Implementing Lean Project Management To Build Your Client’s Dream House

Question

Task: Introduction
You work for a housing builder who constructs homes for clients. You have managed to secure a client who wants to build with your company. The client has a budget of AUD$500,000 and is looking to build their new home within the next 12 months. Your task is to ensure you keep this client satisfied by building the home as per their requirements within the budget and timeline that they have given you.
You are required to propose project management processes that can be used to efficiently manage, build and deliver the home for your client. You are expected to incorporate lean project management practices to ensure that you can meet the tight budget and timeline restrictions imposed on you.

Your tasks: Answer the following questions:
1. Select and explain the project management processes (either from PMBOK or PRINCE2 or a combination of any best practices you have learned in this unit) that can help you:
a. Finalize the client’s requirements (in terms of scope)
b. Ensure communications with all relevant stakeholders are effective and efficient
c. Manage your subcontractors and vendors successfully
2. Explain how you would implement lean best practices to achieve lean project management for (1a), (1b) and (1c) above.

Answer

Introduction
The present study is based on implementing lean project management to build your client’s dream house. BuildMyHome is a well-known housing contract company with operations in and around a lot of Australian cities like Adelaide, Gold Coast, and Sydney. It is particularly active on the Australian East Coast. The company has completed a lot of projects, especially in the housing sector. The project at hand is a domestic housing project. The project will primarily focus on creating a well-furnished plan for making the dream house of the client and ensure the cost of the project does not exceed the budget of the client. The aim of implementing lean project management approach on the proposed study is to complete and deliver the full project to its clients within the given period of time. It is to be constructed on a plot of 4880 square feet of sprawling lush green land near the city of Gold Coast in the State of Queensland in Australia. The house is to have luxurious features like a fireplace, a swimming pool, a modular kitchen, and a bathroom equipped with state of the art equipment. In course of the completion of this project, this management report aspires to factor in all the technological, legal, financial and administrative angles possible.

1. PMBOK and PRINCE 2
a. Finalization of client’s requirements
Project Goal
The goals of the project areas being enlisted herein below:

• Create a well-furnished and carefully thought out plan for the house while making optimal use of the space and resource available in doing so.
• To make sure that the project does not exceed the designated budget or uses it in unnecessary things.
• That the housing project reaches completion within the time allotted.
• Successful management of vendors and subcontractors
• Effective and efficient communication between stakeholders

Project Scope
While implementing lean project management through this housing project, the company wishes to help the client relive his dream of staying at his ideal home. This will be possible once the various contractors and vendor and other important people come together to facilitate the building of this dream house (Christianson, 2017). For the various sectors of this project to come together to present a stellar work, there needs to be effective communication between them.

Project Deliverables
The key deliverables that matter in this project are as follows:

• Planning of the project: Within this document, the various expectations from a project are to be enlisted. It will also aim for the inclusion of most things on the project.
• Analysis of the Data on the report: This document will consist of the data of the analysis that has already been generated
• Report of Compliance: This document will enlist the compliances associated with the legal and ethical sides.
• Report of Feasibility: This is to be a detailed report on the various feasibility standards particularly of technical and operational variety, associated with the project.
• Report of Completion: This document will go hand in hand with the organizational management reports to be furnished to the client.

The management risk report is a list of all of the risks that show association with the project and also alleviation of the efforts of the team associated with the project.

Strategic Alignment of the Project
Ordinarily, the first strategy used in the approach of implementing lean project management is to decide and formulate a building plan for the house. Next, it is to be seen whether the said plan meets the constrictions related to budget and time. Then vendors are to be assigned for the proper acquisition of materials and subcontractors recruited to carry on work of various parts of the project.

b. Identify communications of related stakeholders and determine their effectiveness and efficiency.
Stakeholders constitute a main part of the project. Communication with them is very important for the project manager and the other members of the project. The project manager has the main responsibility of organizing a meeting with the chief manager and other members including stakeholders of the project (Sunder, 2016). At the beginning of every project at the time of implementing lean project management, the meeting is organized to set the budget of the project and all the members including the board of directors are bound to present. Project manager design and propose the budget of the project including expenses. The percentage and flow of work are also decided by the project manager. The board of directors approved the things which are being proposed by the project manager (Bascoul, Tommelein, & Tuholski, 2016). The view of stakeholders is also taken into account for better improvement of the project.

Approval of the project budget decides 10% of the project completion. The budget obtained while implementing lean project management is then sent to the Financial Manager for approving the funds and starts the project practically. In this project, the budget is approved for AUD$500,000. The stakeholders who are present on the meeting get to agree with the budget. The opinion of the contributor is also the main part of the project (Raja & Vijay, 2018) (Sreedharan& Sunder, 2018). The funds and planning are discussed and decided by the financial manager, project manager, and contributors.

A span of time is set by the Board of directors before the final meeting with the team members of the project. Then the Project manager set the working time of the workers along with the budget. Attending the meeting is a mandate for all the team members including the stakeholders. Stakeholders are very much effective for the project meeting. After the meeting, the project starts practically (Sohi, Hertogh, Bosch-Rekveldt, & Blom, 2016). The project span for this project is 12 months. The working hour of the workers is set accordingly with that. The project is planned and divided into subparts to complete it on time. The project is directly supervised by the project manager. Manager of the project distributes the work among the workers to achieve a planned task.

Sometimes, a single meeting on implementing lean project management is not enough for the project. The project manager can request the Board of Directors for further meetings about the project. Lack of funds and change in planning are the reasons behind the meeting. Every issue of the project is discussed and solved in meeting to avoid miscommunication (Elias, 2016). Cleanliness about the budget of the project makes the relationship with stakeholders. Frequent meetings also occur in a project to maintain a good relationship with stakeholders. Stakeholders also sometimes arrange meetings to get knowledge about the working project (Anholon & Sano, 2016). This proves that the opinion of stakeholders is how much effective for the project. To make great communication with stakeholders the company maintains a regular connection to them so that they can provide the best project.

c. Management of subcontractors and determination of responsibilities of vendors successfully
Subcontractors are managed in every successful project management system. The various subcontractors for this project can be broadly divided into three categories. The company is taking care of all the structural needs of the house that is Stonemason Inc. The company concerned with the installation of fixturesBx Pvt. Ltd. and lastly, the company concerned with the paint job is PaintMe Corp (Albuquerque, Torres, & Berssaneti, 2020). There are essentially two vendors Blue House from where most of the raw materials like cement and paint are being purchased and then it is required of the manager to request to the board of directors for the discussion of minutes and agendas related to the meeting.

The leading of the project on implementing lean project management is best conducted when there is effective communication between the various stakeholders. All members and subcontractors are accorded notices by the Board of Directors. The holding of the meeting includes some 15 days (Demirkesen & Ozorhon, 2017). All the subcontractors to the project are party to the meeting including the finance managers and the manager for technical operations. After the necessary introductions are done with, a consensus is reached on the maximum working hour of employees (Raymond, 2017). All the stakeholders agree that the project should not take one more day extra than the time allocated for it that is within 12 months.

The project manager presents an outline on implementing lean project management that is ratified by all other stakeholders’ present. There can always be problems and discrepancies regarding broken communications that exist between managers and human resources (Cruz-Villazon, Otegi-Olaso, Aguilar-Fernandez, & Fuentes-Ardeo, 2019). This requires clarifications from the stakeholders for the mitigation of all other problems. The project needs can only get clearer through way of proper communication. This is facilitated by project gaps and important discussion. Efficient communication also includes a concise discussion of deliverables and validation of project scope. 

Risk Management

2. Implementing lean project management practices and their explanation to achieve lean project management for (1a), (1b) and (1c) above.
(a) Project management can be achieved for task 1(a) by considering the following aspects
From the observation based on 1(a), it has been found that perfect and proper project management can meet the demands and requirements of the clients having a budget of AUD 500000 by finishing off the project in 12 months. The contractors and the team members will be able to meet the target and complete the project on time by making a proper agenda and schedule to get the project done with accuracy. For task 1(a), the best principles for the lean manufacturing process have to be used in implementing lean project management by eliminating waste and making use of the best lean practices. All the activities responsible for the waste accumulation are identified and alternative solutions are provided by using the analysis known as the value stream analysis. It has been observed that if wastes are recycled, then they can be used by future generations which will help to reduce the budget.

Every part of the project has been controlled and all activities have been checked by following the methods and steps used by PRINCE 2 in carrying out the study of the project. From beginning to end, there are seven processes involved altogether. Prince 2 methods are pocket-friendly, time-saving and much more predictable according to the opinions ofRana, Hughes, and Dwivedi. The budget has been allocated to the team members individually to plan the budget accordingly by mentioning the salaries of the project manager and employees, the cost of the documentation and the total cost of the raw materials (Wu, Zhao, Ma, & Yang, 2019). The target of the project can be obtained eliminating wastes and reducing unnecessary costs. In other words, implementing lean project management practices have to be used to achieve the target and scope of the project. The more wastes being removed, the more it will be easy in implementing lean project management.

When the number of materials used for manufacturing exceeds, then it might create problems and that is why the quality of the project can be improved by reducing the costs. All the resources used for constructing the home are compiled and other issues regarding time and quality can be solved by using these practices (Hong & Nordin, 6th - 7th December 2016,). It is very important to get the products supplied to the customers tested. The full task can be completed on time by creating and innovating new methods of testing the products supplied by the suppliers to detect the presence of faults in the process of construction (Nyman, 2018). It is observed that using the latest technology can reduce the issues faced at the time of construction and thus, it is very essential to make the cycle of production shorter to achieve the target of constructing a dream home for the clients.

b) project management can be achieved for task 1(b) by considering the following aspects
Communication can be raised effectively in the perspective of implementing lean project management. In the process of manufacturing the ultimate dream home for the client, it becomes important that all processes and activities be monitored. Interactions with project managers are cardinal. Further issues can be minimized through this process. Stakeholders need funding to help meet goals and standards. Fixed hours for construction and task allocation can be rightfully conducted. Positive relationships are forged between members linked to the project. One of the core concepts relating to lean projects is quick response times. This might lead to accomplishment of objectives that have been decided early on. The upcoming project requirement is a sector which should be known by a good project manager (Galli, 2018). Establishment of strong bonds with various stakeholders helps in the facilitation of the project of house construction. Proper channels of communication must exist between the human resource manager and all other managers. The accomplishment of implementing lean project management can be managed with effect if communication is maintained concerning management and teams as a whole.

c) Project management can be achieved for task 1(c) by considering the following aspects
Successful vendor management involves deciding which person or group of person is designated what role. According to Shaw, Hughes & Greenhalgh (2019), PRINCE2 can be employed to ensure that knowledge is gained by optimum utilization of resources and skills to manage issues and risks of the project. In the process of the construction of the dream home, the whole project can be included in the way of project management. Payment of salary within the stipulated time and timely feedback are the two main issues to gauge subcontractor management. The relation with vendors can be properly made sense of through the help of key performance indicators. Discussion of issues between vendors and subcontractors can be made through proper conduction of meetings (Vijaya, 2016). Future complexes stand chance of alteration if and when project managers check insurances and other licenses. The management of vendors is easy and is done with concise structures of planning. Quality relationship models receive issues based on solutions.

Conclusion and Recommendations
The concept of implementing lean project management is to build a dream home. The goal of this project is to maximize value and minimizing waste. This project area of about 4880 square feet in the green land near the city of Gold Coast in the State of Queensland in Australia gives a hope to build a dream project for the client. To give a proper structure of this project working structure and communication management plan has been set up. To avoid any miscommunication about this project internal and external communication plan has been set. To meet the proper deadline of the project proper time management has been done. To finalize the demand of the project Prince2 process is used by making effective communication with the stakeholders. The prince2 method is very important and effective in implementing lean project management to manage the subcontractors and vendors to build this dream home construction project. It is further recommended that there must be no infractions to the tight budget that has been allocated for this project. The primary vision of the client included various improvements on the aesthetic front of his home but those improvements would no doubt make the set budget skyrocket out of proportions. Hence it is highly advised that the decided budget be not exceeded in any way whatsoever and improvements are made in a strictly sparing manner.

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