Current Situation in Power Train Ltd

The current situation in Power Train Ltd:

1. Multiple projects are being executed concurrently about 45-60 of them, making it harder to assign resources to projects. This is costing big money as projects get delayed and thereby making it harder to venture into new Truck powertrain business.
2. It employs 178 design engineers and 1800 support staff. This indicates a fairly large organization.
3. The scheduling software assigns incorrect resources to projects on too many occasions. For example the MF project was assigned the best design engineer when it was not required. While another project requiring an expertise in a particular technology got assigned with engineers not familiar with that technology.
4. Inability to use the multi-project scheduling software or lack coordination between different projects or departments. It seems the scheduling software is not setup with proper heuristics.
5. They want to expand their business to manufacture truck power trains.
6. Small portion of project deals with design work of military vehicles which involves advanced and new technology.

Analysis:

Power train is facing the most common problems encountered in managing multiproject resource schedules. They are facing the following problems:

1. Overall Schedule Slippage: Projects often share resources, delays in one project can have ripple effect and delay other projects. For example work on a particular project can halt since engineers scheduled for the next critical tasks are busy or late in completing a task for one of the other projects (for example military trucks).
2. Inefficient resource utilization: Because projects have different schedules and requirements there are peaks and valleys in overall resource demands. For example to meet peak demands a project may require 10 engineers whereas only 5 engineers are required. It could be that projects are assigned more resources than are required when they could have been assigned to a different project.
3. Dearth of Experienced and Knowledgeable Engineers: Delays and schedules are extended as a result of shortages of critical resources. For example multiple projects are in competition for the same best and creative design engineers. It indicates that there is a dearth of engineers with experience and knowledge that can work on projects in parallel. It also means that there are too many projects that are executed concurrently. This leads to extension of project schedules.
4. Lack of centralized project scheduling: Due to lack central project office there is lack of communication between different projects or departments. Managers are very protective of their own turf and are unwilling to give up power. They are struggling with constant conflicts among projects.
5. Projects are not prioritized: Projects are not prioritized correctly. Resource utilization should take into consideration the priority of the projects. Power trains needs to prioritize the projects that are critical to their business.
6. Lack of proper Heuristics in scheduling software: The multiproject scheduling software many times assigns incorrect resources to projects. It seems that it is not set up with correct heuristics that serves Power train’s requirements.
7. Classification of resources: Resources need to be classified to according to their skills. More detailed the classification the better it can serve to assign resources to projects.

Action plan to take care of the resource scheduling problems:

1. Create a central source called Project Office to oversee project resource scheduling across multiple projects. The idea is to bring all the projects executed in Power Train under one umbrella to standardize practices and to forecast and assign key people to mission critical projects. Align resource demands with critical projects and use software tools to resolving conflicts and resource bottle necks.
2. Create a project queue system in which projects currently underway take precedence over new projects. New project schedules are based on the projected availability of resources. This tends to help on contracted projects that have stiff penalties for being late. The disadvantage is that it doesn’t optimally assign resources or take into account the priority of the project.
3. Treat multiple projects as part of one big “Mega Project”. Adapt the scheduling heuristics to tasks of 1) minimum slack 2) Smallest duration and 3) lowest activity identification number to this “mega-project”. Multi-project scheduling software monitor resource usage and provide updated schedules based on progress and resource availability of across all projects.
4. Assign projects with ascending order of priorities (e.g. 1,2,3,4, …) and these priorities will override scheduling heuristics. So if resource conflicts exists on projects, resources will be assigned to higher priority projects.
5. When assigning resources to tasks, project managers should match as best they can, the demands and requirements of specific work with the qualifications and experience of available participants. In doing so, there is a natural tendency to assign the best people to the most difficult task. This should be done sparingly and it should be balanced with task performance with the need to develop the talents of people assigned to the project. This will help develop talent within the organization and which will serve well on future critical projects. Project managers should be allowed to override to decisions made by scheduling heuristics when allocating resources. This should be done only when assigning key resources to the projects.
6. Project managers should pick people with compatible work habits when assigning resources. For example, one person is brilliant in solving complex problems but sloppy at documenting, such an individual should be paired with individual who is good at paying attention to details. There should be a right mix of veterans and new hires so the new hires get educated with norms and customs of the organization.
7. Document impact of resource bottlenecks and use it to justify recruiting critical personnel or delaying a project.
8. Project office should be able to find out projects that are not critical and don’t need great deal of expertise. Such projects can be outsourced to contractors and consulting firms. They should also consider outsourcing certain activities or tasks of the project to overcome resource deficiencies and scheduling problems. Hire temporary workers to expedite certain activities that are falling behind schedule or contract project work during peak periods when there are insufficient internal resources to meet the demands of all projects.
9. On time-constrained projects make use of resource levelling techniques that balance demand for a resource. Basically all resource levelling techniques delay non-critical activities by using positive slack to reduce peak demand and fill in valleys for the resources. This technique will help reduce peak demand for resources and resources over the life of the project. The disadvantage is that it changes the critical path of the project. Sometimes making all the activities critical.
10. On resource-constrained projects use heuristics to allocate resources to the project. Heuristics prioritize which activities are allocated resources and which activities are delayed when resources not adequate. Parallel method starts from the beginning of the project time and, when resources needed exceed the resources available, retains activities by the following rules:

1. Minimum Slack
2. Smallest duration
3. Lowest Activity identification number.

               The dis-advantage of this technique is that the activities can be scheduled beyond the late finish (LF) can delay the project.

Assignment of Resources in my current workplace:

1. Each project has different teams assigned to it. Each team is tasked with set of features that they are responsible for. Resources are assigned to teams based on their availability and skillsets applicable for the project.
2. If there are no resources with specific skills required for the project within the organization then decision to hire new resources is taken.
3. Execute only core projects internally while outsource non-critical projects to contractors and consulting firms. This ensures that the experienced knowledgeable
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