosis desalination plants Storing 5,000 cubic metres with dimensions of 31.5m diameter and 6.9m height CST Covers in Rincon and Conroe From the list above, we considered that the activities that basically comprise of the critical path were those activities with the least amount of total float. That is, they portray negative or zero total float value. Just like Badiru and Osisanya (2016) noted, an activity on the critical path was one which the company planned to not be started or completed until its expected logical predecessor activities have progressed or completed. On the other hand, in case a critical path was delayed by one day or several days, any successor activities including the final stage of the completion of the project was delayed unless there were mitigation processes that were taken. The following scenarios therefore illustrate two cases where NWC used to explain the reason or rationale behind adopting a critical path in handling the five processes as shown in the list above: Scenario number one: The contractors in the company adopted CPM basing on the calculated results from CST storage that provided 17 aqua store glass-fused-to-steel coated and drills bore down up to 2000m to sub ground water of the planned network logic as well as estimated activity durations and further, on what the project managers termed as ‘milestones they included in their schedule’ (Archibald and Archibald 2016). Scenario number two: Contractors in the company developed CPM that was based on the understanding and collaborative input from the superintendent, project managers, subcontractors, and others with the aim of forcing the critical path to stretch through some activities that individuals experienced are satisfied with it. This scenario was applicable to reverse osmosis desalination plants, storing 5,000 cubic metres with dimensions of 31.5m diameter and 6.9m height and CST Covers in Rincon and Conroe. Basing on the data from contractors (Saudi contractors, SSEM and NESMA) whose roles was to oversee the acquisition and installation of the storage tanks for the National Water Company, we represent the critical path by a single path as well as multiple parallel paths as shown in the figures below: Figure xx: A single Critical Path (NWC) Figure xxxx; Multiple Critical Path (NWC) The figures above provide worked examples of both single and multiple critical paths for the water company based on work schedules and estimations provided by Saudi contractors, SSEM and NESMA. From the figures above, basically, it is possible to deduce that the critical path is shown by a continuous path of different activities as represented which can be traced from their start dates to final completion activity. Nevertheless, Archibald and Archibald (2016) argue that in some cases, the critical path may not be represented by a continuous path of different activities. Just like it was with this case while tracing activities involved in construction of reverse osmosis desalination plants, the critical path could only begin at a point in time after the date of the data. Archibald and Archibald (2016) found that, it is not common to find one or different critical path activities with an imposed start or finish constraint. Therefore, taking reverse osmosis desalination plants the company worked on, critical path can be influenced by the constraint and at the same time, the constraint may not allow the critical path to completely trace back to the project’s data date. Taking data on reverse osmosis desalination plants, the figure xx below provide our analysis of its critical path thus illustrating how critical path can be influenced by an activity start constraint. Figure xx: Constraint Influencing Critical Path One notable aspect from the figure above is that when critical is affected by a constraint then the basis for the adoption and use of the constraint that can dictate the beginning (start) of the critical path is assessed or scrutinized for its reasonableness (El-Sabek and McCabe 2017). Additionally, we conceptualise from this sub-project (reverse osmosis desalination plants) that an understanding as well as rationale for adopting a constraint that can affect the critical path should be documented and explanation provided. Based on the three figures above, the general approach to the project provided different possible conclusions. First, the critical path approach help in making informed decisions when it comes to relative planning the work done and parts of working that still remains, application of resources and dealing with possible delays, or in some cases, accelerating portions of the scope of the project. Taking a case of reverse osmosis desalination plants, CPM scheduling programs allowed project managers in the company to identify the activities they considered to be on the critical path or a case of drills bore down up to 2000m to sub ground water which was taken to be a sub-project near-critical path as they filtered the schedule data according to the low float value criteria or longest path. Taking a case of drills bore down up to 2000m to sub ground water which took the company five months to complete (January 2015 to April 2015), the figure xx below represents tabular representation of worked near critical path output. Figure xx: Near-critical path output bar chart From the figure xx above, project managers were able to determine which tasks in the process of boring down up to 2000m to sub ground water were critical or in this case, indicated as zero slack time and at the same time, the tasks which they could delay and the period of time the delay could take noting that for the process of boring to successful complete, sub tasks such as foundation, erection of steel structures and grounding were essential as seen in figure xx above. From assessing near-critical path output bar chart, argued that project managers are often at the mercy of CPM scheduling processes when it comes to how the output of the schedule data has been presented. Additionally, it is worth noting from the figure above that in case there are deficiencies in the representation of CPM model like what El-Sabek and McCabe (2017) terms as open-end activities or cases of overuse of constraints then such are likely to complicate or muddle the process of project completion. Researches have noted that the effectiveness of the near-critical path output bar chart may not be realized with big and complex projects unless such projects are broken down (El-Sabek and McCabe 2017). According to Emmer and Evertson (2016), complex projects have inherent challenges such as the ability to accurately and quickly identify, evaluate and summarise the critical path as well as near-critical paths. It is not common for large and complex projects to have multiple process areas that are represented by numerous schedule activities. This idea makes the process of identifying the critical path as well as near-critical paths a challenge. Conceptualizing this point within National Water Company, it would not have been possible to assess the effectiveness of near-critical path output bar chart by taking the whole project (development of 46 water purification stations and 43 wells) instead; sub-dividing the projects into different sub-projects necessitated the general conceptualization within the framework of near-critical path output bar chart. From this perspective, the study evaluated critical and near-critical path bar chart sort by early start dates to ascertain their effectiveness and planning and scheduling tasks of the project. Figure xx: NWC Critical and Near-Critical Path Bar (Sort by Early Start Dates) The figure above is generated from the data regarding the project process that covered the following: CST Storage providing 17 Aquastore glass-fused-to-steel coated Drills bore down up to 2000m to sub ground water Reverse osmosis desalination plants Storing 5,000 cubic metres with dimensions of 31.5m diameter and 6.9m height CST Covers in Rincon and Conroe From the figure, the horizontal work flow from engineers, installation, commissioning and startup is likely to be understood especially with regard to the relationship between the critical and near-critical paths. The bottom line of the matter is that it is easy to assess and evaluate the different drivers to the paths in the project. However, the figure further shows that the process of validating and evaluating critical and near-critical path can be difficult if there is magnitude of change orders as was seen in the CST covers in Rincon and Conroe. These changes when introduced to the project schedule hampered and invalidated reasonableness of targeted or forecasted dates slack or float values and the best option was to correct the deficiencies. Marafiq Company Recently, Power and Water Utility Company for Jubail and Yanbu (commonly known as Marafiq) embarked on the implementation of different mega projects where they heavily relied on Primavera in project estimations, costing, evaluation and scheduling (Emmer and Evertson 2016). In particular, the Company extensively used the software in building a water desalination plant that was based on reverse osmosis system (ROS) estimated to cost in the regions of SR850 million for SADARA Chemical Co. In connection to this project, Marafiq Company took critical path method as a step-by-step process of managing the project that included planning and putting into consideration critical and non-critical tasks with the aim of preventing process bottlenecks and time-frame problems (Heldman 2015). In building water desalination plant that was based on reverse osmosis system the project contained three different building they named as follows: US-based Dow Chemical (will be considered in the critical path method as Project A) Jubail Project 2 (will be considered in the critical path method as Project B) ROS-based desalination (will be considered in the critical path method as Project C) The case considers Marafiq Company project in terms of the three above where A, B and C which were constructed by a single constructor single sourced by Marafiq Company. Each of the projects above (has been represented as WBS) are given in terms of Highsmith (2013) recommendation which is network analysis. In accordance with the project schedule the company undertook, the schedules were as follows: Project A (the project took 90 days from start date to complete date) Project B (the project took 150 days from start date to complete date) Project C (the project took 60 days from start date to complete date) Based on the schedule above, the critical path method for the three projects the company undertook are as follows: Figure xx: Project Critical Path Method for Marafiq Company Figure xx: Project Critical Path Method for Marafiq Company Application of critical path method on the Company regarding the three projects (A, B and C) it is clear that Marafiq Company has an issue to address and in particular, project B from the figures xx and xx above is on critical path owing to the fact that it is likely to take 5 months (approximately 150 days) from the start to completion date. This according to studies such as Jayaraman and Jayaraman (2016) is the longest path as well as shortest duration that can be found in what can be seen to be the longest path. On the other hand, it is possible to conclude that Primavera P6 is displaying the same information as indicated in red line. Drawing from researches such as xx, the conclusion regarding project B is that it is on critical path. On the other hand, the figures above provide an understanding on the Early Start, Total Float, Early Finish and Free Float. Other factors in consideration in developing the figures above include: Early Start Date---considered to be the earliest time the three projects were commissioned by the company to start once the company’s previous dependent activities are executed and completed. Early Finish---based on the three projects the company was undertaking, early finish date was considered as the earliest time for the projects and the time they needed to complete the projects as advised by SADARA Chemical Co and the he Saudi Arabian Basic Industrial Corporation (xx). Late Finish---the latest time the three projects was going to take to be completed without causing delays to the three projects. On the other hand, later start was considered to be the latest time of completion minus the time they required to complete other activities inherent in the sub-projects. Total Float----the time the three projects were delayed from its early start date without causing delay to the other two-sub projects or the entire project. Conceptualizing the points above with regard to the three projects, the network diagram below illustrates critical path analysis of any of the three projects the Company undertook. Figure xx: Network Diagram Critical Path Method for the Projects Explaining the figure above, A, B, C, D, E, F,G are conceptualized within the context of Marafiq and their duration for each activities that were assigned to the three sub-projects. Taking any of the projects, A is the successor activity when it comes to E, B and F which in turn, are the acting as the successor activity for G, D and C in that order. On the other hand, D takes the final activity whose predecessors are E, F and G. From the figure above, there are three possible paths for the completion of the three sub-projects which would in turn, necessitate completion of the major project. A-E-D (completion duration 16 days) A-B-C-D (completion duration 13 days) A-F-G-D (completion duration 21 days) Basing on the three paths above, the longest path is A-F-G-D (completion duration 21 days) which is the path for the completion of project B however, the path is considered as critical. Going by xx recommendation, owing to the fact that the path A-F-G-D remains critical for Marafiq project, total float will be regarded as 0 (zero) for every activity when it comes to critical path. The same process of network diagram for critical path method regarding the company’s project was repeated using Primavera software as shown below. Figure xx: Network Diagram Critical Path Method for the Projects Figure xx: Network Diagram Critical Path Method for the Projects From the figures above, the following points are observed as far as the project is concerned. The total float from the figure above and in particular, activity B is found to be 8 days therefore this particular activity can be delayed by the company for further 4 months without causing the delay for the entire project and importantly, Jubail Project 2. Secondly, the total float for activities A-F-G-D was found to be 0 therefore considered as critical. Taking activity C as it appears in the figures above the total float is found to be 8 days which means that the company can still delay activity C by at least 5 months and without affecting the entire project (Jayaraman and Jayaraman 2016). Looking at the activity in terms of free float, activity B is 8 meaning that ES is therefore successor activity C – EF with regard to activity B. The interpretation of this point according to researches such as Joore and Brezet (2015) is that the company can delay particular activity B by at least 8 days and this step will not cause problems to the successor C. This is the same case with activity E and C which the company can comfortably delay without causing any delays or inconveniences to the successor of different activities including activity D. From the analysis above, the company was likely to identify risk factors in the process of implementing the project. From the analysis, the risk factors and sub-risk factors could be identified with the integration or involvement of executives working in projects in accordance with specification of the project (Joore and Brezet 2015; Mir and Pinnington 2014). The technical risks involved in this project involve the following: Implementation of methodology selection processes Scope change for the change Equipment risks for the projects Engineering and design change needed for the change and Materials risk associated with the project The analysis above provides an opportunity to understand the connectedness between the project the company executed and Primavera when it comes to risk management. From the one hand, the critical path method provides opportunity to identify categories and prioritization of risks that are associated with specific work breakdown structure resources and elements through integrated risks analysis and management feature. Basically, from ES, LS, EF and LF project managers can create risk plans as well as creating a process of assigning a probability of the project’s occurrence. Just like McCarty and Skibniewski (2017) found, the assessment of ES, LS, EF and LF will allow project managers to understand type of risk, their priority levels and a given work breakdown structure elements and resources that can be impacted by the risk within the project. Recent studies from scholars such McCarty and Skibniewski (2017) have noted with analysis of ES, LS, EF and LF project managers are able to develop risk’s probability of occurrence, resource unit, date of possible impact and expense estimates that will in turn, help in the calculations of project risk’s net exposure values. Project management processes are no longer theoretical and with the introduction of project management systems there are different parameters of primavera such as resource assigning, work breakdown structure and scheduling that helps in the project success. However, in achieving project success, effective and clear communication should be there with sharing of knowledge with the team members. This is to mean that project teams and specifically, project managers will get connected and maintain coordination with quality. Read More