Project Design for Quality Analytical Essay

Introduction

The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) has commissioned a project for implementation at the King Abdallah Air Base (KAAB), whose main aim is the constructing a sports complex. RSAF has appointed a project committee to run the project professionally on its behalf.

The committee’s function is to coordinate efforts between RSAF and the contractors, Alarrab Limited Construction Company, to ensure the timely delivery of the project within budget. It should also ensure that all stakeholders are involved, consulted and briefed on all matters that concern them. The contractor selected for the project is yet to move to the site, but is awaiting instructions from the committee.

The design for the facility is complete. The Committee forms part of the Air Base’s command structure. It directly reports directly to the head of the Operations and Maintenance Directory. This report, prepared by the project manager, lays out a quality plan for consideration by the project committee.

As a warning, EPconsult states, “During the early phases of projects, key issues and difficulties arise around a vast number of conflicting pressures regarding engineering, operations, cost, safety, schedule, reliability, environmental issues, etc”. The report explores various tools available for the purpose, and examines their suitability for the project.

Project scenario

The RSAF has commissioned the construction of an enclosed sport facility in one of its four air bases located in Jeddah city, dubbed, The King Abdullah Air Base Sports Complex.

The air force headquarters, located in Riyadh owns the project. All major decisions regarding its development must pass through to the headquarters for approval. This is in keeping with the strict hierarchical command of the military system, where senior officers issue order to their juniors.

Project Goal and Objectives

The goal of the project is the construction of an enclosed sporting facility that covers a land area of 8000 m² with a parking area of sixty cars. The proposed facility comprises of indoor and outdoor playgrounds for all types of team and individual sports activities. The objectives of the project include:

• Construction of multiple sports facilities as designed.
• Delivery of state of the art sporting equipment.
• Meeting of RSAF standards relating to construction projects.
• Delivery of all project deliverables, within the stipulated project duration of two years from date of commencement.

Project Cost and Duration

The total budget for the project is eight million dollars. The contractor must be out of site within two years from the date of commencement of the work.

Project Management Structures

Since the project’s owner is a military establishment, the project management structure is strictly hierarchical. This promises the smoothest flow of information and timely approval and delivery of requisite resources within the military system. The site of the King Adbullah Airbase Sports Complex is in one of the four airbases under the air force, and is on the western part of the country near the red sea.

In true military fashion, decisions affecting the air base require sanctioning by the headquarters before implementation. The project committee and contractor will observe the established protocol through out the lifecycle of the construction phase of the project whenever there is contact with the RSAF.

The officer in charge of the project at the airbase is the head of Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Directory. It is through this office that the vital operational link between the project owner and the contractor is established. The contractor, on his side, is free to apply a project management structure that suits the needs of the project, provided there is a point man linking the Project committee and the construction company.

Project constraints

The constraints on this project include time, finances, and the strictly controlled environment within which to deliver the objectives. The time set for the development of the sporting facility is two years, in view of the air force’s desire to host the Middle Eastern Military Games, which will be due a year after the completion of the project.

A delay in the delivery may mean that the Royal Saudi Air Force will forfeit their turn to host the games. The financing of a project of this nature within the military requires very strict adherence to budget lines. This is because the project does not fall under the military’s basic requirements, but serves an auxiliary role.

This means that budget shortfalls in other areas are easier to shore up compared to budget shortfalls in the military’s sports facilities budget line. Finally, the airbase is a protected area and as such, there will be strict checks and movement restrictions, imposed on workers and materials.

Considering the amount of materials that the project will consume, early planning for the checks will be necessary so that they do not delay deliveries.

Quality criteria

This project will be a success if its delivery is within time and on budget. In addition, it must have a strong value proposition for all the stakeholders. It must answer real needs and to meet immediate and strategic needs of the stakeholders.

Project Scope and Briefing, and Project Scope Management

One of the critical phases of project planning is definition of the project scope. This stage defines the extent to which the project should go and seeks to determine as clearly as possible the boundaries within which the project implementation will take place. The six key questions to ask during this process are,

1. Is the business case for the project well developed?
2. What are the expectations of different stakeholders in this project?
3. What requirements does the project have for successful completion?
4. What capacity is available to undertake the project?
5. What are the expected results from the project
6. In what ways will the success in attaining project milestones and completion be determined?

It is vital to consider each of these questions as a project manager for the King Abdullahi Air Base Sport Complex. The business case for this project does rest on profits or revenue streams that the complex will generate. Its justification lies in the cost benefit analysis that showed that there would be much benefit to the air force officers and their families, who currently have insufficient access to sporting facilities.

It will also provide the community around with an opportunity to benefit from the sporting events staged there. There will be opportunity to trade with sports persons and cheering squads, and to mingle with foreigners who the complex will host during international games.

For successful completion, the project requires funding, construction services, and stakeholder support. Funding is available for it already. The military does not have capacity to undertake this massive project without jeopardizing normal operations so it outsourced the construction phase to an independent contractor.

Many contractors submitted tender documents, which show that there is sufficient local capacity to service the project fully. On stakeholders, the military system works on commands.

Once one has been issued, the entire rank and file aligns with it. The process of issuing commands provides opportunity for sufficient consultation with stakeholders so that there is no risk of jeopardy in the implementation process due to insufficient consultations.

Upon completion, the project will provide capacity for the Air force to host a mid sized international sporting event within its facilities such as the Middle Easter Military Games. In addition, the facilities will provide service men and women with a place for recreation and social interaction. Communities around the airbase will access the facilities with special permission hence they will be able to benefit from the state of the art facilities.

Due to the complexity of the project, it is difficult to state in specific terms the methods for measurement of success. However, the project must deliver according to RSAF standards, international class sporting facilities as detailed in the engineering designs.

The facilities must meet all technical specifications and be delivered on time, and within the eight million dollar budget. The committee will assign military engineers roles to confirm adherence to the technical specifications.

The project scope provides basis for the scope management process by defining the parameters, which apply to the process. Without undertaking a project scope and briefing exercise, it will be virtually impossible to implement a scope management process. The two exercises are distinct. One determines the scope while the other ensures the scope is well understood and adhered to by all project stakeholders.

Value management

There is substantial latitude for the application of value management principles to this project. This is because the project has a very strict budget, which will not accommodate over expenditure and secondly there is the need to meet the RSAF standards. Value management will ensure that the project delivers the best value for money, and more importantly, insure the delivery of value to all the project stakeholders through out the process.

A team comprising key stakeholders, in our case, the military and the surrounding community, and the project contractor will be adequate to participate in a value management workshop as part of value management. Value management entails a five-phase process.

1. Information: The value management team gets all relevant Information relating to project objectives, design and constraints from project designers through various modes of briefing. The project manager is not included in the Value Management workshop facilitated by a Value Management Expert.
2. Function analysis: The team defines the specific functions each of the project components and elements fulfils. The best way is by applying the FAST (function Analysis Systems Technique) technique.
3. Creativity: The team applies creativity techniques such as brainstorming to develop alternative ideas on how to deliver the same function at a lower cost, or how to increase the value offering from the project components.
4. Evaluation of options: After all options have been identified, the value management team goes ahead to use Weighted Criteria Techniques to weed out unfeasible options and proceeds to conduct cost benefit analysis of remaining options in order to identify the best alternatives with a greater value offering.
5. Final Report: The value management expert prepares a report for implementation by the project management committee. Using an expert makes sure that the results presented are highly implementable.

Value management is a process. The value management workshop forms part of this process. The workshop is necessary for generation of information necessary for the process, which typically runs through out the life cycle of the project. Several aspects of the King Abdullahi Air Base Sports Complex strand to benefit from a Value Management process.

It will be possible to weed out non-value components of the project included in the design. This means that it will be possible to strike out elements included in the design only because of design convention but have no practical purposes. Value Management will ensure that processes, materials and spaces undergo optimization to offer the greatest value and not just to meet design specifications.

The use of Value Management in the project management process and its early application in this project is highly recommended. The benefits of Value Management accrue through out the project life cycle.

Its early application promises cost reduction, which is very attractive for a project with steep standard requirements and a strict budget. Dhillon (2002, p.193) informs us that, “past experience indicates that the application of value engineering concept has helped to reduce manufacturing and procurement costs by approximately 25%”.

Value management uses a number of tools employed in strategic management and in other fields. Chitale and Gupta (2007, p.255) state, “the techniques used in the VE process are not unique to VE”. This makes its results useful for other needs of the project.

The tools, in addition to the ones mentions above, include SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis and stakeholder analysis, which are crucial components of strategic management and Strategic Needs Analysis (SNA).

Quality Management and Auditing

The management of quality in a project is one of the cardinal roles of a project manager. It comprises putting in place standards and procedures requiring systematic action that ensures the identification, documentation and the meeting of the needs of clients in a manner that meets quality criteria.

It is possible for a project to incur astronomical project costs due to poor quality delivery, which comprises on materials, procedures and management. Stratton (2006, p.9) warns that, “Many projects exceed their budget yet still fail to deliver the promised outcome”. In this regard, it is important to put in place a quality management system that assures quality to all parts of a project.

Quality management is a consultative process involving suppliers, clients, management and employees. A quality management system assigns responsibilities and authorities to different parties to ensure there is accountability through out the process.

It spells out specifications for the delivery of each component. It is imperative to include an audit function in the quality management system to ensure that that there is monitoring of how well it is working and to document the results for improvement.

Since there is a requirement to meet the RSAF standards in the implemented project, the question of the application of quality control is crucial. It is important for the project manager to ensure that a quality system is in place to check against delivery of poor quality results.

The system required should capture planning, communication, procurement, training, auditing, and environmental conservation. In addition, it should spell out measures required for the safety of all persons involved in the project.

A project of this magnitude is subject to intensive planning. It has many components, which require separate plans. Without a consistent system to ensure that the quality of the project plans meet a certain pre set criteria, serious disagreements may arise causing disruptions to the implementation process. All plans for the project will require a consistent check to guarantee their contextualization.

Closely related to planning is communication. There is a great need for a quality plan addressing communication. Officers at the Air Force headquarters, located far from the implementation location will make some decisions on the project.

This means that all communication from the site must be clear, concise and comprehensive enough to capture all vital elements of the project so that decisions made include nothing that may hinder project delivery. A quality management system can assure the meeting of this need. In addition, there will be a huge volume of materials and processes employed on site in the construction phase.

While the contractor will handle the procurement issues relating to them, it is upon the project manager to communicate continually the requirements of the project to the contractor to ensure the materials and processes used produce the intended results.

A regular schedule of audits for the quality management system will provide feedback on its functioning. It will provide information on areas that are lax and this will assist in the improvement of the quality management system. It will entail review of all documents used in communication between the project management committee, the project owners and the contractors.

The relevant RSAF standards will form a critical component of the quality management system since the project is required to meet these standards. All other regulations by sporting associations such as FIFA and IAAF will also form part of the system. These associations determine the design of sporting arenas for use by their members. Since they determine the standards, ignoring them will render the sports facilities irrelevant.

Project Quality plan

A project quality plan makes operational the quality management system. It is useful in working out the specifics of a project. It is however more useful for short-lived project with a high potential for risks occurring to assure the safety of all persons involved. It is not very necessary for this particular project.

However, the forms and tables used for risk analysis found in a quality plan are useful resources in planning for high activity sections of a protracted project such as the one in question. A different application would be to use a project quality plan for each of the project phases to manage quality within that component.

Asset Management

The project committee has taken cognizance of the fact that it will acquire certain assets to facilitate its role. The process of acquiring, using and disposing assets needed for the implementation of a project falls under the umbrella of asset management.

The tools for asset management include life cycle costing, procurement standards and practices, fleet management, planned preventative maintenance schedules, and asset risk management. All these tools are useful during the life of the project.

Life cycle costing assists in investment decision making by providing the project management committee with the necessary information about the value of assets when bought and how they will be affected by depreciation, and finally, their possible value at the end of the project, or when decommissioned. The tool assists in calculating total project costs at any time in the project lifecycle.

The other tools such as fleet management, maintenance operations and procurement practices assist in ensuring critical assets of the project that do not form part of the deliverables remain in operable form for the entire period of the project, at the least possible operating cost.

To fulfill its role, the project management committee will use a fleet of four vehicles for transportation during inspections and travel between suppliers and stakeholders. The project management committee will require the inspection of all materials procured by the contractor from suppliers before transportation to the construction site. This is part of the quality management process.

The committee will use offices provided by the air base so it will not need to rent any. It will however acquire furniture and maintain an inventory for office supplies. All related assets acquired as part of the inventory will belong to the project.

At the end of the project, the Project management committee will auction off all assets it will acquire during the life of the project. The proceeds will meet project termination costs. An alternative approach will be to hand over these assets to the ne facilities management to reduce their inception costs. This approach is subject to negotiations when the appointment of the facilities management.

Strategic Needs Analysis

Strategic needs analysis starts on the premise that the project solution delivered will best meet the strategic needs of the clients. It involves an analysis of the needs of all stakeholders over a wide time horizon. Venkataraman (2008, p.17) states, “the value that a project delivers must be evaluated in terms of its contribution to strategic goals”.

Its goal is to determine the best routes to take to meet the varying needs of the stakeholders. The best time for a strategic needs analysis is at the beginning of a project. Strategic analysis is very similar to Value Management. Value management is a more comprehensive approach, which focuses on value, while strategic needs analysis, using some of the same tools, focuses on stakeholders needs.

Value Management and Strategic Needs Analysis have a wide area of overlap, which means that a value management workshop can have, as part of its outputs, a Strategic Needs Analysis report. Strategic Needs Analysis, if performed on its own, can be the source of invaluable input for a value management workshop during the information phase.

The requirements for conduction a strategic needs analysis are very similar to those for Value Management, yet a value management workshop promises better return for the process seen in the degree of comprehensiveness.

The project management committee for the King Abdullahi Air base Sports Complex views Strategic Needs Analysis as a part of the Value Engineering process. The committee will optimally assign the required resources by emphasizing this similarity.

Nevertheless, the importance of understanding the strategic needs of the stakeholders cannot be overemphasized. One clear one is that RSAF intends to host the forthcoming Middle Eastern Military Games. RSAF has a persistent strategic need to improve relations with other air forces around the region. Sporting activities are an effective means of fostering cooperation and improving relations between different groups.

The air force also has a long-standing policy of fostering cooperation and involvement with communities around their bases. The King Abdullahi Air Base Sports Complex will provide such an opportunity when regional sporting bodies request to use the facilities for their events. A Strategic Needs Analysis, conducted as part of a Value Management exercise will reveal more strategic needs belonging to the project owner.

The contractors as stakeholders to the project would like to get more projects from the Military. They are determined to deliver this project within the constraints to have a bargaining chip for future work. A successful project for a contractor means positive publicity, which results in more opportunities for business.

The surrounding community forms a third category of stakeholders. To them, the sports complex means opportunity for business whenever sports events are underway. It also presents maintenance and management jobs for some of them, because the complex will require staff to maintain it.

With development of appropriate programs, they can benefit from coaching opportunities in liaison with the air base. The Sporting complex means a lot of different thing to each of these classes of stakeholder. The best way to identify these needs is through Strategic Needs Analysis, as part of a Value Management Workshop.

Recommendations

In view of the above issues and taking into consideration our desire as a committee to put in place an appropriate quality management system as part of the project design, I recommend the following.

1. The Committee should finalize the process of definition of the project scope for communication to all stakeholders using a consultative approach. This will provide the basis for project scope management.
2. There is the need to conduct a Value Management Workshop at this point since it is the best possible time for it in the project life cycle. Strategic Needs Analysis should form part of the workshop.
3. The committee must immediately put in place a quality management system to cover planning, communication, procurement, training, auditing and environmental conservation. This will ensure high quality project delivery.
4. The need for a project quality plan is not very urgent. With a well-designed quality management and auditing system, the purpose of the project quality plan becomes redundant.
5. The committee must develop an asset management plan since it is inevitable that the committee must acquire assets in the process of managing the project. It will provide the committee with information that will bring down project operations costs.

Reference list

Chitale, A. K., 2007. Product design and manufacture. 4^th ed. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt.

Dhillon, B. S., 2002. Engineering and technology management. Massachusetts: Artech House.

EP Consult, 2005. Value engineering. Web.

Stratton, R.W., 2006. The earned value management maturity model. Vienna,VA: Management Concepts, Inc.

Venkataraman, R., & Pinto, K.J., 2008. Cost and value management in projects. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.