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TEAM

REENA ROY

Project leader

Appoint a full time project leader.


There is no question that this move really starts to make things
happen, but whether your project leader is full time or part time
the choice of project leader is a critical success factor.
Always choose the best qualified person irrespective of any
other considerations; company wide credibility, determination
and a good knowledge of the business are the characteristics
to look for.
Once the person is chosen you then have to see how that
person can be freed up for up to 12 months using, for instance,
a temporary person to back fill their job.
It is rare for a company's top managers to make good project
leaders due to pressure on their time, but the project leader will
need a top manager sponsor to be able to turn to when
necessary.

Project team
General recommendation is for a core team of 3 full time members
for companies with up to 300 employees with another full time
member for every 200 employees above this.
Whilst experience is vital for the project leader, the other full time
team members can be less experienced, e.g. trainees, students,
people close to retirement etc.
In addition to the full time members, the key managers should also
be on the project team.
The main role of the project team is to pull together the overall
objective or vision for the project (some ideas to stimulate creation
of a vision) and the more detailed new ways of working which we
call Company II.
The team also has to understand all the relevant modules of the
software and how they relate to your business.
It is possible to run the project with an all part time team, this will
slow down the project by a few months so the full time or part time
decision depends on the cost of delay identified above.

Task forces

Part time task forces of 5 or 6 people, sharply focused on the key


implementation areas and meeting 2 to 4 hours per week, are the key
decision making mechanism.
One project team member supports each task force as coordinator and
facilitator.
It is essential that all functional areas have a strong supporter who is
intimately involved in the entire process, this is not an IT project.
The task force should not spend too much time on the "as is", much of
that will change, but devote their attention on planning, documenting and
training in the new ways of working.
Ideally, nobody other than full time project team members should be on
more than one task force.
The areas where task forces required are as follows :
A. Sales and operations planning - the board plus designated master
scheduler is recommended task force with the MD as the task force
leader. This task force is also the steering committee to oversee the
whole project.
B. Demand management & master scheduling - led by sales with the task
of defining interfaces between the customer, the company and
operations. The task force needs to understand and draw up forecasting,
demand management and scheduling procedures.
C. Performance measures - led by finance with the task to implement new
performance measures to support and monitor the new ways of working

continuation

D. Stock record accuracy - led by the senior team member most


closely responsible for stock control. The target is 100% stock
record accuracy with a milestone of 98% in 3 months.
E. Bill of material - led by engineering with the task to bring the
quality of the bills of material up to the required standard, not
less than 98% accuracy, and deciding how to manage design
changes on the system. The task force also needs to decide the
optimum structure for the bills on the planning system.
F. Manufacturing - led by manufacturing with the role to ensure
that everyone understands both the new scheduling processes,
why the schedule must be strictly adhered to and the new tools
they have available such as capacity requirements planning. The
manufacturing task force will also co-ordinate task forces looking
at work flow, kanbans, lead time reduction etc..
G. Purchasing - led by purchasing with the role of reducing the
supply base to as small a number of approved, reliable suppliers
as possible, working in partnership, with high quality information
and mutual trust. The task force will eventually look at
implementing new purchasing methods such as vendor kanbans,
vendor managed inventory and business-to-business ecommerce.

Business Excellence education


All the project team should have a good
understanding of current best practice methods by
attending the relevant courses, typically an overview
course followed by the specialist course related to
the task force they support.
The training courses will enable the project team and
task forces to expand on the Company Vision
Statement into a manual for the new ways of working
and communicate the changes to the rest of the
company.
Software training - the project team should also
become familiar with the software modules that will
need to build up a picture of the new way of working.
A minimum of 3 full days training on each software
module used for every user

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