According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

Directional data is ubiquitious in science. Due to its circular nature such data cannot be analyzed with commonly used statistical techniques. Despite the rapid development of specialized methods for directional statistics over the last fifty years, there is only little software available that makes such methods easy to use for practioners. Most importantly, one of the most commonly used programming languages in biosciences, MATLAB, is currently not supporting directional statistics. To remedy this situation, we have implemented the CircStat toolbox for MATLAB which provides methods for the descriptive and inferential statistical analysis of directional data. We cover the statistical background of the available methods and describe how to apply them to data. Finally, we analyze a dataset from neurophysiology to demonstrate the capabilities of the CircStat toolbox.

/pdf/circstat-a-matlab-toolbox-for-circular-statistics-2e4fdyy3se.pdf

CircStat: A Matlab Toolbox for Circular Statistics

Project controls have traditionally been focused on after-the-fact detection of variances. This thesis proposes a control system, the Last Planner system, that causes the realization of plans, and thus supplements project management’s concern for management of contracts with the management of production.

The Last Planner system has previously been successfully applied by firms with direct responsibility for production management; e.g., specialty contractors. This thesis extends system application to those coordinating specialists, both in design and construction, through a series of case studies, one of which also explores the limits of unilateral implementation by specialists.

In addition to the extended application, two questions drive this research. The first question is 1) What can be done by way of tools provided and improved implementation of the Last Planner system of production control to increase plan reliability above the 70% PPC level? Previous research revealed substantial improvement in productivity for those who improved plan reliability to the 70% level, consequently there is reason to hope for further improvement, possibly in all performance dimensions, especially with application across an entire project rather than limited to individual specialty firms. That question is explored in three case studies, the last of which achieved the 90% target.	

The second question is 2) How/Can Last Planner be successfully applied to increase plan reliability during design processes. That question is explored in an extensive case study, which significantly contributes to understanding the design process from the perspective of active control, but unfortunately does not fully answer the question, primarily because the project was aborted prior to start of construction. However, it is argued that Last Planner is especially appropriate for design production control because of the value-generating nature of design, which renders ineffective traditional techniques such as detailed front end planning and control through after-the-fact detection of variances.

Issues for future research are proposed, including root cause analysis of plan failures and quantification of the benefits of increased plan reliability for both design and construction processes.

/pdf/the-last-planner-system-of-production-control-3b02rm1jde.pdf

The last planner system of production control

Operating room planning and scheduling: A literature review

Health measurement scales

The role of system dynamics in project management

Developing a value-centred proposal for assessing project success

Purpose – While innovation has many similarities to other forms of projects it is characterised by a high failure rate and the need to stimulate creativity. More explicit risk management could help in achieving success in innovation projects. However, too much or inappropriate risk management might stifle the creativity that is core to innovation. So, what project risk management should be applied and where in the innovation project? Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical framework is proposed which combines the generic innovation process with project risk management. The framework was used to analyse the current attitudes to managing innovation risk in a series of companies. Findings – The decision points of the stage-gate innovation process model provide an effective interface for incorporating project risk concepts. The general concepts appear most relevant to innovation management though it is useful to customise them to emphasise the particular characteristics of innovation projects. The experie...

https://profdoc.um.ac.ir/articles/a/1035097.pdf

Integrating risk management in the innovation project

Recent dramatic project failures have weaknesses in the traditional approaches to project management and in particular their failure to cope System dynamics models provide a useful tool for a more systematic management of these strategic issues. There have been a number of applications of system dynamics in project management; this experience permits a tentative comparison with the more traditional approaches and to examine the particular benefits of system dynamics. The conflicts of opinion between their supporters stress the different perspectives underlying the two approaches. The comparison of the approaches is focused on the “view” of the project management process. Although, ultimately, they both assume a system perspective, a cycle of planning, implementation and control, the level of detail in which they consider the project system is different. Traditional models . highlighted The increasing rate of change and the complexity of the new technologies and markets impose the need for quick and effective responses. As a consequence many organisations are now adopting “management by projects” as a general approach (Turner 1993) and project success is a primary factor for the survival and prosperity of organisations. However, projects are also becoming more complex and project failure is unfortunately another major trend. Over-runs of 40 to 200 per cent are common, while other projects are cancelled before completion but after considerable expenditure (Morris and Hough 1987). The important role of project management in modern life has highlighted some of the deficiencies of traditional techniques and the search for an alternative. Traditional techniques can encourage a narrow, operational view of the project, concentrating on the detailed planning and several studies (Davidson and Huot 1991; Morris and Hough 1987) have identified the need for a more strategic approach. Systems dynamics appears to offer this strategic alternative, assuming a holistic view of the organisation with an emphasis on the behavioural aspects of projects and their relation with managerial strategies. This paper addresses the need for a better understanding of the nature, differences, similarities, and purposes of traditional and system dynamics approaches. If system dynamics models are to play a core role in the future developments of project management, it is important to understand their distinctive contribution to the current body of knowledge and their place in a future methodology.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/%28SICI%291099-1727%28199622%2912%3A2%3C121%3A%3AAID-SDR99%3E3.0.CO%3B2-X

John Bowers

Papers

The role of system dynamics in project management

Developing a value-centred proposal for assessing project success

Integrating risk management in the innovation project

System dynamics in project management: a comparative analysis with traditional methods

Managing uncertainty in orthopaedic trauma theatres