W8_Ocharlie_3D WBS and Omniclass

Problem definition

Lack of progress visibility drains away the capacity to direct operations effectively and economically. Activities are run blindly and cause and effect relationships become blurred. Since activity status is not known, there is no control and problems are not easily identified until they become critical creating delays, slippages and budget over runs. How can we manage the workflow to minimize cost by optimizing throughput

Feasible alternatives

Root cause analysis is a technique that is often used to analyse problems to determine what happened, why it happened and what to do to avoid reoccurrence. There are three basic types of causes;

Physical causes- Tangible, material item failed in some way

Human causes- People did something wrong or failed to do the needful

Organisational causes- Dysfunctional system, process or policy.

Possible causes which fall under the three basic types are;

·         Material

·         Trade

·         Tool

·         Process

·         Environment

Develop the outcome of each alternative

Selection of criteria

The attributes for the selection criteria are;

·         Impact on throughput

·         Impact on cost

·         Impact on schedule

Analysis of alternatives

Table 1 Comparison using the Nondimensional scaling of Compensatory model

           

ATTRIBUTES	MATERIAL	TRADE	TOOL	PROCESS	ENVIRONMENT
Impact on throughput	1	1	1	0.5	0.4
Impact on cost	1	1	1	0.3	0.2
Impact on schedule	1	1	1	0.6	0.5
	3	3	3	1.4	1.1

Taking all the attributes to be of equal importance, the scores for each causal factors is the summation of the nondimensional values of each column..

Selection of preferred alternative

Without material, activity cannot proceed; personnel and tools remain dormant increasing cost and schedule slippage. With material and personnel and without the tools activity cannot take off resulting to increase in personnel cost so also with material and tool without the required trade. Since the fabrication yard is functional, the environment plays less impact on attributes. With process in place but without competent personnel, right tool and material available nothing can be done. Thus for a complete picture of the project, the project WBS shall be combined with the tools and trade required to carry out the job and the material for the job.

Performance monitoring and evaluation

The multi-dimension WBS presents the interfaces, and aids scheduling in defining what work has to be done, when it should be done, where it has to be done and by whom and with what tool. With these, baseline estimates are made and the work packages are prioritized by identifying those that are on critical path.

References

Mind Tools (2012). Root Cause Analysis, Tracing a problem to its origins. (online). Available at http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/new/TMC_80.htm {last Accessed 02/01/2013}

OmniClass a strategy for classifying the built environment (Ed 1), 2006-03-28 Release).

Retrieved from http:www.omniclass.org/

Humphreys, G. C. (2011). Definition of Scope, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Dictionary, Project Management Using Earned Value (2^nd ed.), (PP. 45-58) CA, Humphreys & Associates Inc.

Humphreys, G. C. (2011). Relating Organisation, Responsibility, and Work Scope, Project Management Using Earned Value (2^nd ed.), (PP. 91-100) CA, Humphreys & Associates Inc.

Hollman, J.K. (Ed}. (2012). ,  Plan Project Scope and Execution Strategy development, Total Cost Management Framework. (PP. 147-150) WV, AACE International 

Sullivan, W.G., Wicks, E.M., & Koelling, C.P. (2012). Decision Making Considering Multiattributes, Engineering Economy (15^th ed.), (PP 582-584) New Jersey, NJ. Pearson Higher Education, Inc.

Brassard, M., Ritter, D.(2010). Cause & Effect/Fishbone Diagram, The Memory Jogger 2(2^nd ed.) NH, GOAL/QPC