Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Saved by “Plan B:” The Importance of an Effective Project Manager



Saved by “Plan B”
The Importance of an Effective Project Manager




As the saying goes, “A stitch in time saves nine.” This story from one of AJC’s clients shows how an effective project manager can save more than nine stitches in time, particularly when Plan A doesn’t go according to plan.

A client with a rapidly growing business engaged AJC’s Julie Bryan to help with a new technology upgrade to their order fulfilment system. The client had already selected a vendor for the new system, so they urgently needed a project manager to help phase out the old system while also making sure their facilities and employees were prepared for the new system.

Anticipating and effectively preparing contingency plans

The original plan had a short four-month timeline for completion.  Within a few weeks of starting the project, however, vendor testing proved to not be as smooth as anticipated, resulting in a projected two-month delay. 

As Julie assessed the situation with the technology vendor, she realized that the client needed to consider the possibility that the delay would very likely be more than two months. Meanwhile, sales were increasing, and the old system was straining to keep up with the orders.

“We didn’t know when- or if- we would get the new system,” explained Julie. “We needed to go to Plan B. We needed to help our client use their existing system to meet customer demand, particularly as they faced the upcoming increase in sales volumes.”

Julie interviewed employees at the company to seek input and she outlined her recommendations regarding the steps the client needed to take to continue for several more months with their existing order fulfilment system.

“Companies need to understand the risks of timelines slipping, and what the backup plans would be if they don’t meet that timeline,” Julie cautions. “At what point do we hit a date when the project absolutely must be complete? A project manager needs to determine that deadline, and work backwards from that date to determine when a company would need to reevaluate and potentially switch gears or start putting Plan B in place.” 

Keeping project budgets on track, even when timelines shift

After Julie delivered her recommendation, AJC offered to pause Julie’s engagement for a few months while the vendor fixed the technology.  This helped the client avoid incurring costs for a project manager during this window of time.  Upon re-engaging on the project, AJC budgeted a 20% buffer on PM work up front to cover any additional unexpected needs.  Ultimately, this buffer allowed Julie to provide an additional six weeks of support at the end of the project to ensure a smooth transition.  Even with the increased duration of the project, AJC did not need to use the entire buffer budget.

Maintaining objectivity amidst competing options

When Julie returned to the project, the new technology was ready to be delivered. However, the company still needed to ensure that operations could continue during cut-over to the new system. As new information came to light with the vendor, the entire team was considering changes to the installation plan at the client’s site.

Julie explained that at this critical point, her task as the project manager was to evaluate different layout options for how the current system could be replaced within the existing warehouse footprint. Julie worked with points of contact from each team in the company to go through the status of the project, taking into account any concerns they had about how the transition would impact their department.  In her recommendations, she provided pros and cons and cost estimates for each of the four scenarios.

In the end, the transition to the new technology was successful, thanks to Julie’s careful planning and flexibility.



Three Reasons to Hire an External Project Manger
1. Experience anticipating and preparing for contingencies: While an internal project manager may be immersed in the weeds of daily operations, an external project manager brings a high-level view to anticipate potential outcomes and prepare for contingencies. An external project manager can determine hard deadlines to trigger a shift in plans for Plan B when necessary.
2. Objectivity: An external project manager isn’t influenced by internal politics, giving them the ability to provide an impartial perspective that can be critical when organizations are planning systems that will fundamentally change their business processes.
3. Saving time and costs: An external project manager will save time and keep budgets on track, particularly when timelines shift due to external factors and flexibility is required.


Saturday, March 17, 2018

What Work Gets Done in the “Down” Season?


What Work Gets Done in the “Down” Season?
by AJC Senior Consultant Janell Hosch

Many companies experience seasonality in their industries.  Upon conclusion of that peak time, do you ever take the opportunity to reflect on what could be improved before the next peak occurs? 


Project Prioritization:

The first step is to gather your key team members and collect everyone’s thoughts about issues or inefficiencies they have encountered.  Then, discuss specific projects that could be done to address these issues.  This list may be too long to reasonably tackle in the amount of time or with the resources available, and that is where Project Prioritization comes in.  We recommend using the AJC Project Prioritization Matrix.  When performing your own Project Prioritization, you can easily customize the approach to fit your specific needs.  Determine which evaluation categories are most applicable to your current situation, (e.g., cost impact, production volume impact, time line for implementation).  You can further modify the method for your specific situation by applying the appropriate weight to each category.  If reducing costs is your primary concern, give that category a higher weight that the others.  This is a very objective approach to determining which projects will benefit your particular situation the most.



AJC Case Study – Project Prioritization & Execution



The following is the story of a client who AJC helped guide through the Project Prioritization process from concept to implementation. These efforts resulted in vast cost and efficiency improvements during their next seasonal peak. After you have prioritized the projects and determined which ones to execute, how do you begin to tackle these projects? Develop a project team for each one and get started by laying out all of the milestones necessary to get from where you are today to full implementation. A dedicated project manager to oversee all of the projects works well to ensure continuity and resource balancing. The project teams can then create detailed schedules for their projects, assign owners for each task and associated timelines. Task owners can get started immediately on project execution. 



We encountered some challenges during the implementation phase, as is common with efforts such as this.  One issue was that many of the projects required IT support, and this additional work overloaded the IT department.  They were unable to support their daily obligations and the additional workload from the projects.  This required specific priority and timeline setting within the IT department to ensure they were providing reasonable and achievable timeline commitments to the project teams.  We were also working with project team members across multiple geographic locations.  This required a structured approach to file sharing and communication, as well as video conferencing for effective team meetings.

The AJC client that was going through this process also wanted to develop in-house project management expertise.  As part of this project, AJC provided project management training to an internal employee while actively managing the projects.  As the project teams were making progress, the AJC consultant slowly transitioned PM responsibilities to the internal PM and was able to phase out of the project over time.  Getting the PM fully trained and all of the teams executing per the project plans was the end point of the project for AJC.  The internal PM carried the project through to completion and the next peak season was vastly improved over the previous one.

Our advice to you is, after the peak season has concluded, take the time to brainstorm with your team about what didn’t go well and any possible fixes to improve your processes before the next peak occurs.  If this list is too long to tackle all at once, use a Project Prioritization Matrix to determine which projects will have the biggest impact and can be implemented the quickest.  If the team collectively rates the projects, the best projects will rise to the top of the list.

Read this article and more on AJC’s blog, and sign up for our newsletter online at: http://andreajonesconsulting.com/blog.aspx

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

What is Your 2018 Word of the Year?


Three years ago, a colleague suggested that each member of our professional advisory group announce a “Word of the Year” to help focus and embody their primary goal for the New Year.  That year and each since, I have announced a word.

How about you?  What is your word of the year?  What is it that you want to do, accomplish, effect, see, or try this year?  Are there new opportunities you can already predict, or some that you hope will materialize?  Are there challenges that must be overcome, or is it merely change that you are looking for?  Perhaps the goal for the year is for *less* change!  (Here is an article with 5 tips to choose your word of the year!)

Another consideration is whether your word has more to do with you personally, or with your business.  The first year I articulated my word, it was personal.  The next year was about the business.  Last year I thought it was about the business, but it ended up being more personal.  This year my word is “Learn,” and it is intentionally personal.  Time will tell how that pans out.

Whether the word matches your personal or professional life, and is something that will truly last the year or not, reflecting on what this year’s word should be will undoubtedly bring insight and spark innovation.  And both throughout and at the end of the year, reflecting again on how progress is being made to that word will most likely lead to some kind of learning, and hopefully satisfaction.

Happy New Year from all of us at AJC.

 Read this article and more on AJC’s blog, and sign up for our newsletter online at: http://andreajonesconsulting.com/blog.aspx