Operations Management: An Integrated Approach, 5th Edition

PROJECT MANAGEMENT WITHIN OM: HOW IT ALL FITS TOGETHER

Project management techniques provide a structure for the project manager to track the progress of different activities required to complete the project. Particular concern is given to critical path (the longest connected path through the project network) activities. Any delay to a critical path activity affects the project completion time. These techniques indicate the expected completion time and cost of a project. The project manager reviews this information to ensure that adequate resources exist and that the expected completion time is reasonable. If the expected completion date has a high probability of exceeding a contractual due date and incurring penalty costs, the project manager evaluates different methods for crashing the project (reducing project completion time). This evaluation is used to economically justify the application of more resources or to acknowledge a high probability of facing penalty costs. The project manager also looks at the resource load profile in an attempt to level resource requirements for the project.

After resolving the issue of resources, the project manager tracks the progress of the project. Once the earliest and latest start and finish times are determined, the production and material planners order materials and schedule required operations. The project manager interacts with the people responsible for different project activities and informs them of any proposed project schedule changes. ...