Lean Management Assignment: Construction Project Of Ashfield Suburb In Perth

Question

Task: Your partner and you will have to decide on the way forward for this initiative:
Answer the following questions:
1. Discuss how you would handle the conflict with:
a) your partner and
b) the builder
Explain in detail your conflict management strategy for both the above stakeholders.
2. Select one leadership style and explain in detail how you would successfully manage this project to completion.
3. Explain how you would use the Seven Quality Control (7 QC) tools and techniques to help you manage this project. (You must demonstrate the application of these tools in relation to this project. You may also propose other tools and techniques that you have learned from this unit).
4. Prepare a risk management strategy for this project. You must identify all risk and explain your strategy to manage each of the risk

Answer

Executive summary
This report of lean management assignment is about a construction project in Perth. It will initiate with the application of control management styles for solving the conflicts with the stakeholders. Then the leadership style for this project will be also identified and its significance will be highlighted. Then, aquality control management plan will be implemented and some of the tools and techniques will be applied for assessing the plan. At last, a risk management strategy will be developed in which some of the key risks in this project will be identified and their mitigation process will be stated as well.

Introduction:
Background: In the project management plan illustrated in this lean management assignment about the construction of a new home in Ashfield suburb of Perth, it will be also important to lead it with efficiency. Leadership in a lean project would help in ensuring proper conflict management between the stakeholders and to control and manage the project with efficiency (Wu et al., 2017). It is always the responsibility of the leaders to implement a proper control plan and manage all the risks with success. This  is because of  the fact  that if proper control is not implemented  then it would not be  possible  for the leaders  to  control the expenses as well  as schedule of  the project. It is also the responsibility of the leaders to manage the stakeholders efficiently. The  reason is that  there could  be conflicts  between  the  stakeholders  regarding  some  decisions  made  in  the project  and  on outcome  of the project (Maylor &  Turner, 2017).  Long term conflicts can even result in delay on completion of the project with success.  Further,  the risks  in  the project  can  lead  to interruption  or even failure and can  even  result  in  the losses  for  the investors. Therefore;  the project leader  has  the  responsibility  to identify all  those  risks and  implement proper  plan  to counter those risks effectively.

In this report, the strategy will be to develop a proper conflict management plan based on solving the conflicts with two key stakeholders of this project.  Then a   proper control management plan will be implemented which will help in executing the control in this project.  The  last objective  is to develop  an  efficient  risk  management  strategy  in  order  to counter  all  the project  risks  with  success.

Leadership for this project: For this project, proper leadership is going to be important for controlling and managing this project.  In  this regard, transactional  leadership  style  will  be followed  which will help  making  the progress  of the project and  the performance  of  the members consistent and  effective. Proper monitoring can be implemented which will help in implementing the control effectively.  Transactional  leadership  will  help  in  managing   the performances  of the project team  and  then, it will be also  possible to assist  the  team members  to complete  their  task  with efficiency (Aga, 2016).  Along with  this,  it will  be  also possible to monitor  and  review  each  of  the phases  so  that lean  management  can  be followed  effectively.  This  will help in ensuring  proper completion of each stage and  further  this  will  help  in completing  the overall  project  with  quality  and  with proper  success. 

Conflict management plan: Conflict management mentioned in this lean management assignment will be an important requirement in the process of developing the project management plan for this construction project. Therefore; a proper strategy on conflict management will be now developed.  First of all, different  styles of  conflict management  needs to be addressed  and  this will help in selecting the preferred  styles  for  managing  two different  stakeholders (Kivila, Martinsuo  & Vuorinen, 2017).  The different styles of conflict management and their utility are as follows:

• Accommodating: In  this  style  of conflict  management, the desires  of  the  other stakeholders are given  importance rather  than  The concerns of the stakeholders are given importance in the conflicts and the leaders believe in keeping peace. In this way, they end up on agreeing to the point of the view of other for making peace in the conflict.
• Avoiding: In this style, the leaders avoid the conflicts and do not give importance on solving those.  In this regard, the leaders either postpone the decision or give the responsibilities to other parties to solve the issue (Basogul & Ozgur, 2016). In such scenario, the leaders also take time to rethink about the solutions to the conflicts.
• Compromising: In this style, the leaders act as the third parties to settle the conflicts between the other parties.  In this process, solution is made regarding satisfying both the parties partially. Moreover; the leaders can also make some partial solutions to the issues.
• Collaboration: In this style, the leaders focus on developing the win win situation for the two parties in conflict (Curseu & Schruijer, 2017). Focus is given on settling down the conflict by satisfying the needs and expectations of both the parties.
• Competing: In this style, the leaders might be affirm to their decisions and fight for winning their own rights against the other parties.  This situation occurs when the leaders are confident on their own decisions.

Therefore; all these styles vary according to the situation. It is  the  responsibility  of the leaders  to choose the  right way  in accordance  with  the type of conflicts  that  they are intending to solve. Now, the focus will be on choosing the right style and strategies for solving the conflicts with two key stakeholders of this project.            

Partner:  The conflict with the partner might occur due to difference in the point of view regarding the design and architecture of the home. Conflicts also might occur due to the expenses or budget of the project if it becomes too high.  It will be important to find some proper solutions for those conflicts or else it could lead to delay in the decision making. In case of solving the conflicts with the partner, the first focus will be to choose the collaboration style. This  could be an  important  choice  as  it will  be possible to satisfy  the  requirements of  both the leader and  the partner (Lee, Huh & Reigeluth, 2015). Some adjustments can be made in the decision making process regarding the design and architecture of the house. In such case, decisions would be made regarding making some changes in the design in order to suit the needs of both. The changes would be made by taking the support of the designer and the builder of the project. The changes  would be made as  such  that the end  design  would be  of high quality and would meet  with  the expectation  levels  of  both. This will certainly help in solving the conflict with success. However;  if  the thinking of the partners  would  seem  to  be  better  than  the  thinking of  the leader, then accommodation  style can  be chosen. In this way, the decision or the interest of the partner will be given importance.

The builder: Conflicts  with  the builder can occur due to difference  in the  choice  of  construction  materials  or  due  to increase of  budget  or expenses. These could be some significant conflicts due to which the project can get delayed and can even fail badly. Therefore;  it will be extremely important  to  solve  the conflicts  on  an  immediate  effect.  There can  be  some instances  when  the builder would be giving  importance  on their self-interest  rather than  giving  importance to  the  value of  the customer (Shah, 2017).  The  issue can  occur if  the builder  suddenly increase  the contract   rate  or  get  involved  in unethical  works  like using low  quality materials.  The issue mentioned in this lean management assignment can also occur if the builder would not be able to complete the activities within the schedule. This could increase the expenses of construction and the owners could face issues regarding loss of extra money.  On the other hand, conflicts can also occur if the owners are not willing to pay the full contract amount or changing their decisions on frequent basis. In this regard, the conflict management style could be based on either collaborating or competing. Collaboration can occur if both owners and the builder settle on a fixed contract amount which would be comfortable for all or can make some adjustment in the project schedule.  However;  if  the proper settlement does  not occur,  then  the owners will  have to  take  the competing way of fighting  against  their  rights. This  might  result in the  interruption  of the progress of the project as  there  could be  legal issues and  some  third party  negotiators might come  into the scenario for  solving  the disputes (Yang,  Cheng &  Chuang, 2015). The action of competing would result in wastage in time for both the parties. However; this could be  the only way by  which  the  owners would be  able to claim their  rights  in  this project.  An alternate way can be chosen based on compromising. This  would be  the  responsibility of  the leader  to solve  the  issues  in  such a  way  that both the parties  would get some benefits from  the solutions and the project will not  be interrupted due to conflicts. 

Control management plan: The next step within this lean management assignment will be to implement a proper control management strategy.  Control will be implemented in the expenses, schedule and the quality of the project. In this regard, importance will be  given  on  finding  the problems  related  to different activities  in  the project  and  then with  the use of proper  tools, it will be possible to implement  the controls  for solving  the issues.  In this process,  Seven Quality Control tools and  techniques will be  used  and  the significance  of  all those  tools will be  described  in  relation  to the project issues and control.

• Stratification: With  this  tool, the information  of  the project  will  be  classified  according   to  their categories  and  sub-categories.  In  this project,  the  information could  be related  to  the expenses,  risks, constraints,  objectives, stakeholders  and  others (Kim, 2017).  These are the main categories for this   Now  if  any problem arises  due  to risks  in  the project,  then  the  information from  the  category of  risk  will be  utilized  for  making proper  analysis. Then, it would help in solving the issue with ease. It will also help in implementing the control in risk management.
• Histogram: With  the use of  histogram,  it will be possible to identify  the   areas of the project in  which  more  control  is  required  to be implemented. The areas are categorized and are arranged according to their priorities in the project. Then, the histogram tool can be used for analyzing the control that is required to be implemented in those.

Image of a sample histogram

• Check sheet: It is  an important  technique  in  which, the  quantitative data from the series  of  events can be considered and  the defects in each  of the events can  be identified by analyzing  the data. In  this  regard,  the  quantitative data  are  based  on  the  results  of  the implementation and  it  is compared with  the  data  that  have  been expected from  the event in  the planning   
• Fishbone diagram: This is one of the efficient tools mentioned in this lean management assignment for solving the issues to the problems. With the  use of  the  fishbone  diagram,  it  will be possible  to  find  the causes  of  various problems and  their effects  on   this project (Coccia, 2018).  In this project, problems can occur due to increase of the expenses on the implementation of the construction. This is because of the increasing rates of the construction materials. Therefore; it will be  important  to  identify  the main causes  behind  the  increase  of budget. The impact of the increase of budget will be also analyzed. Then, different roots of the problem will be analyzed and the proper solution will be identified. This process will significantly help in implementing the control in the budgeting.

Fishbone diagram for a construction project

• Pareto chart: With the  help  of  the Pareto  chart illustrated in this lean management assignment,  it will  be possible to  identify the  the  factors  that would result  in  the increase  of  budget  or failure to meet with  the deadlines  of  the project activities. This would help in identifying the key problems behind the issues. Thus, by eliminating or reviewing those factors, it will be possible to implement the required control.

Pareto chart for solving problems in the project explored within the lean management assignment

• Scatter diagram: This tool will help in identifying the relationship between the problems.  This means that all the problems will be related will each other and then the main root for this problem could be identified.  In case of this project, problems can occur due to conflicts, risks and others. All these problems will be analyzed by assessing the dependent and independent variables. Then, the root causes can be identified and control can be implemented to mitigate those causes.
• Control chart:  This will  be  useful  in  the process of determining  the stability of different processes of  this  construction project and  if  those  processes are  variable, then the  reasons can be identified. This will help in implementing the control significantly. For example, the  budget needs  to  be  stable and if it  is  found  to be  variable, then the reasons  of  the  variability will be identified and  control will be implemented.

Risk management plan:
Purpose of the plan: The purpose  of  the risk management plan examined in this lean management assignment  is  to identify  the key risks that could impact  the  success  of  the project and  then find  the risk monitoring and control process. This would help in eliminating the risks in the construction project and would help in completing the project without interruption (Aven, 2016). 

Risk register:

These are some of the key  risks mentioned in this lean management assignment  which can be  impactful  for  this  project and  therefore; a proper  mitigation  process  has  been  highlighted  for each  of the risks.

Risk monitoring and control:
The identified risks will be monitored and controlled by implementing audit process for each of the activities. This would help in identifying the new risks and therefore; proper control can be implemented. Tools like TQM and Balanced Scorecard will be used for controlling the activities and the risks associated with this project. 

Risk management plan approval:
Stakeholder 1

Signature: Allan Jones                                          Date: 12.10.2019
Title: Owner 1
Role: The main owner of the house
Stakeholder 2
Signature: Sarah Johnson                                      Date: 12.10.2019
Title: Owner 2
Role: The joint owner of the house
Stakeholder 3
Signature: Nicolas James                                        Date: 13.10.2019
Title: Area councillor
Role: To approve the project as the administrator
Stakeholder 4
Signature: Tim Smith                                               Date: 14.10.2019
Title: Project manager
Role: The lead and manage the project
Conclusions:
This report of lean management assignment was based on the development of the conflict management strategy, leadership style, control management and risk management. The strategies for each of these activities have been highlighted in details. Along  with  this,  different  tools  and  techniques  have been used for  identifying  the  requirements and  for developing  the strategies.  All these have been conducted with the perception of the leader of this project.

References:
Aga, D. A. (2016). Transactional leadership and project success: the moderating role of goal clarity. Procedia Computer Science, 100, 517-525.

Aven, T. (2016). Risk assessment and risk management: Review of recent advances on their foundation. European Journal of Operational Research, 253(1), 1-13.

Ba?o?ul, C., & Özgür, G. (2016). Lean management assignment Role of emotional intelligence in conflict management strategies of nurses. Asian nursing research, 10(3), 228-233.

Coccia, M. (2018). The Fishbone diagram to identify, systematize and analyze the sources of general purpose Technologies. Journal of Social and Administrative Sciences, 4(4), 291-303.

Cur?eu, P. L., & Schruijer, S. G. (2017). Stakeholder diversity and the comprehensiveness of sustainability decisions: the role of collaboration and conflict. Current opinion in environmental sustainability, 28, 114-120.

Kim, T. (2017). Academic mobility, transnational identity capital, and stratification under conditions of academic capitalism. Higher Education, 73(6), 981-997.

Kivilä, J., Martinsuo, M., & Vuorinen, L. (2017). Sustainable project management through project control in infrastructure projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), 1167-1183.

Lee, D., Huh, Y., & Reigeluth, C. M. (2015). Collaboration, intragroup conflict, and social skills in project-based learning. Instructional Science, 43(5), 561-590.

Maylor, H., & Turner, N. (2017). Understand, reduce, respond: project complexity management theory and practice. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 37(8), 1076-1093.

Shah, M. (2017). Impact of interpersonal conflict in health care setting on patient care; the role of nursing leadership style on resolving the conflict. Nurse Care Open Acces J, 2(2), 00031.

Wu, G., Liu, C., Zhao, X., & Zuo, J. (2017). Investigating the relationship between communication-conflict interaction and project success among construction project teams. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), 1466-1482.

Yang, M. Y., Cheng, F. C., & Chuang, A. (2015). Lean management assignment. The role of affects in conflict frames and conflict management. International Journal of Conflict Management, 26(4), 427-449.