Project Description
This project aims at streamlining the company’s production process from the point of raw materials arrival to the processing and distribution of products. The system has been proposed by the four, top company’s management team with the primary aim of enhancing productivity through raising the level of efficiency. A team of three employees will be working in the facilities with their provision to actualize the goals of the project.
The employees will be charged with the role of increasing company productivity by embracing efficiency in the handling of materials and products from the arrival of raw materials, selection, seclusion and storage, retrieval for processing, packaging and distribution of final products. By creating ample and well-defined working space for each worker, efficiency, and accountability will be achieved.
The project will involve mapping out the docking area to clearly separate goods coming in by way of having tapes on the floor that denote each section of the products already in the system. The quarantine area will then be labeled accordingly, shelves numbered and coded for easy identification of products. This will be critical in ensuring separation of shelves handling heavy and light products, and then swapping the quarantine areas with the weigh stations.
Through establishing a well-defined production line based on efficiency, the project aims at reducing the production cost considerably. This is an essential aspect within the core mandates of the company’s ventures into the business by raising its revenues. However, the project will ensure that the working process for the employees will not be interfered with. Further, the quality of products will be maintained and where possible improved to meet higher consumer needs and standards.
Positive Lessons
The following positive lessons were evident during the project work and involved: effective communication, motivation, role clarity, clear defined scope and minimized resource conflict. Effective communication among project managers and the company staff enhanced the working process resulting in increased productivity. This was realized as every detail of the project was taken into account and discussed with every person involved in the implementation. In turn, every individual was well versed with the project’s implementation urgency, hence, mastering the schedules that made the working operations very efficient.
Workers’ motivation was also evident explicated by the fact that with the implementation of this project, the employee’s working space would be ample and well-defined. Job satisfaction depends on the working environment and thus, this project provided an opportunity for the employees to contribute to their safety and well-being.
The role clarity of individuals had a positive impact on the implementation of the ERP system, in the sense that every task was implemented as required. With every individual involved being well-versed with the tasks assigned to them in the project implementation, time was saved, as well as coordination enhanced among the staff.
Having a clearly defined scope of the project allowed for rapid implementation bearing in mind that changes of scope that were avoided could have resulted in an overrun of cost and time. Through regular monitoring of the project, team managers ensured that all workers involved were kept within the scope stipulated. Minimized resource conflict came with the company having sufficient resources to staff the project, as well as working on one individual implementation strategy of the project. The presence of a project running concurrent to ERP could give rise to bottlenecks that in turn result in conflicts of labor as a major resource in system implementation.
Negative Lessons
Every endeavor has its merits and demerits, and the following negative lessons were learned from this project implementation. They include cross contamination, failure of all employees to get involved, less flexible scope, the assumption of sufficient funds and poor evaluation systems.
Cross contamination involved the adulteration of finished products by dust that came up during the implementation of the ERP where the weighing system was switched with the quarantine area. This could be avoided by keeping protective clothing where products with risk of contamination are processed. Failure to get everyone on the team behind the project was characterized by the management team not clearly defining every individual’s payoff with the completion of the project, and also, the members involved lacked knowledge on how the project would be evaluated.
Lack of sufficient flexibility on the scope of the project made new information to be considered out of the option. It would have been advantageous that at different levels of the project implementation, managers brought in suggestions that would help improve the process without altering the scope. The assumption of sufficient funds involved projections of the company being comfortable to complete the project implementation disregarding the possibility of low returns before adjustment of the new working system. Slow production would cause the low returns as the employees in the weighing and quarantine stations adapted to their new areas of work.
Finally, lack of a system put in place to assess and evaluate the changes made it hard to know the pertinent details of the overall project’s impact. Thus, it was difficult to measure whether the intended objectives of the project had been met.
Recommendations
The following recommendations are essential for the team in future projects to improve organizational performance:
- Having a clear process that ought to be followed throughout the implementation process is crucial to ensure that details of cost, necessity and effect are well-known before the project is commenced.
- Having regularly scheduled updates in the cause of the project implementation would be necessary to ensure effective backing by the employees involved. This would also foster communication and collaboration among the staff.
- Proper training of employees taking part in the project is necessary to save time and reduce any possibility of damages.
- Reviewing the progress of a project is required at intervals to re-evaluate whether the intended goals are being met. This also gives a chance for suggestions, as well as being open to changes within the implementation, but based on the project scope.
- A well-defined scope of a project is paramount and ought to be monitored effectively to ensure effective implementation process. This will also help to keep the implementing team within the scope to ensure the target objectives are met.
- Communication is a critical factor in project implementation. Specific times should be scheduled for updates and catching up to enable everyone to be on the same page, as well as ensure the continuity of the project implementation.
- Before commencing the implementation process, the project manager should bring the team together and deliver a presentation about the project, as well as its significance so as to capture the attention of all employees.
- Late or delayed projects may cause losses and thus, the project implementation should be timely so as not to delay the company from reaping the benefits of the changes.