TOPIC 9 OM

Upcoming UT Home Sports Contests

• Sunday, 26th: #19 Football-11:00am (vs. #11 Vanderbilt)

• Monday, 27th: No games scheduled.

• Tuesday, 28th: No games scheduled.

• Wednesday, 29th:

  • #2 Volleyball-12:00pm (vs. #3 Kentucky)

  • #4 Women's Basketball-7:00pm (vs. Incarnate Word)

• Thursday, 30th: #4 Women's Basketball-7:00pm (vs. Richmond)

• Friday, 31st: Men's Basketball-2:00pm (vs. Lafayette)

• Saturday, 1st: No games scheduled.

Supply Chain in the News - Resilience

• Managing risk for companies involves understanding:

  • Own suppliers

  • Companies that supply raw materials and parts to their suppliers.

• Responses to enhance supply chain resilience may include:

  • AI technology

  • Sourcing from multiple, dispersed suppliers

• Costs and challenges in implementation exist.

• Businesses that invested in supply-chain resilience:

  • Achieved an average revenue growth of 23% from 2018 to 2023.

Project Management Overview

What is Project Management?

• Defined as a systemized, phased approach to:

  • Defining projects

  • Organizing tasks

  • Planning tasks

  • Monitoring progress

  • Controlling project activities

Definition of a Project

• According to Project Management Institute, a project is:

  • A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.

Major Characteristics of a Project:

• Has an established objective.

• Defined lifespan:

  • Every project has a beginning and an end.

• Interdepartmental involvement:

  • Involves several departments and professionals.

• Novelty:

  • Involves doing something not done before.

• Specific requirements:

  • Has specific time, cost, and scope requirements.

Routine Work vs. Projects

Routine Work Characteristics:

• Examples include:

  • Taking class notes

  • Daily accounting tasks

  • Responding to supply-chain requests

  • Practicing piano scales

  • Routine manufacturing tasks (e.g., manufacturing an iPhone)

Project Characteristics:

• Examples include:

  • Writing a term paper

  • Setting up a sales kiosk

  • Developing a supply-chain information system

  • Writing new piano compositions

  • Designing a new electronic device (e.g., an iPhone interfacing with Apple Watch)

Examples of Project Types Given to Graduates:

• Management Information System: Install new data security system.

• Marketing Department: Execute a sales program.

• Operations Management: Implement new store layout designs.

• Accounting: Conduct audits on clients.

Project Management Trade-Offs

• Project managers must manage three major criteria (trade-offs):

  • Cost (Budget)

  • Time (Schedule)

  • Scope (Performance)

Project Success Rates

• Statistics indicate:

  • Software and hardware projects fail at a rate of 65%.

  • Over half of IT projects become runaway projects.

  • Only 30% of technology-based projects succeed.

  • Roughly 2.5% of global businesses achieve 100% project success.

  • Over 50% of global business projects fail.

• Major causes of project failure:

  • Inadequate planning time

  • Underestimation of project duration

The Challenge of Project Management

Role of the Project Manager

• Responsible for:

  • Project performance and success.

  • Being the direct link to the customer.

  • Providing direction, coordination, and integration to the project team.

  • Marshaling resources for the project.

  • Coordinating multiple departments within the organization.

  • Inducing the right team members at the right times for decision-making.

Purpose of Project Scheduling (Critical Path Method)

• Objectives of project scheduling include:

  • Demonstrating the relationship of each activity to others and to the whole project.

  • Identifying precedence relationships among activities.

  • Encouraging realistic time and cost estimates for activities.

  • Making efficient use of people, materials, and budget by identifying critical bottlenecks in the project.

Developing the Project Network

• Project Network Defined:

  • A graphic flow chart showing project activities, logical sequences, interdependencies, and estimated start and finish times.

  • Identifies critical path(s) which indicate project duration.

  • Highlights critical activities that should not be delayed.

Basic Rules for Developing Project Networks

• Networks flow from left to right.

• An activity cannot begin until all preceding activities are complete.

• Arrows indicate precedence and flow; they can cross each other.

• Common start and stop nodes may be utilized.

Precedence Relationships

• Defining activity relationships:

  • Activities must be sequenced correctly to ensure proper undertaking.

  • Example configurations:

  • U cannot begin until S and T are complete; V cannot begin until T is finished.

  • S precedes T, which precedes U (ensure S and T complete before starting U).

Constructing a Project Network Terminology

• Activity: An element of the project that requires time.

• Merge Activity: An activity that has multiple preceding activities.

• Burst Activity: An activity with more than one succeeding activity.

• Parallel Activities (concurrent): Activities that can occur independently and do not need to occur simultaneously.

AON Fundamentals

• The Activity-on-Node (AON) format illustrates activity precedence clearly, showing dependencies visually.

Example of AON for Milwaukee Paper Manufacturing

Determining the Project Schedule

Time Estimates for Milwaukee Paper Manufacturing

Definitions of Relevant Terms:

• Earliest Start (ES): Earliest time an activity can start, assuming all predecessors are completed.

• Earliest Finish (EF): Earliest time an activity can finish.

• Latest Start (LS): Latest time an activity can start to not delay the entire project.

• Latest Finish (LF): Latest time by which an activity must be finished to avoid delaying the project.

Activity Format and Scheduling Steps

• Represent activity data clearly using:

  • ES

  • EF

  • LS

  • LF

  • Duration

• Add activity times and propagate early finish to subsequent activities via network completion rules.

Forward Pass and Backward Pass Computation

• Forward Pass: Calculates early start and early finish times starting from the beginning activity through to completion.

• Backward Pass: Starts from the end activity and works backward to determine late start and late finish times; calculates slack time:

  • $ext{Slack} = LS - ES$ or $ext{Slack} = LF - EF$

Gantt Charts

• Use Gantt charts to visualize project timelines and the relationship between activities over the weeks.

Project Crashing

What is Project Crashing?

• This is a method to expedite project completion while managing resources effectively. Introduction of crashing may affect all activity schedules and can introduce problems.

Rationale for Reducing Project Duration

• Reasons include

  • Imposed deadlines

  • Unforeseen delays

  • Time to market pressures

  • Financial incentives for early completion

Cost-Time Tradeoffs in Project Crashing

• Project Crashing involves shortening project durations; typically comes with increased costs, particularly for critical path activities.

• Activities for crashing should be selected based on the smallest increase in cost per unit time.

Steps in Project Crashing

• Identify critical paths and select activities with the smallest crash cost.

• Update activity times and monitor if the adjusted due date/financial goals were achieved.

Challenges of Crashing

• Unplanned issues may surface due to crashing.

• The critical path can multiply as activities are adjusted, and marginal returns may diminish.

Conclusion

• A comprehensive understanding of these methodologies and metrics is crucial for project management success.

• Emphasize flexibility and adaptability in project approaches to enhance efficiency while managing risks effectively.

Acknowledgements

• "Have a Great Week and Hook 'em"