Lean Project Management Assignment: Major Challenges

Question

Task:The Board of Directors has chosen you to be in charge of implementing the LPM approach. This assessment, therefore, is to be done INDIVIDUALLY.

As the Director in charge, your task is to write a memo to all staff informing them about the decision and the proposed implementation process for LPM.

Your memo must:

1. Address the initial reason for implementing LPM
2. Describe the benefits that can be gained by the various stakeholders in a project from implementing LPM
3. Describe the Critical Success Factors (CSF) needed to be in place within the consultancy organisation to achieve successful implementation of LPM
4. Describe the steps by which you propose to ensure CSF are in place and how to achieve the LPM mindset within the consultancy staff
5. List and describe training requirements for individual staff
6. Describe your method to assess when the consultancy has sufficiently adopted the LPM approach to be able to tender for government work

Answer

Introduction
The project is prepared on the Lean Project Management that is a powerful methodology and includes certain goals and objectives for achieving customer satisfaction. The Lean Project Management Assignment includes the initial reason for Lean Project Management implementation, the benefits gained by stakeholders in Lean implementation, the Critical Success Factors that the organisation required for achieving successful implementation, steps for ensuring CSF in achieving LPM mindset among consultancy staff and a recommendable method of assessing LPM approach for Government’s work.

The initial reason for implementing Lean Project Management
Lean has proved itself to be an effective project management model that manages teams in some demanding industries such as manufactory, construction, software development and many other industries. The Lean methodology is simple to understand and easy to make an effect during the implementation (Anholon & Sano, 2016). The initial steps for Lean management are difficult, and a great portion of the team fails in implementing it successfully.

Preparing Team for Change
Lean Management is comprised of 5 Lean principles that it needs to follow while preparing team, department and the entire organization for the change. A major challenge for Lean is dealing with the human factor and collecting everybody on board. For starting, an explanation is needed for the team regarding the actual description of Lean and understanding the benefits of Lean implementation. Clear goal setting is required for sharing a path for achieving the goal, motivating people for taking the journey and assisting them with the removal of obstacles that appears in the perfection process.

Starting Small
Starting with a single team and later spreading Lean throughout departments with the transformation of the entire organisation is a good practice. While working at an enterprise level, a temporary group is formed for different teams in order to provide them with the service after returning to the actual teammates. A good way of ensuring a process that fits with change agents is the selection of enthusiastic and influential people. Once a strong foundation is set, the 5 Lean principles are introduced by the organisation.

Introducing Lean Management Principles
Once the team is prepared for change management, specific actions are taken for applying the principles. Nonetheless, the organization is responsible for enlightening the team and helping them understand the importance of principle and includes the goal of Lean embracement as an eventual culture (Fosse & Ballard, 2016). The five principles are:

1. Value Identification- Lean manager needs value identification regarding the team’s work after preparation. While conducting this Lean Project Management Assignment it was observed that there is a difference between waste activities and value-adding that is needed to be identified. Some teams like the QA team do not produce a direct value for the company’s customer but enhance the overall value delivered by a company. Quality Assurance is a great example of the necessary waste in software development.
2. Mapping Value Stream- After value identification, visualisation is done for the customers. Lean management usually performs the visualisation by Kanban boards. The Kanban board is that tool that maps every process step and hence visualises the team’s value (Bajjou & Chafi, 2018). Visualising workflow is a good start for project management that considers precise process mapping and includes steps for composing each stage. For software development, the normal steps like technical design, testing and development are usual at the review stages.
3. Creating Flow- Flow is an important concept in Lean Management. While waiting can be a waste process, creating a flow of value and a goal for ensuring smooth delivery and receiving an order while delivering services to the customers. A major impediment that creates a smooth flow is the process bottlenecks. A manager should focus on the progress of tasks via workflow. A simple way of progress is limiting the work amount.
4. Establishing Pull- After the creation of work flow, a pull system is established by the organisation. The simple idea is starting new work in case of demand and in such situations when the team is left with capacity. The goal of the organisation must be the value production which is important for a customer for avoiding overproduction. For a pull system, the tasks required for processing are kept in the queue. A developer who is free checks the queue, and selects the item of the highest priority. A good way of ensuring the two key metrics is the Cycle time and throughput.
5. Seeking Constant Improvement- The principle related to seeking constant improvement deals with the integral part of Project Management that explains the concept of constant improvement. The goal of the organisation is to develop each process with the focus on the enhancement of activities that generates customer’s values during the removal of waste activities. By the help of methods like PDCA that is the Plan-Do-Check-Art the organisation achieve continuous improvement. Constant improvement can be effective in case each of the team takes task ownerships.

Benefits gained from implementation of Lean Project Management
Lean Management reduces waste and increases efficiency when it is implemented perfectly. Lean Project Management includes significant benefits as stated below:

1. Higher Quality Work- The principles of Lean and the process of integrated project delivery depends on the trust and respect of all involved individuals that result in a higher emphasis on team performance as well as communication. When a team works as a unit and not in the traditional way, the stakeholders feel empowered for the highlighting areas that obtain more value and quality. Goal alignment and focus on collaboration and coordination decreases the chance of rework and encounters execution issues.
2. Increases Collaboration- Lean Management relies on team collaboration. Managing a Lean project includes and empowers every team for contributing to the constant improvement process by collaborative problem-solving (Wagner, Herrmann & Thiede, 2017). The best way of achieving streamlined and open collaboration among stakeholders is to use software and technology tools facilitating problem-solving as well as communication.
3. Greater Project Satisfaction- Achievement of benefits in Lean Project Management relies entirely on every individual and understands and aligns the goals and objectives of the owner. Understanding the most valuable project aspects and allowing teams for making the quickest decisions instead of jeopardizing outcome is another benefit of LPM. After knowing the best interest lies in the core of each decision a project made the speed of resolving issues are increased. Decentralised decision making allows the project to move quicker to closeout. The project team is capable of resolving blockers and provides a better chance to stay on schedule and tracks budget.
4. Increases ROI- Organisation increases the productivity with the application of Lean management principles that translates to an increased return. The rate of production is the core measurement unit that is estimated by a sub-contractor or a producing party with the context to project base. The production rate utilized for estimation is profitable (Plenert, 2016). With the increase of productivity, risk of losing profit is reduced and contributes directly to the success of continued business across the organisation. Any waste reduction either actual material waste or procedural waste effects in the project’s overall efficiency.
5. Improving Risk Management- The important tool for Lean is Pull Scheduling. It is also called the Last Planner System or LPS and is a method of a work plan that depends on the following:
   • Creation of tasks backlog that is execution-ready.
   • It is committing to the tasks that will be completed in the next sprint that is the weekly work plan.
   • Reviewing and assessing commitment success that tracks progress, learnings, feedback and remedy issues.

While implementing LPS, detailed knowledge regarding the project stages is important for the execution of the next sprint. With the understanding of progress and issues, teams are capable of managing the overall site effectively and collaboratively which leads to a safe working environment.

Critical Success Factors for achieving successful implementation of Lean Project Management
The concept of critical success factors is effective for various contexts like the requirement analysis, project management and IS planning. Critical Success factors are important for the program’s success and in case the objectives associated with the unachieved factors, the application program leads to the failure. CSFs relate to the actions and processes, management control for achieving the goals of the organization. Any initiative regarding the improvement deals with the high expenditure, high risk and investment for the organisation. So identification of factors that are capable of determining the success of implementation and avoiding the failure risk is needed. In case there is no emphasised CSF, there can be a difference in the gained success and losses with the context of the time, effort and money (Chaplin & O’Rourke, 2018). CSFs are an important part that needs to be addressed by the manager or management for ensuring the appropriate activity to attain the business growth and management objectives. CSFs represent the vital ingredients without which there is a little chance of successful implementation.

Many researchers have considered the CSF’s role for Lean implementation. Four Factors are identified those are important for the implementation of Lean. These four factors include Leadership and Management, Skills and Expertise, Financial Capability and Organizational Culture. Several inhibitors and enablers are identified while implementing Lean Project.

Many researchers have considered the CSF’s role for Lean implementation. Four Factors are identified those are important for the implementation of Lean. These four factors include Leadership and Management, Skills and Expertise, Financial Capability and Organizational Culture. Several inhibitors and enablers are identified while implementing Lean Project.

Characteristics of Enablers: Active leadership, commitment for improvement, focus on practical, and holistic thinking, stakeholder-oriented service, Establishment of a system to measure service process performance, implementation of HRM practices.

The success of Lean implementation relies on commitment, involvement, effort and evidence of management. Employee autonomy makes decisions related to change in business process, transparent information regarding Lean goals and evidence for the improvement of initial performance and sustainable Lean efforts. The six factors for successful Lean implementation are:

• Lean does not achieve success without the commitment of management.
• Development of formal mechanisms for encouraging and enabling autonomy.
• Development of formal mechanisms for encouraging and enabling autonomy.
• Continuous evaluation when the effort of Lean is critical.
• Disclosing mid to long-term goals.

The steps for ensuring CSF and achieving the LPM mindset within the consultancy staff
Some CSFs are identified consistently and have relevance for the implementation of Lean. Hence, CSF is relevant to measure the degree of success for Lean implementation. There is a set of CSFs proposed for Lean implementation.

The proposed Critical Success Factors are:

Management leadership: Top management leadership is identified as a crucial success factor for Lean implementation. Effective skills and knowledge enhancement are fostered by good leadership. It is important for a leader to model behaviour and actions.

Management support: Top management support is an important success factor for Lean implementation. Management support is crucial that ensures the awareness throughout the organisation and understands the issues in IT support service for Lean implementation.

Top management commitment: Management commitment is the most important prerequisites that aid the improvement initiatives for desired productivity. For successful Lean implementation, a committed management is important that provides organisational support (Belhadi, A., & Touriki, F. E. (2016). Organisations need to be aware that the implementation of Lean cannot be done overnight.

Organizational Culture: Organizational Culture is the other vital factor for successful Lean implementation. It defines the values, social customs, core beliefs and norms for an individual and organisational behaviour.

Communication: An effective communication plays an important role in maintaining the initiatives of Continuous improvement. Each new initiative requires a clear relationship between the mission and goals of the company.

Financial Capability: Financial capability is an important factor for determining the success of an improvement initiative. Adequate finance is vital for adopting and implementing Lean. The initiative for productivity improvement needs financial resources for hiring consultants.

Training Requirements for Individual Staff
Both training, as well as education, is very important for successful Lean implementation. This is due to the tools and techniques for the application process in Lean that requires expertise and employee skills and do not harness the enthusiasm for technology development (Maskell, Baggaley & Grasso, 2016).

• Training for tools and techniques on Lean.
• Providing workforce training for Lean implementation
• Providing workforce training for Lean implementation
• Providing training for developing the capability of problem-solving.

Method of assessing Lean Project Management approach for government work
A systematic approach for Government work related to the production or delivery of services and products is the continuous improvement framework that reduces inconsistencies and wastes with the increase of customer’s value (Zhou, 2016). The fundamental focus related to continuous improvement framework relates to the three goals:

Align: The goal is to achieve purpose constancy and attention of the government. An important tool that is helpful for providing alignment is the deployment of strategy where leaders are capable of developing a strategy and aligning organizational and operational resources for achieving the Government’s objectives.

Enable: The goal is to focus on the process and embrace scientific thinking, pull value for assuring source quality for seeking continuous improvement. An effective problem-solving system enables constant improvement. Continuous improvement methodologies for Lean are used in various industries for addressing efficiency and quality issues and as a result, reduce lead times and process variations (Kiatcharoenpol et al., 2015). Scripted processes are efficient for supporting the methodologies.

Empower: The purpose of setting such goals in this Lean Project Management Assignment is to respect every individual through continuous improvement engagement of an employee and leadership behaviours. Employee empowerment is probably an important and most difficult aspect for the continuous improvement model. An example of a tool used for empowering employees is a “red card, green card” system where feedback is provided by the employees to the managers that are helpful for continuous spur improvement. Employees are providing ideas for process improvement continuously as a part of their regular routine.

The effort of the Government to achieve the goals can take some years of work. An authentic initiative for continuous improvement never ends. This approach is capable of producing increased value and investment return. The roadmap that connects the initiatives identifies the particular activities that are required for achieving the goals of empowering, enable and align.

Conclusion
Lean is a powerful methodology that includes certain goals and objectives for achieving customer satisfaction. The Lean Project Management Assignment is prepared with the review of Lean Management and is followed by a description of benefits. The Lean Project Management Assignment includes the origin, principles, objectives, leadership roles, applications, staff roles and features for Lean Project Management. The initial reason for Lean Project Management implementation, the benefits gained by stakeholders in Lean implementation, the Critical Success Factors that the organisation required for achieving successful implementation, steps for ensuring CSF in achieving LPM mindset among consultancy staff and a recommendable method of assessing LPM approach for Government’s work are all elaborated in the project. Lean project management assignments are being prepared by our project management assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable university assignment help service.

References
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Kiatcharoenpol, T., Laosirihongthong, T., Chaiyawong, P., & Glincha-em, C. (2015). A Study of Critical Success Factors and Prioritization by Using Analysis Hierarchy Process in Lean

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