APICS Wichita Chapter 71 December 2006 Newsletter page 4

Gene Brockmeier, CFPIM, CIRM Manufacturing Education & Systems, Inc

One of the critical problems we face when implementing business process improvements is the availability of resources.  Let’s examine three:

1. People

2. Skills

3. Time

4. Money

5. Technology

Far too often, we launch into an improvement project not knowing what types and amounts of resources will be required to bring a project to successful completion. Experience and vision can help with estimating required project resources. A flexible organization can quickly assign additional resources should the need arise.

People time is most critical.  Too often the case is that employees assigned to projects are those that organizations can afford to do without, and quite often these are not the most skilled employees.  In the case where the most talented are assigned to a project, they are often pulled away from the day to day activities of the project to work normal business leaving tasks undone or late. Overtime can pile up on key employees who are required to work both on the project and also normal job tasks.  Consequently, much of what they need to get done for the project is late or insufficient.  And far too often, they suffer from burnout. Action should be taken to ensure that key project employees are freed up from their normal job requirements and can devote the needed time to the project. 

Identifying and acquiring the skills needed for a project is critical to having the project flow smoothly.  Quite often however, and particularly at the beginning of a project, we may not be sure of the skills required of the project.  The lack of a critical skill can cause tasks to be late or insufficiently completed. Recognizing the need for a specific skill, seeking it out an acquiring it is often challenging. There are times when a specific skill is not available within the company and project managers must either hire or contract it out.

How often do we begin projects without sufficient lead time?  Just the effort to estimate approximately when a project will be done is a lot of guess work.  Setting project completion dates without sufficient information on the requirements of the project can lead to rushing or partially completing tasks.

An issue with business improvement projects is justifying the cost. Much of the cost of business is in dealing with problems, however, we are not very good at accounting for and tracking the amount of time spent on problem resolution. Because we cannot cost justify problems, we just seem to live with them and treat them as a part of business. We must be sufficiently intelligent to analyze the impact of a poor business problem and eliminate it.  Of course we can’t spend a million dollars to save 10 but knowledge of the impact of poor material planning, inefficient manufacturing operations and poor quality should drive us to tackle problems and eliminate them.

Having sufficient technical resources is key to many projects. The availability of data collection terminals, printers, bar code readers and other technical hardware can add to the success of many projects.  Without sufficient technical hardware, information may not be entered on time or at all. Technology certainly adds to the cost of projects and can cause project delays if not ordered on time. The lead time required to identify types of hardware, get it approved, ordered and installed can have a substantial impact on project budget and schedule. When planning projects, one must certainly take a detailed look at the technical requirements of the project, plan them in detail and make sure to follow up on their progress.

Resource management during a project can be very time consuming but with detailed planning and management, resources can be available when needed.