New Appoaches in the Process Industries: The Manufacturing Plant of the Future

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Project Management – Systems Engineering – the Industrialization Process

Enterprises have to adapt to a very changing world. They have to implement the decisions derived from their strategic analysis (see Chapter 4).

Over the past few decades, most enterprises, especially those in the Western world, have adopted a “project management” mode. Section 1.1 of this chapter will first define what a project is and then give some insights into project management. Sections 1.2 and 1.3 will cover systems engineering and the industrialization process, i.e. the set of processes needed to convert research and development (R&D) results into an industrial asset.

1.1. Projects and project management

1.1.1. Definitions

A project is a temporary activity with a beginning and an end, whose objective is to produce a unique result, a product or a service, called the scope of the project. A project is born and dies! A project is goal oriented. It can be:

– personal: lose weight, learn a foreign language, organize a trip, etc.;

– organizational: modify the IT system, hire an expert, acquire companies, set foot in some country, etc.;

– design a new product; build a bridge or a house, etc.

In the following, we deal mostly with physical or tangible projects, i.e. projects dealing with the creation of plants and industrial tools in general. A unique project can be repeated; a civil engineering company can be specialized in building bridges. Projects can vary largely in size and in cost from few thousand ...