Industrial Project Management Issues - Essay Example

Industrial Project Management (Plan to Implement Programme of Integrated Performance Improvement Activities) Going through the case study it is quiteapparent that, the management realised the seriousness of the issue at the eleventh hour i.e. at the hour of crisis only. Managing the affairs was almost totally left to the co-director and the manger of the company, without any planned effort to groom some replacement. Though the company is small, and managing 30 people is not that difficult a task, but by all indications it appears the company is having wide differences amongst this lot of 30 people as well. As a stop gap arrangement the top management entrusted the task of managing the factory to a team of managers while ignoring the rightful claims of two senior and experienced shop floor staff who worked closely with the erstwhile boss. Comprising three people, the management team also had a works manager in the team, but what is quite surprising is that the seniority or position of the works manager was never formally acknowledged, leaving bitterness amongst the staff and the team. Ideally, once the works manager is part of the management, he should have been granted the status and powers to deal with the staff as a 'manager', but the indecisiveness is apparent all over in this decision as well. All this is because the company hierarchy and decision flow system is not well planned; instead it is being run as a family business with many lines of communication sending across conflicting signals to the workforce. This not only results in confusing the workforce but it also results in delay for the customer's deliveries. Such delays leave dissatisfied customer, and employees too find it difficult to face the customers advancing reasons for delays etc. This acts as a de-motivator for the workforce. The ad-hoc approach is also visible in the way the chairman sends across his orders and directives. Chairman is of course within his rights to select people for particular tasks, but at the same time the chairman must not appear to be taking sides opening in favour of someone or against someone, on a routine basis. The favouritism is also apparent in salary reviews for the employees. It results in lowering the morale of other people in the company. Teamwork is also affected, because employees are wary of working with such people. The company is now operating at a small scale, but taking care of customer's preferences, and quality will go a long way in preparing the company for taking on the competition for a longer period, strengthening its financials and adding more value to its products. But as of now company doesn't have any quality standards in place. Today we are living in a competitive era and quality forms one of the important cornerstones for product differentiation. Performance Improvement Essentials For sustainable development the company will have to resort to a number of measures towards improving the motivation level of the workforce, breeding team spirit and for improving the overall outlook of the company. Some of the steps that the company can take are; Motivation for the workforce: Motivation in fact proves to be of strategic importance in an era when competition requires best use of the resources for value addition and customer satisfaction. In simplest terms motivation can be defined as a means of providing motives. Motives can act towards making or spoiling the work, towards doing a job more efficiently or for distorting the work environment. The lack of any positive motivation from the management often results in an automatic negative motivation. This could be defined as the state of an individual's perspective which represents the strength of his/ her natural inclination to exert efforts towards some particular behaviour. It is through their behaviour that employees give expression to their commitment to work, level of motivation and their attitudes. For this small manufacturing company, problems are many on the delivery front and role of the workforce becomes crucial to fulfil the commitments to customers. Salary hikes or payments in some other form are not the only factors which can motivate the workforce. If the management is able to establish a healthy chord with the workforce, employees obviously feel valued, so they'll try to be of maximum help for their company. Instances like the one arising out of the resignation of the co-director, when the workers apparently sensed something sensational, but they were not informed about the resignation of their boss till things started taking peculiar turns with a new management team, give rise to the sense of being slighted amongst the workers. Such instances need be taken care of in the rights earnest and taking the employees in confidence, particularly when the strength is just about 30 helps in making the decision more acceptable. Encouragement to Teamwork: Howard Good (2006), the former president of Highland Central School Board in Highland, N.Y., says, "Being board president brings power and prestige, but you must inspire and help others to be successful". A team leader therefore plays the central role in making or breaking the team. The chairman of this manufacturing unit should act as a team leader. A cohesive team of highly motivated and well organized members can do wonders for the growth of the organization. An individual is least bothered about the final product, once he/ she has done his/ her share of task. A team on the other hand helps in networking of the individuals, with exchange of ideas and suggestions. This not only helps in regular updation of the knowledge level of the team members but also enriches the final product and service. Terry (1994) says that competence for a managerial job is the product of both inherited and acquired qualities. Therefore the team leader has to be a good learner, so that he can capitalize on the stronger points of the team while trying to minimize the effects of weaker points. A team leader has to be; Initiator: The leader must be able to take a lead in defining the work environment and team spirit. Model: The leader must himself be able to display his workmanship, so that he proves be a role model for other team members. Negotiator: The negotiating skills are the one's which distinctly differentiate a team leader from other members. While stuck up in a tricky situation a team leader uses his skills to convince the concerned people, tries to extract reasonable benefits for his team mates and negotiates a better deal from suppliers while weighing the outcomes of different alternatives. Coach: A team leader has to be a good coach as well. He is supposed to impart the basic working principles amongst his team members. But he must not take this job so seriously that he starts interrupting the team members for each and every task. This results in undue interference in routine functioning of the team. Better Communication Practices: It is more than evident that this company is desperately in need of an improvement in interpersonal communication as well as departmental communication. Effective communication helps in creating a better working environment within the premises and sends out signals to the outside world about the professional approach of the company. Effective HRM: Managing the human resources, the all important ingredient in value creation and value addition, requires an honest and sincere approach from the company bosses. This requires that there should not be any undue favouritism, lack of coordination, delay in important information dissemination and stagnation in promotions and other payment related issues. Today human beings are also considered as rational economic beings. And maximum output is thought to be the direct consequence of the policy of relating pay levels to the output. Some of the tried and tested methods for managing the human resources include; Designing the job in such a manner that it caters to the business as well the personal needs of the employee; Measuring performances in an impartial manner to encourage efficient workers; Imparting training and development to the employees and encouraging leadership skills at different levels so that the company doesn't have to face a situation like it is facing at the moment. Integrated approach in production: Operations management is an import ally of production management. This calls for an integrated approach to manage the supply as well as the distribution chains, customer deadlines etc. In addition this approach requires that the company must make use of techniques like JIT i.e. Just in Time to make the best use of the idle time and the inventories. For a successful implementation of the integrated approach the movement of the raw material as well as the finished product need to be planned well in advance with a coordinated approach amongst different sections of the company, so that all the required jobs can be done in minimum possible time and without wastage of efforts and resources. As of now the company has been presenting a dismal picture on all these fronts, be it waste management, planning, inventory management or customer deadlines. In fact measure leading to waste reduction will result a number of advantages like; Saving money; Allowing the employees to breath in an environment friendly atmosphere; Conserving energy and preserving the natural balance; Creating a consumer friendly environment; Giving a fresh lease of life to the mother earth and of course and long lasting sustainable business prospects for the company Co-ordination amongst different departments: The company has been facing adverse circumstances owing to lack of coordination amongst different departments and units. Company is basically a jobbing shop manufacturing thousands of varieties of products with lower volumes. As the company is not able to plan out the jobs at each department, the setting up times take significant time, consequently affecting the efficiency of production. Therefore what it requires is a coordinated approach amongst different departments so that one department doesn't remain waiting for other to finish its job. This will help in making the company more efficient while reducing the wastages. At the same time, the coordination amongst different department implies that the sales and marketing departments bring more orders to the company and the production unit keeps up the pace without any idle running of the machinery or the manpower. Key to a coordinated approach is the initiative taken at the top which must be reflected in the form of; Empowering the managers to take independent routine decisions in the interest of the business; management must also appear to be impartial in it approach; the managers i.e. the team leaders must resort to ethical behaviour while dealing with customers as well as the subordinates; top management has the maximum responsibility in bringing in impartiality in daily workings; the communication channels must have some uniformity while sending across the messages to others around; operations and process control in particular require a better focus. Emphasis on Quality: Quality is not easy to define because it means different things to different people under different sets of circumstances. In general it is the customer receiving the goods or services who decides whether or not the promised quality of goods or services are being provided by the organization, regardless of what the organization thinks of itself. David A Garvin (1984) suggests that there are 7 dimensions of quality which are performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability and aesthetics. Therefore, in order to remain competitive, profitable and a better managed company, these characteristics will have to remain in focus all the time. Today we are in an era of globalization and intense competition, which calls for a professional approach on behalf of companies and organizations. Quality is now regarded as an important means of bringing in product differentiation. In the world we live today, quality has no substitute and active participation of all concerned towards delivering a quality product or service is of prime importance. For active participation of all concerned, the company must ensure that; The workforce is properly trained to adhere to quality standards; the workforces is treated as equal partners in implementing and improving quality control measures; the suppliers, distributors and other related companies are treated as partners in a mutually beneficial tie-up; to get a feedback from its customers as well as the workers, the company must set up a reliable and unbiased feedback channel and monitoring the responses to its quality control initiatives, responses from customers, newer product launches in the market, newer feature initiatives etc. John Ruskin, an English critic of 19th century once said, "Quality is never an accident, it is always the result of intelligent effort". This statement sums up the kind of efforts required for deliver value to the customer and for producing a quality product and service. Oakland (2000) proposed that employees' participation helps in implementing the total quality management (TQM) strategy. For this to happen, employees must be made aware about the different aspects of quality and how they can be partners in implementing quality strategy. Such an arrangement, often termed as the participative form of management, is stated to help the subordinates in sharing the decision making power with their superiors. Customer Focus: In order to remain in business the company should never lose sight of the customers' existing as well as emerging preferences. To get a feel of the needs of customers, companies are required to invest in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and technologies in order to increase and improve customer engagement and communication. The communication itself could be through the publicity messages, front office dealings, after-sales services, paying attention to customer needs, soliciting feedback from the customers etc. References: 1. Good, Howard (2006). Leader of the Pack. American School Board Journal, xx 2006. 2. Garvin, David A. (1984). "What Does 'Product Quality' Really Mean" MIT Sloan Management Review 26, no. 1 (fall 1984). 3. Oakland, J., (2000), Total quality management - Text with cases, 2nd edition, Butterworth Heinemann. 4. Terry, George R. and Franklin Stephen G. (1994). Principles of management. Richard D. Irwin Inc. USA. Read More