Industry projects are normally planned for several months sometimes even a year or more. The main reason is most plants can’t just shut down and install a new processing line. Therefore, planning all aspects are usually started In January of each year and actually Implemented over the Thanksgiving or Christmas week allowing for the plant to shut down during those times. During the preceding months before the plant shut down all deliverables are reviewed along with all the resources involved.
This involves, industrial engineers, mechanical engineers, I OFF contractors leading the actual work. Millions of dollars are spent planning and preparing for a one week shutdown. Mainly because the plant must under all circumstances start up on the 10th day ready to process poultry, no exceptions. Therefore, the integration of project management tools into poultry operations enables project team members from across the company along with contractors to work on and off of planning documents.
Version control systems allow users to return to a document previously created. This prevents problems with people overwriting each other’s work, vandalism or other mistakes. For example, “using the free Google Docs application, s can share documents by clicking the “Share” button and entering specific email addresses. To check the revision history, s can open the document, select the “See revision history” option from the “File” menu and choose a previous version if necessary’ (2008).
One of the main tools used in these projects is the work break down structure (WEBS). This tool allows the team to know what operations re going on at any given moment. A work breakdown structure is a key project deliverable that organizes the team’s work into manageable sections. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PROJECT MANAGEABLE) defines the work breakdown structure as a “deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team. (2012) In the poultry business the work breakdown structure is a vital tool and has been used successfully many times over by visually defining the scope of the large project into manageable portions that a reject team can understand, as each level of the work breakdown structure provides further definition and detail to ensure the project is successful. Project Status Reports According to Brad Iceland a project manager with over 19 years of experience in the industries of Gaming, Manufacturing, Government Contracting, Retail Operations, Aviation and Airline, the “Project Status Report is a sacred piece of [project management] material.
You do a lot of things on a weekly basis, though many of those tasks that you perform are not very quantifiable”. Your team members may accomplish a lot of documented tasks that there are billable. But as the project manager, you orchestrate but rarely deliver a product that you produce yourself. However, the weekly Project Status Report is all yours. No one else puts it together and no one else wants to touch it with a ten foot pole. Here is where you explain what you’ve monitored, controlled, administered, overseen, and generally project managers for the past week.
You show your worth and more times than not, your billable worth o the customer through the Project Status Report and the accompanying revised project schedule. The aforementioned plans and processes are in fact vital to all manufacturing processes, especially those in the live animal processing plants. Without the proper planning by project managers and the skillet to use such tools as a work base structure and process status reports a project would not stay on track and fall behind. By implementing and keeping all involved the plants can and will start up on time, no exceptions.
