Quality management!

The share of projects that fail to reach the finish line as planned is high. Why does quality suffer most?

You know the classic case. A larger project should have been finished weeks ago, the commissioning or start-of-production date has passed, but there is still a long list of open points – above all with quality. On closer inspection several defect areas become visible, and the product or the plant is evidently far from a stable state. The project manager and the team are asked to carry out a root cause analysis. At first glance the escalation process appears not to have worked. The project suffered from latent resource problems and a growing number of amber-light reports with corrective actions. As lessons learned, it is agreed that the next project should pay closer attention to the set-up and that management will question progress regularly.

I can promise you: your projects will fail next time too.

When it comes to a culture of quality in project management, machinery and plant engineering – and the automotive industry too – have a lot of ground to make up. Three systemic deficits are the cause.

Companies expect doers as project managers – people able to achieve the exceptional and to deliver complicated tasks in a complex environment. Failure is not part of the plan. Management expects the project team to manage and carry the risks and to keep the project on course for as long as possible before involving management through an escalation.

Quality is the first thing to suffer. At many points in a project, quality rules allow progress only once a deficit has been closed – a red light: first close it, then move on. From a project management point of view, however, progress is possible as long as actions have been defined – an amber light: after all, we have defined an action. As long as the role of quality manager in the project is not properly filled, there is often no discussion about it at all.

If a risk analysis happens at all, it is done at the start of the project, even though risks change continuously and the analysis should be updated regularly. Where that does not happen, quality issues suffer in particular. There is also a lack of training in how to carry out a risk assessment sensibly and keep it up to date.

The situation with skilled staff is becoming increasingly difficult, including for project needs. That shortage leads to critical staffing of project leadership and project teams. The only sensible recommendation is that small and mid-sized companies also need a concept for training their own project managers – one that makes sure a solid understanding of quality matters is trained as well. Such a concept consists of scouting, a company project management handbook, certification and training for project leaders, and staff development.

The demands on project and quality management are rising and projects are becoming more complex. Development programmes have to keep pace.

With our clients we build an operating system for project management in four steps.

1. Taking stock of the project management landscape and identifying current disruptions.
2. Developing a client-specific project management system built on:
   • defining and setting the project management rules
   • training and coaching the project leaders
   • review and reporting processes as well as shop floor management
   • developing an action plan to stabilise the current situation
3. Developing a roadmap for the next stages of processes, tools and organisation.
4. Working out structures for staff and organisational development together, along with suitable assessment systems and an HR development roadmap.

With a whole-system approach like this you can develop clear structures for project excellence and gain a competitive advantage that pays off. We are glad to support you.

We build a project management system with you that makes risks visible early.