The Role of Project Management in Supply Chain Management - Research Paper Example

Qualitative research The role of project management in supply chain management Author Author Affiliation Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Abstract 3 1.Introduction 3 Background 4 Problem 5 Aims 5 Objectives 5 Scope 6 Research question 6 2.Literature review 7 3.Conceptual Framework 13 4.Methodology 14 5.Data analysis, main findings and interpretation 15 6.Discussion 16 7.Conclusion, recommendations and Suggestions for future research 17 References 18 Abstract This research paper explains the importance of project management in other disciplines especially in supply chain management. The hypothesis of this research has been designed to elaborate the role of project management in supply chain and its effectiveness. It’s a qualitative research that is why all the findings and discussion are based on the related peer reviewed articles that have been analyzed in detail in literature review section. The findings of this research paper explains that project management is not only useful to ensure successful supply chain but it is advantageous for organization to achieve competitive edge in this globalized business environment. 1. Introduction Project management is an important discipline and support practices of other disciplines as well. Project management is a process of applying knowledge, tools and techniques on the project to meet the needs of the project requirements (Lauren, 2004).it is the only management technique that gives interrelated processes. These interrelated processes help the manager to carry out smooth flow of execution of all project related working tasks. Successful project is one in which roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and execution of each activity is smooth. Many organization uses project management technique as their competitive advantage by applying it on different management activities. Likewise project management also plays imperative role in managing the supply chain. Supply chain management. The adequate knowledge of project management is required to manage operations of supply chain effectively and efficiently (Bacon, 2002). Background In the recent years, companies have faced increasing challenges in their ability to manage supply chain because of changing of and introducing of new trends of globalized business environment. Now organizations are facing intense competition and need of strategic planning of managing supply has also increased (TEWARY, 2005). Organizations know that only effective supply chain can increase their revenue and value of their offered product. But the question arises how companies can achieve effective supply chain for cope up with the challenges of globalized business environment and project management is the only valuable and viable solution of today’s organizations. All companies whether it is small or large can use project management as a tool of handling its supply chain. There are mostly two classes of organization are identified one is called project-driven organization (Archibald, 2004) whose primary business is related to making and designing the different projects like architect or software engineers and many other. The project driven make projects that are based on their field work. Usually, people think project management is a discipline related to project driven organization but this is the conventional view of project management because the modern approach to project management has proved this perception wrong. The other type of organization that are not project driven but they are project dependent. Such a type of organizations are fall in the category in which their main stream business is to provide goods and services to end user or customer. The projects within these organizations are internally sponsored and funded because these projects support their internal business activities and that are mostly related to supply chain. In this way the new modern project depended supply chain are being introduced in this globalized world of business for gaining competitive edge and to generate profits (Dianne, 1999). Problem The problem of the research is to critically study and analyze the role of project management in supply chain management. The research will explore the importance of project management in the success of supply chain. Moreover, it will also elaborate how project management supports the flow of supply chain and its operations, and how it creates competitive advantage for the organization who choose project management to run its supply chain. Aims This research is aimed at providing a detailed insight of project management and its relationship with the success of supply chain management.it demonstrate the critical role of project management in supply chain management. The findings of this research work will ultimately pave the way to critically point out the importance of project management in different disciplines of management and this research paper also gives recommendations for future research at the end. Objectives Followings are the main objectives of this research work: To elaborate the importance of project management To explains the importance of project management in other disciplines of management To clarify the role of project management in supply chain management To describes the relationship of project management and successful supply chain in the globalized business world To critically evaluate the effectiveness of project management in supply chain operations Scope The scope of carrying out this research is to explain the clear and detail relationship of project management and supply chain management. Both are related disciplines and that is the main reason they both complement each other and can bring substantial advantage for the organization. As supply chain is a process of transferring goods or services to end user (SANTOS, 2009) on the other hand project management is a process of managing all types of flow of activities and the success or failure is completely depends on the project management techniques (Gorsha, 1983). So the scope of this research is to relate both the concepts and elaborate its importance for each other. Research question Our research question is based on two important concepts of our research that are project management and supply chain management .Thus that is the reason our research hypothesis is design by considering both main concept and our research question is: Hypothesis of the research: to what extent the success of supply chain management depends on project management and its techniques? The hypothesis of our research paper is of correlational type as it demands to explain the effects of both concepts on each other. So it must be tested by analyzing both project management and supply chain management with equal thoughtfulness. 2. Literature review In the majority of business organizations the survival of successful project management depends seriously on the proper execution of the supply chain process, for the reason that well-timed, accurate, and well-organized delivery of materials, equipment, supplies and resources are critical to success of project management. The research has shown that changes in product orders, material supply, customer forecasts, or unavailability of human resources can significantly influence project schedules with respect to having to delay or accelerate project completion. However, in some cases these changes in supply and demand take a lot of time to become apparent in project management plans and schedules, "incidental" work, resulting in missed milestones, cost overruns and penalties. In order to deal with such project management issues, the business organizations need to implement a common management system that breaks down the management into various components such as supply chain management, human resource management, cash management, demand planning and project management to make sure that human and physical resource use is maximized (Basu, 2010; Kerzner, 2006). The nature and processes of project management vary from project to project depending on various aspects such as project duration, resources, budget and so on. However, project managers, irrespective of restraints, site, or state origins have a common feature, which is known as experience. Without a doubt, each project manager’s experience level can be acknowledged as an exclusive unit that completely depends on their individual education, knowledge, training and experience. Additionally, understanding how and when to put into practice particular project management techniques, tools and approaches, improves with the advancement of the project manager’s experience. In this scenario, expanding project management scope, for instance supply chain management, encompasses techniques, tools and approaches offering supplementary information sets that can be used all the way through project lifecycle. Basically, supply chain management (SCM) is the process of maintaining the flow of information, relationships and supplies across the organization’s boundaries to provide superior economic value and customer service (Laudon & Laudon, 1999; Kerzner, 2006). As discussed above, SCM is the process of maintaining the flow of products from the delivery of raw material to delivery of final products. In this scenario, management of material flow from acquiring the raw material through the additional value change process to distributing the final product is the major project activity. However, both supply chain management and project management are believed to be parallel processes. In addition, this close resemblance offers a solid base to expand the project management field to integrate supply chain management (Zuo, et al., 2009; Storey, et al., 2006). Additionally, the managers of supply chain operations pay a great deal of attention to coordinating and combining these flows of materials by implementing a particular arrangement of work tasks across place and time, clearly identified inputs and outputs, with a start, an end, and an organization for operations. Similar to supply chain management, project management is also an organized method of managing and organizing work tasks in a particular sequence across place and time (Zuo, et al., 2009; Storey, et al., 2006). In addition, the integration of project management into supply chain management can improve the efficiency of a business organization. In fact, it can improve the quality of supply chain management. Additionally, the project management team can diminish the risks involved in the supply chain by unmistakably determining and connecting material and product needs to particular jobs and the resulting planned requirement schedules. In this scenario, establishing this relationship of supply chains needs can be determined through the project plan beginning, with the purpose that the development of the work breakdown structure can be made possible within the project plan, as well as fully complete in the material demands endeavors. Hence, this multi-pronged process can present an apparent relationship of service or material needs from the initial plan until the service or material is assigned within the context of the project. To put it briefly, SCM is a significant knowledge and skill set for the project management team. Hence, effectively putting into practice the tools, knowledge-base and skill sets can support the project team’s completion and delivery of the final service or product within budget and on time. However, the accomplishment of the highest level of SCM requires the business organizations to hire skilled and experienced people. Moreover, they should be capable of unmistakably tracing the service or material needs to an element of the overall project (Zuo, et al., 2009; Storey, et al., 2006). It has always been arguable whether project management is applied on different fields consistently and generically. Many studies have described that project management is a viable tool of managing all type of operations and business. In a study (Kliem & Anderson, 1996) explain that project management is an art rather than a science because it does not only include theories to handle various working activities even it gives wide variety of flexible technique that can be applied on different situations whether difficult or simple. The research has carried on to analyze various models of project management that act as a guide to project manager to deal or manage different operations. Moreover, it found variant approaches that helps the project manager to perceive the environment to make respond to events, process information and interaction. This research valuable in making relationship of project management with supply chain and with other disciplines of management. Moreover another research journal (Lynn, 2005) uncovers the trends of project management. According to this research paper project management is a profession or discipline that is continuously grow and develop. It is being applied on different new industries, countries and applications areas that is the reason the demand is increasing in new organizations and industries of the world. This research paper combine the finding of previous result and concluded its result that in the last ten years project management is the only discipline which gave new techniques and tools of managing operations and it is the only discipline that is changing and improving continuously. On the other hand, the most another important discipline which is responsible for the success and failure of the organization supply chain management is facing various challenges of its management in this modern world of globalization. According to the research (Szegedi & Kerekes, 2012) “supply chain is a strategic factor, focus has been shifted to make effective supply chain to because the challenges of globalization have emerged in the forms of vertical disintegration, product proliferation, multichannel set and many other these complex challenges need proper management at all level of supply chain.” Similarly the other research (Lambert & Cooper, 2000) explain the same area of discussion and concluded that successful supply chain management demands the cross-functional integration and cooperation at all levels of supply chain is critical factor for its success. The most important challenge of managing supply chain is to develop effective integration. The researcher has considered various case studies to conclude and elaborate the importance of integration in supply chain and integration is only achieve through project management which has also explained in different studies and researches. Like (Jan Holmström, 2001) supply chain management is a transfer of product to end user.it requires cost-effective and smooth flow of product and information among all members or actors of supply chain. Thus the product requires project management technique to manage product supply. Likewise another research (Sharma, et al., 2012) explain that supply chain is used by most of the organizations worldwide but it controls effectively when it interlinked with quality project management. The quality project management was the new concept that has been given by this research. According to the research project manager require deep insight of the project to deal inter and intra challenges of organizations supply chain of its product. It improves the quality of the product as well and it also reduces the cost. In addition, another study (Daewoo Park, 2014) clearly shows the relationship of project management and supply chain management. According to the research both management disciplines complement each other in many ways and also eliminate each other’s shortcoming and challenges. The research has used case studies of Japanese and American manager and explained how both use project management to achieve cost effective supply chain. Likewise another important paper (Zuo, et al., 2009) has also used the same research question that is based on project management and its role in achieving sustainable supply chain but research has used the case study of timber procurement to explain whole of the processes of supply chain management and concluded that using project management in supply chain is helpful maintaining value creation process. Moreover, the study of (Miguel & Brito, 2011) empirically confirmed a positive role of project management in operational performance of supply chain management. It explained that project management ensures the supply chain management in four ways .As it provides cost, quality, flexibility and delivery to the supply chain through its effective tools and techniques. Similarly the paper (Oracle, 2014) rejects the traditional view of project management. In the paper it has been described that some years before managers believed that project management is only a discipline of project driven organizations but with passing time their perception proved wrong and concept of project dependent organization has introduced. But now one new concept project driven supply chain has emerged in the organization. This paper describes this project driven supply chain concept and explains its imperative role in improving performances. Furthermore, another research paper (kara, et al., 2008) also explains the critical role of project management in managing supply chain risk in different kinds of project. According to this research paper supply chain management is an important technique of managing resources at different levels and all levels are easily identified. When level has been clearly identified it would help the manager to identify risk if aby present at any stage of supply chain. For managing that risk the project management techniques are useful. The project manager can easily identify risks and mange it with project management. Thus in this way manager can carry out all operations of supply chain effectively and efficiently. These all research studies clearly and deeply describe the importance of project management in all fields but especially in achieving supply chain management. 3. Conceptual Framework The important variables of the conceptual framework are project management initiation, project related input (like techniques and tools), actors and operations of supply chain and execution and result of the project. The conceptual model has been explain with the help of the diagram that is given below: Project management Boundaries This framework describes the whole idea of the research’s concept. According to the given model the whole process starts with the project initiation through which project inputs like techniques and tools of project management are implemented and whole process enters into the project boundary. It specifies the project management premises that is led by the project manager. The strategies that has been designed for managing project have been implemented on the supply chain actors and the operations. For instance a company launching a product and that it’s the project. Thus it designed various strategies for effectively carry out all the supply chain operation from manufacturing to transfer to to endused.it is a project of that organization to manage its supply chain. When project terminated and product successfully reach to end user. Then the last step is evaluations of project effectiveness by comparing it with the success or failure of supply chain management. If feedback is positive then company use it again otherwise the strategies will be discarded by project manager. 4. Methodology The methodology that has been chosen for conducting this research is reviewing the literature that is based on related journal article. As this research is qualitative in nature and testing hypothesis is correlational that is the reason all the interpretation of the literature is totally based on journal articles related to project management and supply chain. We have chosen this methodology because it helps in examining all dimensions of the phenomena in detail and it gives subjective information.it is not limited to verify the rigid definable variables. Thus there are many reason of selecting this methodology for our research. Hence, the study of articles include a detailed review of articles published in English in peer reviewed scientific journals. The journals search was carry out on various web database. Likewise, the research of journals was based on two distinct but related criteria. First criterion related to project management and its importance in different fields of business. The second criterion was based on role of project management specifically in supply chain management. So, in this way the data has been collected by the journal to review and discuss. 5. Data analysis, main findings and interpretation Different research journal has been reviewed in the literature review section of this research report. All the data that has been collected for this research show the subjective perspective on our topic of research. Journals are of different types and show distinct but related results. Some of the journals describe the importance of project management in overall success of the organization and some describe the importance and critical role of project management in specifically supply chain management. Both supply chain management and project management are management techniques to carry out different operations of the organization. Both have similarities and differences as well. But at the same time both approaches complement each other in many ways. The conceptual framework describes the whole process how project management techniques are applied and implemented on various actors and operation of supply chain. The project management is helpful for organization to achieve competitive advantage through the success of effective supply chain. Thus project management plays critical role in supply chain management and its success and it provides valuable techniques to gain value, quality and timely deliveries in supply chain and project management can easily identify risks in supply chain but it only requires capable project manager who know how, where and when apply the project management knowledge to exploit it for achieving success. Thus, these are the main findings of this research report. 6. Discussion It has always been in discussion that whether project management covers different trends and activities of the modern organization. Different researches give different arguments but many researches support the argument with various evidences is that project management plays vital role in all fields of management. This research paper also explains the role of project management in specifically in the field of supply chain management. As project management gives management knowledge and practices for understanding different operations and phenomena that is the reason it is also valuable tool for managing supply chain. Project management has become an important management tool for developing and improving supply chain in many organizations. Recent project management studies suggest that project management is significant technique that is applied on practices and performance of the supply chain that is helpful to achieve competitive edge and cost effectiveness (Daewoo Park, 2014).Moreover project management ensure the effectiveness of supply chain by providing flexibility, quality, timely delivery and cost effectiveness. Project management plays a part of mediator between all the actors of supply chain that execute all the function and operations efficiently (Miguel & Brito, 2011). In addition there are many similarities between project management and supply chain management both describes the beginning, ending, scope, time, cost, view and customer needs in different ways and if similarities of both discipline then project manager can make any venture successful. Each built systematic view where whole work must be integrated and cooperative. Project management is the only tool that also keep manager informed about the changing of challenging world (Henrie, 2007). Thus, the project management is critical for the supply chain success but at the same time capable person or leader as a project manager is also required to handle all the work. Having right person as a project manager for carrying out operation of supply chain for applying right project management techniques and tools on right time is also plays significant role in achieving success in supply chain. Moreover project-driven supply chain concept that has been introduced recently also support our hypothesis as this concept provide basis to project management to create value of in supply chain management. Hence it has proved that project management plays critical role in achieving project success (Bjeirmi, 1996). Managing supply chain by implementing project management techniques can bring many opportunities of increasing value and revenue for the organization in different ways. 7. Conclusion, recommendations and Suggestions for future research To conclude the discussion we can deduced that project management plays important role in managing supply chain management and its operations. The preconditions of effective supply chains are smooth flow of information and timey and well managed deliveries at right time at right place to right person.it demands the well planned and well-structured management and it can be possible only through the project management. So, it can be very valuable for modern organizations to deliver value with sufficient profits to adopt project management for transferring its product to end user. Moreover, project management is useful for all kind of business it can be any marketing, accounting, complex or small. This research explains many different perspectives of project management but still it has some limitations. Thus, to overcome these limitations some recommendations and suggestion for future research are given below: The quantitative approach can be used to carry out the same research on the same topic. The qualitative approach only gives subjective impression and ignores the objectivity of the research. Next time we can consider the objectivity of the topic Other disciplines can also use to explain their relationship with project management like marketing etc. The disadvantages and shortcoming of project management have been ignored in this research it can be covered in future research. 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