CASE  STUDIES

   Manufacturing Case Study

Project Description

The manufacturing company is the global leader in the manufacture, marketing and distribution of spices, seasonings and flavors to the entire food industry. Customers range from retail outlets and food service providers to food processing businesses. The manufacturing spice company has approximately 8,000 employees. The manufacturing spice company’s Information Technology department needs help institutionalizing project management. The manufacturing spice company decided to implement project management procedures and a training program that would enable their staff to institutionalize project management.

Company Challenge:

Challenge Number 1:

There was no standard methodology written down to help employees understand how to manage projects and consistently report on their progress. Project Masters was hired to help develop standard project management procedures to fill this need with a project manager mentor.

Challenge Number 2:

Most of the work in the spice company’s IT department is project based but, these projects include managing new initiatives. The current Project Managers each had their own way of managing projects that was inconsistent. Project Masters was hired to develop a Project Management training program, to be delivered by Project Masters' instructors. Initially, the training was intended to reflect the “The Spice Company’s Way” and use the PMBOK as a guide line in managing projects.

Challenges:

Project Masters addressed the following challenges:

• No formal methodology in managing IT projects
• No formal reporting methodology in reporting on the IT projects
• Differing inputs, opinions, needs from the various levels of the organization as well as from the various locations
• No formal training program in project management

Solution(s) Provided:

Over a period of more than 8 years, Project Masters' consultants met with key spice company’s IT personnel from all levels to develop the Project Management procedures as well as the Project Management training program and help mentor one of their key managers in project management.

Over the contract Project Masters tailored our courses to the spice company’s IT Personnel, flavor scientists, marketing personnel and provided general project management training. The courses we tailored and taught at The Spice Company’s were:

• Project Management Overview
• Planning the Project
• Monitoring and Controlling the Project
• Project Closeout
• Project Management Basics
• Managing the Project’s Scope
• Managing the Project’s Time
• Team Management for a Project
• Managing the Project’s Risk
• Managing the Project’s Budget
• Managing the Project’s Quality
• MS Project

In order to help the spice company’s employee's advance in their knowledge in MS Project we held two-hour lunch-n-learns. They could bring their challenging questions to our MS Project expert for him to answer. This was very successful and helped their project managers create more accurate project schedules.

Project Masters provided the manufacturing spice company with a Project Management Mentor / Coach who would work with a key person to assist them in reaching their goals and objectives concerning project management. The primary goal of the Mentor / Coach is to assist the manufacturing spice company in acquiring the additional knowledge and skills necessary for them to manage projects in a manner that meets the standards to be developed.

Following, is a list of the key activities that the Mentor / Coach helped the key person at the manufacturing spice company achieve:

1. Help conduct a thorough " Review of Ongoing Projects "
   • Ascertain the current Status of all ongoing projects with respect to Scope, Schedule, and Budget.
   • Ascertain the current level and methods used for project reporting.
   • Ascertain the status of all project deliverables and milestones.
2. Assist in the development of an efficient, formalized Project Reporting System
   • Help implement a system that allows for efficient and effective reporting on project timeframes.
   • Help implement an "Issues Management" System.
   • Help implement a system that facilitates escalation of project issues and concerns
3. Provide Ongoing Training and Reinforcement with respect to agreed-upon performance objectives.
4. Assist the manufacturing spice company with the development and institutionalization of a standardized, tailored, Project Management Process
5. Help develop a procedures manual for small, medium and large projects.

Benefit:

Project Masters provided consulting services and training programs that enabled the spice company to:

• Begin to modify behavior in the Project Management arena to better meet the needs of its customers.
• Understand the Project Management model that is currently used by the Project Management Institute.
• Have a standard way to do project management that was consistent through all of IT and in several other departments.
• Have a clear requirement of how to handle small, medium and large projects.
• Save large amounts of many on project by doing the pre-job planning and evaluating risk before accepting a project.

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