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The report describes the effectiveness of Operation Management principles along with six Sigma methodology and lean principles. This report has described a framework of continuous improvement plan in the operational context of the project representing the continuous improvement plan along with its effectiveness. However, report also included the project life cycle along with methodologies and leadership followed by the application of project lifecycle within the specific project. The report also includes the appropriate theories project life cycle along with the difference in small and large scale projects followed by few concluding statements.
The current report represents the project of Cross rail conducted by Transport of London where the organisation has been established in year of 2000 at United Kingdom. It will describe the effectiveness of Operation Management principles along with six Sigma methodology and lean principles. This report will also describe a framework of continuous improvement plan in the operational context of the project representing the continuous improvement plan along with its effectiveness. However, report will include the project life cycle along with methodologies and leadership followed by the application of project lifecycle within the specific project. Further, the report will also include the appropriate theories project life cycle along with the difference in small and large scale projects followed by few concluding statements.
Effectiveness of Operation Management Principles
Implementation of Operation Management Principles
Transport of London should focus towards implementation of operation management principles in the project of cross rail. It includes reality where the management and the operations should focus on large problems opposing to the small techniques as a part of the issue (Gurin and Persiyanova, 2017). Humility is another principle of Operation Management by manager should understand as well as respect the limitations avoiding the trial and error as it saves money and time leading to the overall positive outcome in the long run. The organisation should interconnect the manufacturing process as the elements should be consistent and predictable where the operation management cannot be profitable without control and production planning that fosters consistency and predictability. Accountability plays an important role as a principle of Operation Management where the managers and every employee should be accountable regarding the project quality and standard and change should be performed immediately in case of any operational issues (Demirkesen, and Ozorhon, 2017). Quality control is one of the major principle of operational management that includes warehousing, material management, logistics and procurement. The managers should know regarding the competition in regard to the product, consumer and practices. In relation to this project, the organisation should also focus on the models of operational management that includes six Sigma methodology as well as lean principles.
Six Sigma Methodology
In the project of cross rail, transport of London should implement six Sigma methodology which is considered as a quality management methodology utilised for helping the business to improve their current process services and products by discovering as well as eliminating the defect (Tfl.gov.uk, 2022). The objective of this quality management methodologies to streamline the quality control in business or manufacturing process so there is no variance throughout (Shou et al. 2021). This methodology has been designed for helping large organisations for Quality Management that include specific principles and aims to bring statistics and data to identify errors as well as difference that is impacting the quality of the project.
The five phases of six Sigma methodology is represented below:
Define: the problem should be defined in regard to the consumer and the requirement of the project along with ultimate goals as well as expectation of the consumer.
Measure: the performance should be measured in regard to the current process bye framing the data collection plan as well as determining the defects as well as gathering the metrics.
Analyse: the process should be analysed establish in the root cause of the defect and variations as well as identifying the issues in the current strategy that stands in the end goal.
Improve: the process should be improved by eliminating the defects as well as their root cause through innovative solution.
Control: it is a new process for avoiding the old habits ensuring that the project stays on track.
It is one of the fundamental principle of continuous improvement practice where cross rail should focus towards implementation of five lean principles (Vladimirovna, et al. 2019). Link principle is a manufacturing practice that has transformed with knowledge work as well as management encouraging the practice of continuous improvement as a fundamental idea to respect individuals in respect to the principles represented below:
Define value: The organisation should understand the principles of defining consumer value which is the willingness to pay and the paramount to discover the latent or actual need of the consumer. There are different techniques that includes demographic information, survey and web analytics that helps to discover and decipher the valuable need of the consumer utilising qualitative and quantitative technique helps to understand the values of a consumer.
Map value stream: it is related to mapping and identifying the value stream. In this step the organisation should utilise the consumer value as a reference point and should identify the different activities contributing towards the values that should not be a waste.
Create flow: after the elimination of waste from value stream the organisation should ensure that the flow of remaining steps should be performed without any interactions implementing strategies with value adding activities reconfiguring the production steps, breaking down steps as well as level in the workload and creating cross-functional department and providing training to the employees (Aragonés-Beltrán, García-Melón, and Montesinos-Valera, 2017).
Establish pull: inventory is observed as the biggest waste within the production system. The objective of pull based system is to limit the inventory as well as the work in process items to be ensured that the information and requires that materials available should focus towards the smooth flow of work.
Pursuit perfection: it is the final step of lean principle that focus towards lean thinking as well as continuous process of improvement within the organisational culture that help to strive towards perfection delivering the product based on the need of the consumer.
Continuous Improvement Plan
The tools that will be utilised for continuous improvement plan in regard to the project of Crossrail is represented below:
Delphi technique: in relation to the continuous improvement plan, transport of England should utilise this technique as it is a forecasting process framework based on the result of different questionnaire rounds that is sent to the expert panel associated with the project. It is also considered as a Process that arrives at a group opinion by serving the panel of expert and ultimate result is the true consensus in relation to the thinking of the group.
Pareto chart: the company should also focus towards implementation of Pareto chart for framing the continuous improvement plan. It is a bar graph where the length of the power represents the frequency as well as the cost arranged with longest path on the left and shortest the right visually depicts the situation in a significant way.
The continuous improvement plan is effective in different projects as it directly hits the problem and has been designed for empowering employees to solve the problem that bugs them as well as gradually improve the effectiveness as well as efficiency of the work process (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016). It also helps the employees to know regarding the important ideas and also create a suggestion for improvement in relation to the tested ideas as well as successful implementation followed by the changes in the responsibilities and the roles of the employees.
Moreover, it also lowers the employee turnover and creates a product more competitive with better consumer service. Effectiveness of continuous improvement plan is required as the turnover becomes expensive in different organisations for companies recruiting, training and hiring. Continuous improvement rises both the improvement of product and process that actively look to enhance the business and to increase the value of the product invariably leading towards sophisticated and economic competitive offering. It also provides better consumer understanding that finds the value and delivered with help of the Framework identifying the value as per as the value delivery process aligning the product to latent consumer value.
Business Case
In relation to the project life cycle, the business case of cross rail which is a railway construction project in Central London has been taken into consideration. The objective of this project is to provide high frequency sub-urban service to the passenger crossing the capital from east to west I connecting major railway lines that includes Western main line as well as eastern main line. This project has been undertaken by the transport of England which is one of the biggest railway infrastructure project throughout Europe and is the largest single investment by the government of United Kingdom.
The construction of this project has been started in the year 2009 where 15,000 women and men have worked on this project over 120 million working hours along with 1000 internships delivered by the cross rail program. The project life cycle of this specific project clearly declares that the delivery and promotion of cross rail program involved communication that has directly impacted the stakeholders interested in this scheme. This business case has been taken into consideration as this project has created initial engagement with pre authorisation and hybrid bill process with provision for community relation as well as wider communication in the construction project.
Project Plan
The project plan is to implement continuous improvement framework with the help of Pareto chart and Delphi Technique that delivers the consumer value and need that has been taken into consideration in the scenario of constructing the Crossrail program by the transport of England (Marzuki and Junaedy, 2017). It will implement different stages of project life cycle along with methodologies with a strong leadership creating and next phase of railway launch in United Kingdom. This project has a plan to maintain the standard and quality delivering the objective to provide service serving the central London stations.
Work Breakdown Structure
In relation to this project, the organisation should focus on the different stages of the project life cycle that has been represented below:
Initiation: In this phase of project life cycle, the organisation should short out the project scope goals as well as resources along with the responsibility of the team (Dulovi?, and Slavkovi?, 2016). Cross rail program should clarify the stakeholder’s expectation and should communicate with them understanding the desired outcome and the purpose of the project determining is smart goals and clarifying the resources like time constraints and budget.
Planning: in the planning phase, the company should decide the milestone leading to completion of the project by developing a schedule of task including time estimate as well as potential time buffer. The organisation should also establish the change process and should communicate with stakeholders and the team members when required assigning and creating the documents that includes non-closure agreement for proposal.
Execution: transport of England should focus towards the execution phase upon the completion of planning phase that they should utilise tools like Gantt chart to track progress and respond to the risk recording the cost and keeping the members motivated and encouraged. The company should also keep the stakeholders informed regarding the project progress incorporating the changes.
Closing project: it is the final phase of project life cycle, where the company should conduct retrospectives and should take note regarding the changes that should be implemented in future in regard to the project (Ait-Lamallam et al. 2021). The organisation should also communicate with stakeholders providing the impact and new owners of the project followed by the closeout report should be provided to the stakeholders as well as to the members of the project celebrating the success and end of the project. This will help the organisation as the summary of the project will include the accomplishment and the learning of future project that will be presented to the stakeholders.
In this specific project, the company can utilise waterfall methodology or agile methodology according to the need of successful completion of the project:
Waterfall methodology: it is a traditional approach of project methodology where the phases and tasks are completed in a sequential and linear manner. It will help the project at every stage should be completed before the next phase begins that includes requirement, analysis, designing, construction process followed by testing and maintenance. This methodology well defines the end goal of the project and need of the stakeholders that the project is predictable and consistent.
Agile methodology: this methodology can also be utilised by the transport of England for the construction of cross rail project as it has been derived from growing dissatisfaction along with linear approach to the traditional methodology of project management. It creates a collaborative quick and open to data driven change method it involves short phases of word with frequent reassessment, testing and adaptation (Kivilä, Martinsuo, and Vuorinen, 2017). This methodology should be taken into consideration as it to not tolerate any backlog that teams conducts in each cycle for face project manager prioritise the backlog of the team to be focused leading towards successful completion of the project.
Leadership
In this specific project, the organisation should utilise transformational leadership theory for successful completion of the project (Lee, 2018). This leadership theory should be taken into consideration by the organisation in case of cross rail program as this style inspires and create positive changes by transformational leaders are enthusiastic, energetic and passionate. This leadership style focus on helping the members within the group where they follow intellectual stimulation followed by individualized consideration and inspirational motivation. The company should utilise transformational leadership style as it not only challenges the status quo but also encourage creativity among the followers exploring new ways to do things and opportunities to learn.
However, this leadership style also involves encouragement and support individual followers for studying supportive relationship. It also keeps line of communication open where the followers feel free for sharing ideas and the leaders can offer direct recognition in relation to unique contribution towards each follower within the organization (Almajed, Bahrain, and John, 2018). The company will have a clear vision following this theory of leadership that will create an ever to articulate the followers helping the experience of same passion and motivating to fulfil the goals. Moreover, this leadership theory sources a role model for followers as it creates respect and trust emulating individual as well as internalize the ideals.
Theories of Project Life Cycle
In the entire project life cycle, agile methodology should be taken into consideration by cross rail project, transport of England should implement this methodology as it represents the effectiveness of project life cycle composed of several iterations as well as incremental steps towards the project completion (Martens, and Carvalho, 2016). It is also observed that iterative approach is utilised frequently in the project of software development as well as in manufacturing process promoting adaptability and velocity leading towards benefit of it ration adjusting towards the follow of linear path.
This methodology should be taken into consideration in the specific project as it focuses on delivering maximum value according to the business priority in the specific budget and time allowed when it delivers the project success (Samset, and Volden, 2016). It has been evaluated that this project should utilise agile methodology as it breaks requirement into small pieces and prioritised by team in regard to importance. It also promotes collaborative working with the consumer and reflects at regular interval ensuring that it consumer is satisfied and the outcome is resulting into benefit.
Difference between Small and Large Scale Projects
Agile methodology manager small projects taking responsibility of the entire project with the knowledge of the management as well as a skill where it organises plan and directs the project activities. The project management knowledge areas are applied in different small projects where the manager performs the process activities to initiate plan execute control and monitor entire project that requires less formality (Kerzner, 2017). Tools and processes are adaptable and scalable according to the project size. It is observed that a small project can be handled through agile methodology as if not requires work breakdown structure. It needs the task list and deliverable list followed by the project schedule by leading small projects with creativity and determination plays an important role.
On the other hand, large projects can be handled through Agile methodology as it requires a work breakdown structure breaking down the project into components which is a deliverable oriented grouping defining the work scope of the project. It also involves a project charter that comprises of stakeholder’s objectives deliverables assumptions and risk factors followed by acceptance criteria that is required within large projects (Levy, 2018). The effectiveness of this project life cycle clearly describes that large projects need to be organised and defined according to the scope of the project work in a complex hierarchy structure.
Recommendation
It is recommended that cross rail project should be implemented with a software that will manage the team and will have the project manager to collaborate and meet goals and time managing the cost and resources efficiently and effectively (Meredith, Shafer, and Mantel Jr, 2017). The transport of England should focus on this project management software where every function includes time tracking, task distribution, resource planning, budgeting and team collaboration will be effectively performed why managing projects is an increasingly complex. The project manager should rely on this system that can manage multiple endeavours and the cross rail project should incorporate and utilise this tool for completion of the project successfully.
Further, it is recommended that the software should be taken into consideration as it helps in project planning combining power full project scheduling features along with collaboration tool for entire team (Li, and Ma, 2019). It is also useful for long term projects along with interactive Gantt chart disk scheduling and planning will help to overcome the time constants and the budget as if encompass improved estimation of task data on the project. It also creates an ability to track the progress of the project easily as it is a user-friendly software that requires no training and the simple login.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above statements this report represented the project of Cross rail conducted by Transport of London. It described the effectiveness of Operation Management principles along with six Sigma methodology and lean principles. This report also described a framework of continuous improvement plan in the operational context of the project representing the continuous improvement plan along with its effectiveness. However, the report included the project life cycle along with methodologies and leadership followed by the application of project lifecycle within the cross rail project. Further, the report also included the appropriate theories of project life cycle along with the difference in small and large scale projects.
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