Nne Fast Track Projects free essay sample

Executive Summary Novo Nordisk Engineering (NNE) went through a fundamental re-thinking of its business through the development of fast track projects in the pharmaceutical industry. The company succeeded in reducing the time needed to deliver a pharmaceutical factory from over three years down to 11 months winning the 2005 pharmaceutical Facility of the Year award. Fast-track projects meant a lot of pressure on the client, and some were just not ready to play. The client had to adapt to changes which many linked to an increase in cost and time. To ensure fast decision-making and client agreement on proposed solutions, the Project Management Team (PMT) had to build trust between NNE and the customer. In addition, there had to be a willingness from suppliers to take risks, a commitment to be part of the project team and a co-location with the rest of the project team. Modular technology was used to simplify and speed-up the project. Although speed was crucial, it was not achieved at the expense of quality. Each project had a quality activity plan, describing the quality goals agreed with the client, as well as methods to achieve goals. NNE continuously re-evaluated its process, gradually reducing the time needed to build a factory. In addition, they changed the way customers bought facilities away from the lowest bid approach. Project focus was shifted from specification-driven to time-driven. Trust had to be created with the customer by sharing risks. An investment in team building was made and a company culture focused on project execution. Customers and suppliers were made part of the implementation team fostering information sharing between all parties involved in the construction. Analysis Findings In this section, we are going to discuss the analysis findings behind NNE implemented strategy, the fast-track project execution and the management of this type of projects through answering the following questions: 1- Which are the key success factors of the NNE strategy? NNE strategy in developing the fast-track project was focused on their goal which reflects the mission that they were targeting to differentiate themselves and create a profile of their own. Hence, they have worked on various aspects of the project management that was necessary to fit the fast-track project type they are developing which led them to a significant success in achieving their objective. The key success factors of their applied strategy are pointed a below: Focusing on their target and proper planning to achieve it. Introducing the modular approach to reduce time and simplify the project. Setting a project activity model quality management system to ensure consistency and monitor quality. Creating project management teams and ensuring effective communication. Driving the project based on time not specifications. Obtaining the customers trust, engagement and support. Developing team spirit. Page | 2 2- What are the barriers for implementing fast-track execution? Why might other companies have chosen not to adopt this approach? The barriers which were noticed for implementing fast-track execution are as follow: Finding a customer who is willing to enter this fast loop of extensive planning, documentation and implementation phases with time driven approach and flexible specifications. Getting the Client’s trust and support in all matters of the project and under all circumstances. Building the team work atmosphere to sustain in such fast track project environment. Assuring the suppliers cooperation. Moreover, the reason behind some companies not have chosen to adopt the fasttracking projects approach is mainly related to their belief that speed in executing the projects is always related to an increase in cost, risks of delays in delivery and a threat in percentage of open contract. Page | 3 3- How is managing a fast track project different from a traditional project? Fast track project management has its own special criteria that differentiate it from a traditional project management such as: Adjusting HR strategy and arranging team to work in cross-functional perspective. Adjusting the client’s mindset as a lot of pressure will be on clients. Sticking to the processes and challenging the client’s specifications. Reorganize the projects parameters based on the project’s situation. Driving the project based on time and not based on specifications. Additionally, in traditional project management the need to identify all tasks, specifications and duties mentioning the dependencies of each task on the other are necessary to drive the project into its target. Page | 4 Conclusion Lessons Learned People minds could have several barriers in changing their existing setups of project management and the effort of pushing those barriers can show a successful result. Setting a clear challenging target and working on enhancing the process of implementing the project management tools existing processes have really proved the possibility of achieving those targets similar to the fast-track project execution. Fast-track projects have to be implemented in their own criteria with no scarification on major milestones, targets and quality of the job. Hence, adjusting the time, client’s mindset and challenge the specifications are done to fit the overall environment of those types of projects as well as building the team work atmosphere effective communication among the team members in order to drive it to a successful completion. Page | 5