Siam Thai

Importance of Project Management is an important topic because all organisations, be they small or large, at one time or other, are involved in implementing new undertakings. These undertakings may be diverse, such as, the development of a new product or service; the establishment of a new production line in a manufacturing enterprise; a public relations promotion campaign; or a major building programme. Whilst the 1980′s were about quality and the 1990′s were all about globalisation, the 2000′s are about velocity. That is, to keep ahead of their competitors, organisations are continually faced with the development of complex products, services and processes with very short time-to-market windows combined with the need for cross-functional expertise. In this scenario, project management becomes a very important and powerful tool in the hands of organisations that understand its use and have the competencies to apply it.

The development of project management capabilities in organisations, simultaneously with the application of information management systems, allow enterprise teams to work in partnership in defining plans and managing take-to-market projects by synchronising team-oriented tasks, schedules, and resource allocations. This allows cross-functional teams to create and share project information. However, this is not sufficient, information management systems have the potential to allow project management practices to take place in a real-time environment. As a consequence of this potential project management proficiency, locally, nationally or globally dispersed users are able to concurrently view and interact with the same updated project information immediately, including project schedules, threaded discussions, and other relevant documentation. In this scenario the term dispersed user takes on a wider meaning. It not only includes the cross-functional management teams but also experts drawn from the organisation’s supply chain, and business partners.

Going through a financial crisis, either at a personal level or in business is one of the most disturbing experiences. It is hard seeing your highly prized possessions or business property that you have worked for along time, being disposed to keep you or your business going. Financial crisis is usually painful as you see your status in the society taking a nosedive, while the people expect you to continue with your position with the money you do not have. Anyway, such kind of misery and pain should leave you a much stronger person and not heart broken.

Many financial crisis only comes because of lack of plan or those which are fragile and cannot sustain your needs. Those who do business face a great risk of failing dramatically especially during economic recession thou those in employment are not totally invulnerable. All that one needs to understand is that financial planning forms a major part of our day to day life and dictates who we become and what we can do in the future.

At a personal level, it will be sad to see someone who retires from a luxurious corporate life full of holidays in the best resorts in the world to lack stricken life. This is where many understand that they had not planned their money well during their working years.

For those in business, it is more frustrating to see organizations laying off most of their staff to try and cut down on costs. One would wonder why a global recession which only lasts for less than twenty four months should bring down a company that has existed for the last thirty years. How would you explain that except by seeing how bad the finances of that company were managed?

One of the best places to start in creating a quality management system, is at the bottom. Don’t start writing mission statements and policies and all that high level fluff that nobody ever reads. Everybody believes in mom, baseball and apple pie, until you throw a dollar at them. Don’t start with procedures that tell who is responsible for this, and what they are authorized to do about that. I like written procedures, but they still don’t get to the heart of day to day operations. No, I believe you need to start creating your quality management system with good old fashioned, written work instructions.

Work instructions read like cookie recipes. They usually include a list of supplies (ingredients) for a particular job, plus detailed guidance on how to do the work (oven temperature and baking time). Work instructions are needed for all those mundane, daily jobs that must be done correctly, in a certain order, without mistakes or else! There are no specific requirements for written work instructions in most quality management systems like ISO 9000 2000. Not because work instructions aren’t useful, but because they vary so much from one company to the next.

Use your written work instructions to train operators, supervisors and managers. Use them for testing and for internal audits. Use your work instructions for breaking down jobs, making improvements and rolling those improvements out to all shifts and divisions. In short, use your work instructions to make sure the work that must be done, gets done right.