Project Planning Management and Control

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

Project Management

Project Life cycle

Concept/ Strategy

Definition/Delivery

Implementation / Launch

Handover/ Market

Close out / Close out

Conclusion

References

Figures

INTRODUCTION

Project Management is nowadays a core skill and activity for every company, as in this fast paced world, every business need to be changing constantly to adapt themselves to the market in order to remain in it and make the best profit out of it. So, sooner than later these changes will have to be implemented. These can come in as diverse forms as a company website user interface update, a development of new car line, a re-structure of company departments to better face delivery of BAU or the construction of new facilities to increase installed capacity. The success of all these changes implementations, not only to company results but also measured as performance of BAUs are inextricably linked with the way the projects to implement them are managed and controlled.

Changes in companies are usually driven by 2 main factors: to deliver new products that meet, or even exceed, customer expectations and to improve the way the BAU activities are managed to deliver a better customer service with improved costs to increase profit.

Within the Automotive industry, while the 80’s were all about improving quality and the 90’s about taking advantage of globalisation synergies after the internet boom, the twenty first century is all about speed. On one hand, customers expect more new models faster, spotless quality, incredible levels of optimization and competitive prices. This has led to a fierce competition, driving, for instance, vehicles life reducing from seven to eight years to three; infotainment technology changing every year with new features, etc. On the other hand we are facing turbulent geopolitical situations, quickly changing, both in economy and with regulations, so automotive companies have to be able to adapt quickly to optimise their reaction times and profits.

All this has driven every single automotive company to invest huge resources in optimising and standardizing their Project Life Cycles to make them shorter and to make better use of resources. While 15 years ago we were looking at a full new vehicle project life cycle of six to eight years, most companies are now in the region of four years, from concept to handover and operation.

In this document we will review project life cycles applied to the automotive industry, with a quick glance at the most important gateways and a view of Jaguar Land Rover’s PCDS (Product Creation and Development System), JLR standard Project Life Cycle.

Project Management

Project management is defined by APM as “the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives” (Knowledge, 2016).  It can also be defined as the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals, meeting specific success criteria at the specific time. Is this second definition which tells us the importance of the Project Life Cycle in a phased approach.

Project management has been practiced informally since the Egyptian times. However was only 50 years ago when the industry start to apply systematic project management tools and techniques to implement changes and materialise on a profession. (Portny, 2011).

The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. The primary constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. The secondary, and more ambitious, challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and apply them to meet pre-defined objectives. The object of project management is to produce a complete project which complies with the client’s objectives.

Project management is applied on several phases of the project in different forms, from generation of idea of a new product, development of products and finally to implementation, handover and close out. Those stages, or phases, of a Project are what is called Project Life Cycle, which can be seen as the connexion between the Project Management Methods and the final Products.

Project Life cycle

Automotive industry is constantly changing. Like in every market, but more accused within the automotive industry than in others, Customers are demanding more complex and customizable products, which increases vehicle complexity, not only from a product development point of view, but also from BAU activities point of view, take new lean logistics with exponentially increasing part diversity. Join to all this the necessity to drive costs down due to the huge competition in a flooded market, which is driving OEMs toward huge amounts of globalization and de localization.

And if this all weren’t enough, nowadays, more new vehicles are being launched to the market each year than ever before to answer customers’ demands.

To be able to cope with this fast changing and hugely competitive environment, automotive companies are constantly changing the way business are conducted, from product development, to marketing strategies or internal IT systems. To be competitive, efficient and effective in delivering these changes, it is vital to have standard efficient processes and tools in place. 

OEMs are seeking both growth and cost reduction to optimize profitability. These is only achieved by constantly introducing changes, which is one of the several definitions of a Project: a temporary endeavour designed to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or staffing) undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value (The Definitive Guide to Project Management, 2007)

APMP (Associate Project Management Professional) defines project management as application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives.  (Knowledge, 2016).

Within the huge diversity of Project Management models the APMP proposes one based on Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). This model offer methods, tools and techniques to decrease the time to market of a new product.

The PLM model is based on the Waterfall lifecycle. This project life cycle model has been used for decades and prove its ability to deliver projects in time, within budget and to desired levels of quality. It was first formalised when American department of Defence published a Standard for software development (DOD-STD-2167A – 1988).