Project Management in Industry
August 27th 2008 06:25 am By Web Development in India
A project is a project is a project. Is this a true statement or are precast concrete projects different than those of creating a microprocessor? Do you need to know the entire process of making a box culvert out of concrete to be the project manager (PM), anymore than you need to know the entire process of making a microprocessor to be the PM of creating the next generation chip? First, let’s define project manager.
According to Wikipedia, a PM is a professional in the field of project management. They are the person accountable for accomplishing the stated objectives. The key responsibilities include creating attainable and measurable objectives, building the requirements and managing the three variable constraints of time, cost and quality. It is the discipline of planning, organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific goals and objectives given that a project is a finite endeavor. That means there is a specific start date and a completion date.
Project management is different than process management in that processes are functional work to produce the same product or service time and time again. Process management on one hand requires the knowledge of or the use of distinct technical skills required to produce a product and the management of the personnel to create the product. Project management is focused on achieving the goals and objectives while maintaining the parameters set by time, cost and quality. The old saying goes, pick any two as that will create the scope. If you are limited on time, then the cost of getting the same quality will be greater than if you are not limited on time.
The other challenge of a PM is to manage resources and understand how to optimize the distribution of these resources to achieve the goals and objectives. It takes a good team of people to fully integrate all of the parts and understand how to best utilize the money, materials, employees, energy, equipment and space needed to complete the project. In order to create a specific Fairfield precast concrete product it takes both a process manager who knows how to actually pour the right concrete mix into the correct form and cure it. It took a PM to first create the project for whichever specific precast form is being made before the process manager had a process to manage. Often times the project manager and the process manager work closely together.
Whether making a precast concrete box culvert at the Fairfield precast concrete plant or any other manufacturing facility, it takes a team of experts to get a project off the ground and to production.
