Industrial

Researchers reveal that a lot of business investment gets wasted because of poor project performance. Organizations must unveil the real causes of such failures and check out with the project management professionals who can find out solutions to meet up these challenges.

Poor project management planning leads to consistent failures. And this means there was a meagre involvement of the management team during the planning done by the stakeholders. And hence the scope of the project remains unexplored. Hence, the schedules and the budgets will be unrealistic without a critical planning done for the project management. 

How Can You Determine Project Feasibility?

Based on the experiences of various researchers and scholars, it is highly recommended that every project manager must follow the below steps to develop a plan that drives quality deliverables at the right time and within the stipulated budget.

1. Know Requirements From Key Stakeholders.

After you create a project charter and find key project stakeholders, you must begin to collect their requirements. The entire process of planning begins with collecting information that enables you to define the scope of the project and the key deliverables to the stakeholders.

You need strong communication skills at this stage of the planning process. Effective communication ensures you do not miss out the important details that are crucial for the project’s overall success.

2. Establish the Scope Of the Project.

As a project manager, you can do a quick check with your self by asking a question “What does my team need to produce or deliver?” or “What problems my stakeholders are trying to solve?” Once you get the answers, it is time to work with your stakeholders and develop a thorough description about the project and the product deliverables. You can use different tools available to gather information in an organized manner. Also, you must have a clear understanding of the project boundaries.

For example, if you are developing a quality improvement strategy for a customer, you must know what will be included in the QI model and what kind of quality they need. What is it intended to do? What are the critical functions and features it needs to have?

3. Break Down Into Smaller Tasks.

Break down the project’s scope into smaller, more manageable deliverables and groups of related tasks, also known as “work packages.” This will allow you to assign resources to different parts of the project based on the skills needed. The work breakdown structure facilitates planning and coordination, which are two important functions of project management.

4. Identify Project Activities.

Break down work packages into a list of project activities. Consider this an action plan. It can help to ask yourself: “What are the activities that must be performed to create the deliverables of the project?”

5. Put Them In Right Sequence.

Even though if you see everything happening in sequence, there is a trick lying in to perform tasks in parallel as possible, provided you have enough resources. The key reason to adopt the initial project management methodology is to decrease time-to-market. For dynamic and highly competitive industries, reducing cycle time is a skill and stands as a competitive advantage.

6. Estimate activity duration, costs, and resources.

The cost, duration, and resources required to complete the project activities depend on the scope of the project. Proper estimating is important for any project, as it helps determine if the plan is viable, set expectations, and keep costs under control.

7. Allocation of resources to work packages and activities as per skillsets.

Resources include not only labor but also materials, equipment, space, and technology. After identifying which resources you’ll need, you need to identify the skill level needed for each activity.

Scope and complexity level of the project helps you determine the areas of improvement from entry-level to high skills. With this step, you can determine the sequence of events that need to take place. To establish a realistic timeline, you’ll need to know how long each activity will take, how much each will cost, what resources (team members) you’ll need, and also when those resources are available.

8. Contingency Planning.

Lack of contingency planning leads to a disaster. It is always recommended to build up back up plans because projects rarely go as per the plan. Those one minute changes can be taken care of if contingencies are determined well in advance and the risks are identified occurring in small projects of past.

For example, if a vendor you’re relying on to deliver a key component of your project has had performance issues in the past, this could impact your schedule. If so, a contingency plan—such as identifying alternative vendors and estimating the costs if this risk should occur—is necessary. The key here is to consider both internal and external factors that may impact your project’s objectives. There are many factors outside of the organization that could add risk to the project, including the consumer price index, the economy, government issues (e.g., emerging regulations), and competitors’ actions.

Also, consider organizational culture when formulating your contingencies. The culture of the organization can impact certain elements of a project plan. 

9. Develop Performance Measurement Baseline

You need to develop an integrated scope-schedule-cost baseline for the project work, which will serve as a control tool for your project. Then, compare the execution of the project to your baseline to measure and manage performance. These baselines can be established through status reports within project management software applications.

Project lifecycles should be the real parameters to measure performances. By practicing this, you will identify the loopholes and take correction measures before everything goes late. It’s equally important to measure performance upon completion of the project. This allows you to compare actual results to their baselines to evaluate overall and individual performance.

10. Create all subsidiary plans.

It takes a lot of effort to develop a comprehensive and realistic project plan. Proper planning can definitely make your life easier during the executio phase of the project. Also, you can prevent nasty surprises and misunderstandings.

There are several factors that needs to be considered via effective planning. You must frame these plans  and can call it subsidiary so that during execution time, they are readily available. You need to manage various factors such as scope, schedule,  cost, resource, quality, communication, procurement, requirement, change, stakeholder and configuration.

11. Keep Everything Documented.

Document a project plan that outlines the scope, schedule, and cost of the project. Typically, plans should cover cost management, quality management, resource management, communication management, risk management, procurement processes, as well as ongoing stakeholder engagement (i.e., how to continually engage stakeholders through the lifecycle of the project.)

12. Create Your Knowledge Base.

Some organizations have a learning culture where project managers are expected to document and share their plans. This can be a valuable way to learn from the mistakes and successes of others. In other companies where this historical knowledge isn’t documented, this could be more challenging, and it may be necessary to reach out directly to other project managers to gain insights

Master The Project Management Skill

Project management is a growing and in-demand career, but how do you take steps to grow in your role? We recommend taking the following steps to further your project management career.

Make learning a daily habit. 

Some of the most successful project managers  regularly work on furthering their communication, team building, and negotiation skills 

You Can Learn From Everywhere. 

By earning a degree you can propel your career forward. You can also learn in other ways—from experience on the job and through support systems within the profession.

To demonstrate your skills to employers, you can also explore opportunities to earn various credentials, such as becoming a certified project manager. Data has shown that project managers who hold a certification and/or a master’s degree in project management typically earn higher salaries than their counterparts who do not.

Develop your technical skills.

Like many fields, project management technology is continually evolving, so professionals need to stay ahead of trends in the field. For example, many project managers today are investigating the potential applications of artificial intelligence and robotics. Artificial intelligence will play an important role in the way we collect, store, and share lessons learned in project management.

Develop a strong Supportive Network 

Many professionals are willing to share their knowledge and experience. Two places to start are the Project Management Institute and project management groups on LinkedIn.

Sharpen Your Leadership Skills 

Your leadership skills develop in those testing times when one of the project team member does not directly report to you. So create enough power with great influence however challenging it may be. The most common technique is to develop the ability to connect with others and build strong connections within the organization. Apart from knowing everything about your field, you need strong leadership skills.

Value Your Project Management Skill

Demonstrate to managers and others in the organization how project management is essential for developing the organization’s competitive advantage. Effective project management can result in measurable benefits such as improved productivity or reduced time-to-market for a new product.

Companies are dependent on their manufacturing processes to get products that can fetch them higher profitability. They gather all the necessary resources to ensure smooth and productive operations. To achieve the production targets, they assimilate various establishments, equipment pieces, and supplies. And here is the eye-opener. How much attention is given to the kind of raw materials you shall be using. Companies lose money during the production phase because they are unable to control the wastage and spillage of materials. Especially, when the entire stock received is damaged and needs a replacement. A few tips below that can help you protect the raw materials of your business. 

Pay Attention To The Quantity

Market demands can be taxing for manufacturing processes. This happens especially when your workers have to make thousands of products as a per-day quota. You cannot expect to keep the operations going on without enough or ample materials. Eventually, you can lose track of when you are not counting.  And then you order in bulk, which will give you the exact numbers of how many you have ready for use.

However, you will find that you might be draining the supply during manufacturing. In case if you fail to reorder, you might experience delays that would lose your company millions. To avoid such situations happening in the future, you can come up with an estimate of how many you have to use when trying to meet the daily quota. It becomes so important to replenish supplies once a week as it will help maintain a smooth flow in your operations. Also, you can try repeated orders from the same supplier when you reach a certain amount that should be an alarming call to reorder to continue the manufacturing process.

Keep Them Safe From Weather

Keep your raw materials in premium condition just before they are used up for the manufacturing process. They are valuable assets for your company. As an entrepreneur, you will have to figure out how to keep them protected from external threats. The weather is one of the most dangerous things that can damage your raw materials. Wood, metal, and other types of supplies will all suffer from harsh rain, freezing snow, and extreme heat.

You will have to make sure that you weatherproof your storage containers to prevent the weather from destroying them. There are factory accidents also that deal damage to the materials, especially when they are near industrial pipes and water tanks. It will be a challenge to keep them in the best condition if you expose them to the elements. Shifting them from your transport vehicles to your supply storage needs, you need to maintain safety and protection for the materials, especially when you know they will not be used in the nearest future.

Inventory Management Software Installment

In the era of rapid digitalization, businesses have access to so many tools that could be useful in every aspect of operations. With offices full of electronic devices, manufacturing processes will take advantage of the latest equipment. Your inventory management system will also receive support from innovative software that allows you to keep track of every single item. You can purchase a digital platform that locates the materials through a barcode system.

The inventory management solution will improve efficiency, especially in the case when you are trying to search for ways to minimize damages and waste. Hire good leaders in your manufacturing team who can handle the software to help them become independent. However, you must make sure you check the daily reports to keep track of the problems in the financial aspect and come with the right solutions on time.

Utilize Protective Storage

Abundant raw materials are utilized to fulfill the production quotas in a single day. This means there will be a larger number of supplies keeping you overwhelmed in finding the right storage solutions. You will find that you have to make space inside your warehouse to accommodate the products, which leaves less room for the raw materials. If you want to protect the supplies, you will have to seek alternative storage containers. You can use transport vehicles to serve as a temporary shelter for the raw materials.

You will be able to transfer them to the inventory room when the oldest ones are getting prepared for the operations. Also, you can find self-storage containers from businesses nearby, which will give you perfect warehousing solutions. Safeguarding the raw material is necessary, and hence you must know that storage of these raw materials is a crucial part of the manufacturing process.

Using Equipment For Safe Handling

There are a lot of machines in use when you are performing the manufacturing process.  If you are thinking about how to handle the movement of raw materials, you must know that it is also a part of the task. You need lifting equipment and that is a necessary investment. The heavy-duty tools will ensure that your supplies are in safer hands compared to your manufacturing team. Because a single accident can lead to a lot of damages and delays that cause financial losses for your company. And that makes it crucial to prioritize handling the materials with care.

No matter how great technology you adopt to get a progressive manufacturing process, you need to take care of the raw materials and consider it as a top priority at any point in time.

Companies that carry a deep vision are sure to succeed. Take a new product launch or dive into a new market, you need some level of risk-taking and testing to get the desired growth. It can also mean handling those projects that you exactly do not know how it will come into life and if at all it can give benefits to the business.

There are business leaders in the market who gained success only after knowing that time and resources are the most valuable assets for any company. A smart project manager will always optimize both to get maximum results. Knowing the feasibility and potential revenue from a particular project before it gets started will help you save a lot of time and can give you much better results.

How Can You Determine Project Feasibility?

Successful project managers monitor the tasks and are inquisitive. They ensure that each of the key milestones is met and that every project works on track. The real question is do they face any major roadblocks that can risk the entire project along the way? Are there skilled people, better processes, and required tools in place that can monitor the project from its ideation to turning it into reality?

The solutions to all these questions lie in the initiation stage. The stage where you determine your objectives, establish project deliverables and determine whether the project can reasonably give good results. This is where feasibility study comes into play.

What is a feasibility study?

To make it simple, a feasibility study is a process where you assess the practicality of a proposed plan or method. The study has an answer to your question at initial stage that “Is this project feasible?”

You need to determine the answers by asking questions like who, when, what, and how of your project. A wider analysis needs to be done about the kind of people that are eligible to undertake the project. Besides, what and when each of the tasks needs to be done and how together will fall at the right place after the project completion.

The core of feasibility study is the process of evaluation that competes at is best when the results are analyzed to be uncertain and at a higher stake.

Various Types of Feasibility Study

There are five types of feasibility studies and each of these provides a different perspective to enable you to evaluate the viability of your business idea:

1. Economic feasibility

When a business considers budget as a priority, it’s important to determine whether the investment will be worth it. Simply put, will your project be profitable? With an economic feasibility study, you run a cost-benefit analysis to determine how much value the project will bring to the business.

2. Technical feasibility

The technical feasibility studies can be applied to many types of projects, from software development to construction. Validate the technical resources and capabilities needed to convert the ideas into a working project or system.

3. Operational feasibility

It would not be surprising if the most strategic, well-intentioned projects go astray if they’re too difficult to bring together, or don’t directly address or solve the problem at hand. An operational analysis helps you understand how well the proposed project will address the problem.

4. Schedule feasibility

This is also known as time visibility, this type of feasibility study can help you determine how reasonable the project’s timeline is when measured against existing projects and available resources. Proper evaluation at this step can also help you avoid unpredictable or extra costs.

5. Legal feasibility

Legal feasibility analysis helps you understand if your proposed plan conforms to legal and ethical requirements. These requirements may include zoning laws, data protection acts, or privacy laws.

How To Perform A Feasibility Study

Just remember the last time you went on to solve a problem. It could be either at home or at work. Now there are two situations. If the problem was familiar to you, it would be easy to solve because you have previous experience or a game plan to accomplish the solution. The real challenge lies in undertaking new types of problems or circumstances. Here what you need is creativity to think and find innovative solutions.

While you determine the kind of approach needed for a business, problem, or opportunity, it is very important to determine whether your plan of attack is feasible or not. You must know the kind of steps needed to be taken to be successful. So how to identify the feasibility of the project from the one that misguides you?

Check out the seven steps below that determine your project feasibility:

1. Analyze the problem

Firstly, conduct a preliminary analysis of project requirements to assess the practicality and viability of the proposed plan. Do you have the technology and resources required to get the project off the ground? How will you measure and determine the ROI of the project? Understanding your business goals and objectives before you start the project will help keep everyone aligned and working toward the same goal.

2. Evaluate the budget

The fastest way to discontinue any new project or initiative is to misuse or waste the budget. Especially when budgets are limited, your stakeholders want to know whether the money you spend will make a difference to the bottom line. Determine how much budget you have available for the project—and identify the projected revenue streams. How will this project result in a monetary return on investment?

3. Do your research

This is where you need to take a deeper look at the market. Is there a demand for your product or business plan? For smaller projects, what roadblocks will you face along the way? What are your competitors doing? If your project goals are too narrow, or they don’t align to larger business goals, it might be wise to reevaluate your approach.

4. Make a plan

Backed by your research details, create an action plan to bring your project to life. What resources—people, processes, and tech—will you need to complete the project? A work breakdown structure (WBS), which breaks down projects into smaller, more manageable pieces that you can reasonably evaluate and assign to teams, can be used to build this plan.

5. Make a balance sheet

And now that you have an actionable plan in hand, it’s time to reevaluate the finances of the project. To do this, bring in financial data to prepare a project kickoff balance sheet. Are you still projecting the same revenue?

6. Check your data

All you need here is to think twice before you leap. Before you decide whether it makes sense to move forward with the project, take another look at all the data at your fingertips. Objectively, how likely is it that this project will be successful?

7. Decide what’s next

With all of these evaluations in place, you’ll be able to confidently, objectively, and strategically determine whether the project is feasible. If it’s not, you can build a more thoughtful, strategic plan to run through a feasibility study. If all signs point to “yes,” it’s time to give your project the green light.

Suggested Best Practices to Conduct Project Feasibility study

Feasibility studies are exclusive because they reflect the aims and demands of each project. However, the following pointers can be used in any feasibility study for industrial service. For instance, you might wish to try the following:

• 1.Get feedback from the right stakeholders about the new concep
• 2.Analyze and challenge your data to ensure that it is reliable.
• 3.To assist in data collection, conduct a market survey or market research.
• 4.Make business, organizational, or operational plans.
• 5.Make forecasted income statement.
• 6.Prepare forecast of balance sheet.
• 7.Make a preliminary decision whether to proceed or not regarding carrying out the strategy.

Final Thoughts

Business moves rapidly. Many businesses, tend to skip the evaluation stages just to get the projects to move quickly. What happens, in this case, is that it leads to misalignment, discontinuation, duplication of work and the worse is waste of time and budget. No matter the industry you belong to, a feasibility study helps you trace the possible risks and uncertainties and can increase the odds of your business’s success.

Put your dream project into a feasibility study to make it more real, implementable and help it turn into a success. At Wavy Solutions Inc, we carry years of experience in shaping up several dream projects of our clients into successful organizations. Book a consultation call to understand how we can help you in growing your business.