Prakalp dec 14

PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE - Mumbai ChapterUnit No. 642, Mainframe 1-B Wing, Royal Palm (India), Aarey Milk Colony, Goregaon (E), Mumbai - 400065Tel. +91-22-28792194 | Website: www.pmimumbaichapter.org | Email Id: [email protected]

Prakalp - PMI Mumbai Chapter JournalVolume 17 - Issue 3 - Nov./Dec. 2014www.prakalponline.com

PROCESS IMPROVEMENTPROCESS IMPROVEMENT


Gain Visibility, Collaboration and Control for NPD

It is still early days. Economically, things seem to be getting better, but slowly. Politically, there are some uncomfortable flashpoints distorting the picture. For manufacturers, it’s a climate of opportunity. New measures of economic value are emerging that make the supply chain a key indicator of growth.

Recovery is heavily reliant on the creation of true value, as only manufacturers know how. Time to market is the critical issue.

Manufacturers that can accelerate their new product development (NPD) process, and reduce time-to-market, will establish strong and sustainable leadership positions.

Finance & Risk Management

Improve financial rigor & mitigate risk

Operation Excellence

Enhance Efficiency and costs

Innovation

Improve Time-to-Market

Access New Product Development materials to understand how you can gain visibility, collaboration and control for agile NPD and take advantage of ideas and opportunities offering the greatest business value.

New Product Development for Industrial Manufacturers Resource Kit.

Read Me

“Recognized leader in

Project Management for

transformation and growth”

ßProvide a platform to share

knowledge and innovative project

management practices

ßC o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h P M I

components

ßUphold and inculcate Ethics and

Values in Project Management

Profession

ßN ur tu r e r e l a t i on sh ip w i t h

C o r p o r a t e , G o v e r n m e n t ,

Academia and NGOs

ßEmpower volunteer leaders,

members and society thereby

enhancing quality of life

Disclaimer

The information contained in this magazine represents the views of individual writers on the issues discussed as of the date of this publication. It should not be interpreted as to be a part of commitment on the part of PMI Mumbai chapter and PMI Mumbai Chapter cannot guarantee the accuracy of information presented in the publication

The journal is for information purpose only

PMI MUMBAI CHAPTER MAKES NO WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED IN THIS JOURNAL

Without limiting rights under copyright, no part of this information should be reproduced, stored in or introduced to retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or any means) or for any purpose without written permission of PMI Mumbai Chapter. Some data or images in this journal could be registered trademarks or property of respective owners. PMI Mumbai chapter does not claim any rights for the use of same as it is in the office of no profit serving the growth of Project Management across the region complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the reader.

CONTENTS

Page 4 President’s Message

Page 5 From the Editorial desk

Page 6 Technical Paper 1

Page 13 Technical Paper 2

Page 21

Page 23 Overview of PM Conclave 2015

PMPCE Certification Training Program Schedule

Theme:Process Improvement

Managing Committee

Managing Committee

Saurabh Parikh President

Yagna Boorada Secretary

Ketan Vyas VP - Finance

Bhavesh Thakkar VP - Marketing

Sreegith Nair VP - Professional Development

Dr. Oscar D’Souza VP - Branches

Jay Raval VP - Volunteer Development

Manoj Sarasappan VP - Outreach

Ahmed Ashfaq VP - Membership

Bharat Bhagat VP - Certification training

D Y Pathak VP- Governance

Advisors

Rakesh Gupta

Ramesh Chandra V. Joshi

Editorial Board

Bhavesh Thakkar

Ahmed Ashfaq

Yagna Boorada

Sreegith Nayar

Mahesh Iyer


2

3

Dear Reader

We are grateful to Chapter Members for their continued support to the Chapter to grow

consistently and it has given personally the additional responsibility to provide an added

Value to the Members

Welcome friends to this edition of PRAKALP to showcase the importance of Process

Improvement and increase the maturity level of the Organization to innovate and sustain

which is the need of the hour

Further, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to this year’s Conclave on

“Stakeholder Management – Key to Project success” This topic is very important

considering the current economic situation wherein the businesses and projects affect

many stakeholders. Hence this has to be a very important part of the project

management process.

We as part of the PMIMC would like you to engage with you all to understand the

nuances of this critical element from well-known faculty members to get enriched with

knowledge & their experience in handling this topic.

I would also urge members to volunteer to contribute whole heartedly in any form of

individual’s choice as that is the spirit which keeps our organization to achieve new

goals.

With Warm Regards

Saurabh Parikh

President-PMIMC

President's Message

“Stakeholder

Management

– Key to Project success”

is very important

considering the current

economic situation

wherein the businesses

and projects affect

many stakeholders.

4


Dear Readers

We are pleased to launch 3rd edition of this year 2014 with a stress on improving

operational efficiency for long term sustainability.

With the growing optimism in the economy, downward trend of inflation, crude

prices dropping down at four year low; it is the time to tighten our belts to

maximize the opportunity by improving the operational efficiencies

As rightly stressed by RBI in the recent Credit Policy that Organization have to

improve efficiency and thereby helps in bringing down inflation and globally

competitive to have a sustainable growth of the country. The chapter had also

the same thought in the back of mind and came out exactly with two technical

papers related to Process Improvement.

The two papers are related to divergent industries (Non IT and IT Retail) but the

objective was Innovation and process improvement for sustainable solutions.

The chapter has announced dates for PM Conclave (10th and 11th Jan 2015) on

the theme “Stakeholder Management – Key to Project success” to help the

community with a new ray of thought process in the New Year. We hope you will

get benefited by attending this event.

I am sure that the Readers will get benefit from the contents of this edition and

request all to contribute more and more to the Chapter in a quest for quality

d e l i v e r a b l e s t o t h e P r o j e c t M a n a g e m e n t c o m m u n i t y a t

[email protected]

Editorial Team

From the Editorial Desk

It is the time

to tighten our belts

to maximize

the opportunity

by improving the

operational efficiencies

5


1.0 Abstract

ERP’s are central to any big enterprise. Organizations implement one or more ERP solutions depending upon their

business needs. Some keep upgrading the same ERP to its latest version, while others may switch to an entirely new

ERP. In either case data migration forms an essential part of such an upgrade or implementation. Data migration is a

subset of the overall ERP project, but given the importance, volume of activities involved, and its impact on the

implementation it can well be viewed as a project in itself. Though it may or may not have a separate project charter,

all other project management concepts are still applicable. Data migration being one of the core parts, the timely

completion or delay in implementation of the overall ERP was heavily dependent on this task. The ‘big bang’

approach helps achieve the objective in the shortest possible time. But the pitfalls of such an approach are many, the

biggest being business disruption or even a fallback. In such a scenario, the ‘trickle-migration’ is better suited. With

this phased, sequential migration strategy the objective of smooth transition to the new system, with minimum

business disruptions, can be achieved more or less up-to the expectation.

2.0 Introduction:

The below data migration perspective is taken as a case study from an ERP Implementation and Rollout project

undertaken by a leading multi brand fashion retail enterprise in Saudi Arabia, whose business spans over the Middle

East and North Africa, USA and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This project included 7 different

countries, but the case study is based on three countries viz. Jordan, Egypt and Kazakhstan. The centralized Head

Office has implemented an ERP system best suited to the organization’s needs. The business operations spread over

different regions across the continents runs on a different ERP system(s).

The business case here was to bring uniformity in data analysis, business projections, planning and decision making

across the regions. This required an integration of business operations across regions to a centralized system which is

based in company’s head office. So the objective was to implement only the selected required modules at the

regions while the core functionalities were to be provided by the centralized system. The regional legacy ERP

system(s) was (were) to be phased out. The essential part of this project was migrating their historical (summary) data

and current (master) data to the central system.

3.0 Project Scope:

This being a subset an implementation project, the scope of this data migration was limited to an integration of data

from legacy system to the newly adopted system with minimum amount of data loss, maximum possible accuracy

and least possible hurdles to the routing operations like sales, receipts and stock transfers. Acquisition of hardware,

network structure and establishing connectivity was a part of the overall project, hence beyond the scope of this

data migration project.

4.0 Project constraints:

?Rolling over to the new system with no or least possible blackout period for the normal day to day sales

operations

?Integrating the stocks received during migration period quickly enough without increasing the Lead Time for

delivery at stores to ensure the latest stocks hit the store and are ready for sale

5.0 Alternatives evaluation:

The migration comprised of the international brands in which the company trades across the regions. Most of the

Migrating for sustainable performance –

A Case study from the Project Management perspective to a data migration

project in a multi brand fashion retail enterprise By Ajaj Ahmed

6


brands in all these countries were common to either 2 or more regions. This implied that some or most of the master

data already migrated for a brand X from one country was repeated in another country. This was increasing data

redundancy on one hand and multiplying the efforts of cross-check, and data correction at all the migration level –

pre, in process and post migration. An alternative evaluation was carried out and the regions were given access to

the existing master data. They were asked to extract from source only those data which does not exist in the target

data (only the differential was required). For the data common to both countries only additional attributes were to

be migrated like cost and price in their local currency.

6.0 Migration Strategy:

The source and target databases were from different vendors, with completely different structures and data

definition. Also noticeable was the fact that although the legacy systems in all the 3 regions were similar, their data

widely in terms of attributes and consistency. Taking these into consideration ‘custom-coding’ interfaces to prepare

input data was not considered a viable option. So a common migration mapping was developed and ETL - Extract,

Transform and Load strategy was used for data migration. This task was divided among the regional and central

teams, where the regional teams were responsible for the Extract function, while the central team took over the rest.

The output of the extraction was in the form of flat files which were fed to the ERP through standard interfaces.

Extensive training was given to the regional teams as to what was expected on their part and how they should

achieve that. The source (legacy) system was the same in all the regions, so the extraction method adopted was

common to all, and it provided a common input feed to the migration interface. The Transform and Load tasks were

carried out with standard interfaces and batches.

The POS rollout was tightly linked with the data migration – the former dependent on the latter. So to ensure that

POS rollout takes place on the agreed date, it was incumbent that the data migration is completed with accuracy a

day before. The accuracy here included the master information, merchandise hierarchy, pricing, seasonality and

other related attributes. The migration was actually driven by the POS rollout schedule. This schedule, at the

beginning of the project was somewhat like a big bang approach. All stores for a particular brand(s) in all countries to

go live on the same date. But with progressive elaboration of the project, it was found that such an approach was not

very feasible due to many a practical constraints. So the approach was revised, the data migration now drove the

rollout. This slowed down the rollout, but it increased the efficiency of rollouts and decreased the possibilities of a

fall back which was more in the earlier approach.

7.0 Risks and risk management strategies:

1. High Volume: The volume of data expected to flood the database was too high and posed a risk of affecting

the performance of the servers. The team went ahead with this risk depending on the high performance

servers.

2. Deadlocks: One of the risks was the clogging of processes due to heavy influx of data. This was realized as the

project progressed. Data flow to different modules was done in the form of scheduled batches. In an event of

such a risk occurrence the response was to disable the batches and enable them on priority basis so that the

system keeps functioning without a shutdown. This was done by 24X7 monitoring of data flow by the team to

ensure that data flows in a sequence and not in parallel thereby making the normal processing to function

smoothly (with a few hiccups though)

3. Delayed shipments: During this period (from migration to rollout) any new shipment were blacked out from

being processed in the legacy system. Anticipated delays in the extraction and data fixing were bound to have

an effect on the overall migration and the POS rollout, which could have delayed the stocks from hitting the

stores and inability to sell the newly arrived merchandise. To mitigate this risk the migration team worked out

a remigration plan. This comprised of the regional migration teams translating the newly arrived stock

7


8


information into a migration file so as to include the same within the migration thereby greatly reducing the

chances of stock sitting in the warehouse awaiting to reach the store and eventually to the customer.

4. Negative stocks: The first phase of the migration was related migrating master information and replicating

the same to the stores for rollout. Immediately on the rollout, was to kickoff the second phase, i.e. to migrate

the stock on hand position from the legacy to the central system. This had to work in tandem failing which

could have resulted in system showing negative stocks. This risk was mitigated by sequencing sales integration

after the stock was migrated completely and making this a binding criterion. Sales integration was put on hold

until SOH (Stock on Hand) was migrated. This delayed the visibility of sales in the system, but eliminated the

chances of stocks going negative.

8.0 Stakeholder Chart:

9.0 Communication:

Most of the stakeholders mentioned above were identified at the beginning of the project and communications

planned accordingly. Initially things got a bit awry as some of the stakeholders were not included in the RACI

communications matrix. As the project progresses, these were also included in the loop.

Project ManagerHO (Head Office)

RegionalMerchandising

heads

Functional Experts(HO)

Head ofSystem Operation

(HO)

RegionalMerchandising

team

RegionalIT Team

Migration Team(HO)

POS support team

Data integratorsand Application

Developers

Database Adminand

Batch schedulers

Regional POSrollout teams

9


The RACI Matrix (R: Responsible. A: Accountable. C: Consulted. I: Informed)

10.0 Migration Milestones:

Five major milestones were set for this migration project.

1. Migration of Master information – this was the go-ahead for the POS rollout at stores

2. Migration of Stock On Hand (SOH) – this served as the trigger point for integration of sales coming from the

POS

3. Availability of Stock Ledger – this was a point where all transactions including sales, purchases, adjustments,

etc were visible in the stock ledger

4. Posting to finance modules (*)– At this point all data from stock ledger and sales from POS along with the tax

information were ready to be posted to financial module

5. Week closing – this final weekly phase was a part of migration close out. At this point the business gets to know

its weekly standings for each brand against their budget. Also at this stage many a brand partners get to know

the performance of their brands.

(*) The forth migration milestone had to be removed from the list later as the regional finance teams were not ready

yet with their posting processes.

11.0 Impact of overlooking the communication plan:

One of the stakeholders in the migration was the department of finance, which was driving a process of data

integration to the company’s financial database and how such a data should be replicated to the financial modules.

One of their primary requirements was how taxes should be reflected and that need was properly taken care of.

During the project it was discovered that the Point of Service at the stores itself had the ability enable or disable the

Value Added Tax during a transaction, which meant that the data flow from the Head Office to the store need not

have this definition flown separately. The team decided to make deliberations on whether to go ahead with making

use of this function. Everybody agreed and the team went ahead with the decision and the regular process restarted,

only to note awhile later that the finance department starting raising concerns that VAT was not being replicated.

That was a big impact and the reason was that particular stakeholder was not taken on board while the deliberations

were taking place, the communications plan was overlooked. Had that happened, this decision could not have

been possible. Now to fulfil their requirements there was a workaround required, and this in a way introduced

scope creep in the project.

Tasks \ Members Project

Heads

Regional

Team

Migration

Team

Functional

Team

Application

Developer Batch

schedulers

Data

integrat

ors

Migration planning C R R, A R I

Brand sequencing C R R, A I

Pre migration system checks R, A R

Pre migration data checks R, A R

Actual migration process I C,I R, A

I I I

Post migration process reviews R A R

Normal transaction

processing/batches monitoring I C C R R A

Applications Handover I C, I R, A R R

Posting and closeout of

migration I I I

R R, A

10


11.1 Resources:

For the data migration project the company utilized its internal human resources who were experienced with

similar migration projects accomplished within the organization earlier.

11.2 Quality assurance:

Data was of utmost importance to this centralization as this was to be transformed into useful information and

business decisions were to be made for the overall business growth. So it was important to allow quality data to be

migrated. Checks were implemented at different levels of migration:

1. Pre migration data check – a set of certain basic checks which cleared or rejected the input data altogether.

The rejected data was sent back to the originating region for review and correction.

2. In-process data check – Data which was cleared at the first step went through to a staging phase. A second

check was applied here which filtered out data based on a criteria like mappings, costing, pricing,

classifications, etc. The originator was asked to re-correct these, while the clear data went through to the final

phase.

3. Post migration data check – This involved comparison of statistics of data fed for migration and what actually

got migrated. Costs, prices, hierarchy, and other attributes submitted and what actually reflects in the

migration. Any discrepancies found at this stage were escalated to concerned users for the post migration data

fix.

12.0 The Migration Schedule Network diagram:

Tasks Time (days)

A – Pre-migration data check (1)

B – Migration to Staging (1)

C – Migration to central database (1)

D – Master definition to store linking (2)

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

• Primary Migration File• Secondary Migration File



Pre MigrationData Check

• Rejection

Clearance or • Rejected Data

Filtering out

In-Process MigrationData Check

Post MigrationData Check

• Rejection

Clearance or

K

N

EndStart

11


E – Outbound (B2B) Interface deployment (3)

F – Replicate to Store Inventory Module (1)

G – Replicate master definitions and pricing to stores (1)

H – Replicate to warehouse management module (1)

I – Regular processing interface deployment (2)

J – Stock Migration (4)

K – Normal transaction processing and integrations (2)

L – Data availability for B2B interface (2)

M – Posting to reporting module (closing) (2)

N – Posting to Finance module (2)

Paths on the network:

1. A-B-C-D-G-J-K-L {Critical Path} (14)

2. E-M (5)

3. A-B-C-D-F-K-L (9)

4. A-B-C-D-F-K-M (9)

5. A-B-C-D-H-K-L (9)

6. A-B-C-D-H-K-M (9)

7. A-B-C-D-F-K-N (9)

8. A-B-C-D-I-K-L (10)

9. A-B-C-D-I-K-M (10)

10. A-B-C-D-I-K-N (10)

11. I-K-L (6)

12. I-K-M (6)

13. I-K-N (6)

Timeline of the migration project for one country with 21 brands:

Below is the graphical timeline of the major milestones achieved by brand. The taller the bars, the more was the

time consumed (number of days) in achieving those milestones. The lower the bars, the quicker were the

accomplishments of tasks.

The project span over a period of 10 Months (with a few breaks in between) from September 2013 to June 2014

X-axis represents

the abbreviated

names of the

brands

Y-axis represents

the number of

days

The task durations are shown here are from migration of a brand with an average of 70,000 stock keeping units (SKU’s), having a minimum of 4 attributes associated with each SKU and the brand consisting of around 10 trading stores

12


The number of days is displayed over the “Stock Migration” bar, as this milestone was a cornerstone of the project

accomplishment of which paved way of the rest of the normal integration processes

EBS posting was later excluded from the scope and was handled separately, hence shown only in the initial 6

brands.

13.0 Conclusion:

Data migration forms an essential part of an ERP implementation project, especially where there is a rollover from

an existing system to a newer one. Timely and accurate data migration ensures a seamless switch to the new system.

Migration along with its replication to the point of service destinations guarantees the least possible downtime in

business transactions. Whether or not a data migration has a separate project charter, almost all project

management concepts can still be applied and it may well be treated as a project in itself.

Brand list (in 3 countries):

Brand ID Brand Name Brand ID Brand Name

ADL Adelisk LVR La Vien Rose

ALA Aldo Shoes and Accessories MNS Marks and Spencer

BLA Suite Blanco MON Monsoon

CLK Clarks NIN Ninewest

CNK Charles & Kieth NLK New Look

COR Cortefiel OKA Okaidi

CZN Collezione PAR Parfios

DYN Dynamite PUM Pumpkin Patch

FGK FG Kids QUZ Quiz

FGW FG Women SGT Sergeant Major

FLO Flormar SPS Call it Spring

FNF F&F Clothing - TESCO STM Steve Madden

GAP GAP TAP Tap A L'oeil

GRG Garage TSM Topman - Topshop

JEN Jennyfer USP US Polo

LEC Le Chateau WOS Women's secret

LPS Lipsy ZYK Ziddy Kids

LSZ Lasenza

About the author:

The writer is a gulf based, certified project management professional (PMP) originally from

Aurangabad, India. He holds a post graduate degree in Computer Applications. He is

currently occupied with a leading multi brand fashion retail chain in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

His area of expertise includes Project Management, ERP solutions – implementation and

support, Business-To-Business (B2B) applications, Application-To-Application (A2A)

integrations, Point of Sale implementation and rollouts. He has experience in ERP’s like

Oracle Retail, EBS, and Infinity. He can be reached at [email protected]

1.0 Abstract

Not only in Construction Phase of Road Projects, but even in Operation & Maintenance (O&M) Phase also, there is

a need to adopt Value Engineering approach in achieving Green objectives. However many a times these aspects

during O & M Phase are overlooked

Value Engineering Process needs to be practiced for maintaining the standards of Quality and Reliability with

reduced Costs in every phase of Activities for which Kaizen approach could be successfully adopted.

Study was undertaken at 100 Km Road Project constructed on Build Operate Transfer (Annuity Model) in Andhra

Pradesh by Gammon India Limited. Untapped Mulching Technique in Road Works was explored to convert one of

the easily available nearby waste Materials (i.e. Paddy grass) into Green Resource to enhance aesthetics of

Highways besides improving Safety to Commuters by virtue of better growth to Road Plantations and reduction in

glaring effect especially in Medians.

The Qualitative and Quantitative benefits attained using these approaches are:

• Growth of plant : 3 times

• Foliage Coverage : 2 times

• Savings in water consumption : 52%

• Reduction in Weed Growth : substantial

Thus, Eco-friendly Mulching Technology is aimed to preserve Natural Environment by going Green apart from

reducing costs by 10 – 12%.

Key Words: Mulching – Kaizen Approach - Green Initiatives – Cost Reduction

2.0 Introduction

Value Engineering approach can be used to achieve one or more benefits like optimizing Project Life Cycle Costs,

saving time, Increasing Profits, Expanding Market Share, solving Problems and/or using resources more effectively

Some of the approaches for Continual Improvement can be through various processes as listed below:

• Innovation of methodology by rebuilding a new Technology

• Continuous slow Improvements from the existing process

• Reverse Engineering in the usage of alternate or similar materials for intended use;

• Lean Concepts

Innovative Eco-friendly concept of Mulching never attempted in Gammon of its existence and also found no

records in either Internet or any records of its application elsewhere while developing Road Works in India is used as

Value Engineering concept to especially reduce the Cost of Operation and Maintenance of Median Plantation on

National Highways besides preserving Environment using Kaizen Approach.

3.0 Fundamentals of Value Engineering

3.1 Value: It is defined as fair return or equivalent in Goods, Money or Services for something exchanged. It can

be commonly represented by the relationship as below:

Value ˜ Functions / Resources

Eco-friendly Mulching – Enhancing Road safety

and its Aesthetics through Value EngineeringBy Bhavesh Thakkar, PMP, MRICS

13


Graph: 2 Pictorial representation of FAST Methodology

3.3.2 Creative Thinking:

The creativity thinking is adopted through various Group Creativity Techniques like Brainstorming, Idea/Mind

Mapping, Affinity Diagram, Nominal Group and Delphi Techniques on any process execution or Improvement

works.

3.3.2 Life Cycle Costing:

The sum of all recurring and one time (non-recurring) costs over the full life span or a specified period of good,

service, structure or system. It also includes Purchase Price, Installation Cost, Operation Cost, Maintenance and

upgrade costs, and remaining salvage value at the end of the Ownership or its useful life.

3.3.3 Analytical Hierarchy Process (Weighing score technique):

It provides a comprehensive and rational framework for structuring a decision problem, for representing and

quantifying its elements, for relating those elements to overall goals, and for evaluating alternative solutions.

3.3.4 Kaizen Costing:

Life cycle costing anticipates cost improvements during the Project Life Cycle well as recognizing the importance of

the design stage. This is sometimes referred to as Kaizen costing.

Kaizen costing, unlike Target Costing, is not accompanied by a set of techniques or procedures that are

automatically applied to achieve cost reductions. Workers are given the responsibility of improving the processes

and reducing costs.

Graph: 3

Relationships between

Target Price, Profit and Cost

15


4.0 Project brief on Median Plantations

100 Km of 4 Lane divided carriageway was executed by Gammon – Punj Lloyd JV in BOT Annuity Model for

National Highways Authority of India which achieved Commercial Operations in Oct 2004. Presently, it is in ninth

year of Operations and one of maintenance activities is to Enhance Safety measures, prevent Weeds, improve

aesthetics besides periodic Overlay works and other routine Maintenance activities.

Approximately 57 Km of Total length of 100 Km is encompassed by Median Plantations on a 4-lane divided

Carriageway from Rajahmundry to Tuni on NH 16 in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The quantitative details of the

Project are tabulated as below:

Sl. No Package Identification Plants in Nos Approx. length of corridor

1 Rajahmundry Expressway Ltd

(Contract Package : AP 15) 12,024 21.75 Km

2 Andhra Expressway Limited

(Contract Package : AP 16) 16,326 35.00 Km

Grand Total 56.75 Km

4.1Deliverables to Customer at any Point of time:

• No Weed growth should be visible

• Foliage of Plant should cover the entire median

• Height of the Median Plants restricted to max 2.0m

4.2 Present Methodology of Execution

Conventional system of using Water tankers of 10KL Capacity are deployed daily (4 Nos) to water the plants for the

entire stretch which used to make 3 trips per day/ per tanker and regular labor are deployed for cleaning the basin

and removal of Weeds periodically, every 2-3 months to ensure the deliverables as mentioned in the above

paragraph.

5.0 Selection of Process Improvement Methodology:

Considering the balance Concession period of six years only, Process Improvement through completely new

innovation was out of reach. The activity being related to Environment Oriented, Reverse Engineering cannot be

implemented. The Project is already in Lean Management and further optimization was not possible and therefore,

the only option left out for process Improvement was Kaizen Approach.

5.1 Method Approach;

Kaizen approach brings small improvements at a time and participation of team members is the key element for its

success.

• Project Team was enthusiastic on change process and PM had a buy-in from team Members and the

Independent Engineer to undertake the Experiment;

• Team was given the task of Brainstorming the Ideas for alternative and better performance in terms of the Job

requirements;

• During Brainstorming Exercise, Drip Irrigation and Exploiting Mulching were identified and Drip Irrigation

was eliminated by using analytical hierarchy process and Mulching was selected as Process Design to test the

performance of the Median Plantations;

• Team studied the results of Mulching in various landscaping activities of Hotels and other farming activities.

16


6.0 What is Mulching?

It is a simple protective layer to cover the soil from the top by Organic or Inorganic Materials to improve the soil

conditions and crop plants generally by Farmers.

6.1 Benefits of Mulching:

• Helps in preventing the soil erosion;

• Decreases water loss due to evaporation;

• Works against the Weeds;

• Protects the roots from drying and

Temperature extremes;

• Adds organic matter to the soil;

• Adds Nutrient to the soil;

• Feeds soil life and improve soil structure;

6.2 Different type of Mulch Material which are available that includes

• Grass Clippings

• Straw

• Bark chips

• Stones

• Brick chips

• Plastic

But Unfortunately, Mulch, being generally treated as green waste, by majority people to get rid of it but folks

understands the value when this is treated as green resource.

As it is known fact, Organic Material gets decomposes and it needs to be replaced at certain period depending on

the type of material. The below table shows the various details like its availability on Earth, its anticipated life and its

major benefits which will give the Professional, a ready reference to evolve the suitable design by constrained

optimization techniques.

Graph: 5 Details of Mulching Materials17


Fig : 1 Mulching view in Orchards

7.0 Broadly How Mulching Links to Process Improvement of Median Plantation:

Material Benefits Application in our Project

Prevents the Soil Erosion Water requirement will be reduced and deployment of Water Tanker

can reduce and decrease in OH and HSD expenditure (Eco friendly

Decrease water loss in evaporation measures)

Works against the weedsReduced Labor for jungle clearance towards weeds removal will help in

Protects from drying and temperature optimizing the work force for other activities

in extreme conditions

Adds Organic and Nutrients to soil, Early growth of plants will enhance Aesthetics and reduce glaring effects if organic material used

Improve Soil Structure

Table: 2 – Comparison of mulching benefits vis-à-vis its application

India, presently on mega Infrastructure platform, for developing Road Network across different corners is

stressing on continual improvement process for sustaining Road Aesthetics and Improvement of Safety to the

Commuters and Mulching is evolving into one of the Process Alternative at an reduced cost specifically to the

Performing Organization which in turn will benefit Customer and Project Sponsor.

8.0 Mulching Implementation at site as Trial Experiment:

One Km length of Stretch is considered for implementation of Mulch as Process Improvement Initiative to

compare the Performance in the areas of Non-Mulch areas for understanding the Moisture Retention and

Growth of Plants and its foliage as per the Methodology furnish below:

8.1 Understanding Moisture Retention

• Form the basin at the girth of at least 0.75m diameter;

• Clear the entire weeds existing in the basin;

• Apply Mulch 3-4” thick in the basin and in our case, we have considered as Straw (Paddy Grass)

as easily available local material;

• Record the Moisture content @ 500mm depth below the basin to know the present status of the Plant

which was 5% in our case

• Apply Water to Plants in both the categories as per the Conventional practice;

• Monitor and Note the Moisture Content (@ 500mm below the basin) twice a day at the fixed times to

under the Retention Rate of the Soil

• Similarly, Monitor and Record the Temperature at the basin to understand the Evaporation rate of the Soil

• Apply the Water in the Mulch Areas only when the Moisture content attains 5%;

• Record the Readings for every cycle and determine the Retention Rate and Evaporation rate;

8.2 Understanding Plant Growth:

Selected 6 Plants of Big and Small Plants in both Categories were measured initially in terms of its Height, Girth,

and Foliage Coverage;

The above listed parameters were recorded at the end of the Experiment Cycle of one month and analyze the

results in comparison to the Non Mulch Areas.

18


The Pictorial Representation of Mulch Performance is shown below.

Picture 2: Experimental results of Mulching in Site

9.0 Experiment Results

9.1 The results of Water Properties in terms of Moisture and Evaporation during one month of study in five

cycles are tabulated below:

Moisture Retention and Evaporation Results

Sl. No Mulch area Non Mulch area

Retention loss rate Evaporation Rate Retention loss rate Evaporation Rate

(moisture Content / Hour (Moisture content / Deg C) (moisture Content / Hour (Moisture content / Deg C)

Cycle 1 0.045 0.36 0.090 0.72

Cycle 2 0.047 0.69 0.065 0.95

Cycle 3 0.038 0.42 0.053 0.58

Cycle 4 0.033 0.69 0.048 1.00

Cycle 5 0.046 0.46 0.063 0.63

Average 0.042 0.523 0.064 0.776

Variation 1.52 1.48

Table: 3 Test results of Moisture Retention and Evaporation

19




Observation:

Non Mulch Area requires 52% more of Water due to its direct exposure to Sun which also indicates

evaporation is higher by 48% in Non Mulch Areas

9.2 Plant Growth and its Foliage Growth rate are tabulated below:

Table: 4 Physical growth results of Plants

10.0 Costing Parameters:

The Costing per plant per year for the maintenance of Median Plantations when being executed as per

Conventional practice is around Rs.147/- per Plant as per the details below:

Table: 5 Activity based Costing of Median Plant using Conventional Methodology

Incorporating the Experiment Results lead to the reduction of the following:

• Lower Consumption of Water resulting in reduction of Water Tanker by 1 No and corresponding Labor

Helper:

20


• Fuel consumption reduced by 25% due to reduction of Water Tanker from 4 Nos to 3 Nos;

• Requirement of Periodical Labor for Weed Removal gets eliminated and on the other hand, Cost of Mulch has

been added;

With the above Methodology, the Revised Cost of Maintenance of Plant using Mulching works out to Rs.128/- per

Plant per year as per details tabulated below:

Table 6: Activity based Costing of Median Plant using Mulch Technology

11.0 Conclusions:

• Exploiting Mulching Technology (by converting the Waste) into Green Resource can yield around 12%

reductions in Costs;

• Implementation of Mulching activity looks to be feasible and easily executable;

• The above Technology not only reduces costs but more importantly is contributing the Society (which is the

Primary Responsibility of the Organization) by way of proper utilization of Scarce Resource Like Fuel and

Water besides converting the Waste Material into Green Resource resulting in Preservation of Environment

for a span of seven years to any project having around 50 odd Km of 4 laning work;

• The Organization can have better Branding due to application of Go Green Initiatives;

• Small Improvement by using Straw will pave the way for the usage of Alternate Materials and subsequently

can help in developing the Standard Operating Procedure by getting more inputs from other working

Professionals across the Country.

13.0 References:

1) Project Management Institute, “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge”, Chapter 8, pp.

189-213

2) CTAHR, “Mulching for healthier landscape plants”, Oct – 2007, L-3

3) MM Odendaal, thesis on the estimation and management of cost over life cycle of metallurgical research

21


projects submitted to university of Pretoria, Feb 2009

4) Giedrius Grondskis, Alfreda Sapkauskiene – Cost Accounting information use for product mix design,

Eknomica IR Vadyaba, 2011:16

5) James R. Wixson, CVS, CMfgE, Function Analysis and Decomposition using Function Analysis Systems

Technique

6) Hussein Ali Mohammed, University of Karbala, Role of Value Engineering in the Sustainable Construction

Projects

About the author:

The writer is a Mumbai based, certified project management professional (PMP)

originally from Aurangabad, India. He holds a degree in Civil Engineering, is also a

member of RICS. He is currently occupied with a leading construction company in India.

His area of expertise includes Project Management, cost management. He can be

reached at [email protected]

22

PMPCE Training Program for the Year 2015As Practiced in the past, Chapter has announced the Calendar for 35 hours Training Program to meet the growing

demands of the Industry. Now a days, even the Non IT sector Industries are preferring certified Project Managers to

complete the Project within the triple constraints.

We urge the perspective Project Management Professionals to utilize the services of the Chapter for cost effective

proposition and value added dimension towards effective learning to clear your exams easily.

Following is Mumbai Annual Calendar for the Year 2014 - 15

Months Mumbai Vadodara/ Ahmedabad

December 2014 13, 14, 20, 21 -

January 2015 17, 18, 24, 25 -

February 2015 14, 15, 21, 22 07,08, 14, 15,

March 14, 15, 21, 22

April 12, 13, 19, 20 -

May 16, 17, 23, 24 -

June 13, 14, 20, 21 13, 14, 20, 21

July 18, 19, 25, 26 -

August 22, 23, 29, 30 -

September 19, 20, 26, 27 12,13, 19, 20

October 17, 18, 24, 25 -

November 14, 15, 21, 22 -

December 12, 13, 19, 20 -

Once again at your door steps!

PMI Mumbai Chapter is enthused by very good response from the Project Management Community in

organizing Conferences every year on the varied topics which mattered most for the success of Projects

With new Government in place at Centre and State, this Chapter takes the initiative to usher New Year 2015 for

Organizations, Professionals, Government Institutions, and Academia in different segments of Industry by

organizing two day event on the theme Stakeholder Management – Key to Project Success on Jan 10 and 11,

2015 at Hotel Ramada, Powai - Mumbai

23


A 2 – day event will be attended by 500+ delegates

across different Industries like IT, Telecom, Retail,

Construction, Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing,

Automobile, Oil and Gas, PSU, NGO, Government

and Academic Institutions.

An opportunity for Project Management

Community to Come, get Connected, Share

Experiences and Enrich yourself with young and

experienced Professionals

Delegates would gain tons of knowledge from our

eminent panel of Speakers and Keynotes where

knowledge sharing would have no boundaries.

We encourage all the delegates not to miss this

opportunity and book their calendars well in

advance. Please Register yourselves in the below link

and avail early bird discount till 10th Dec 2014.

https://www.eventavenue.com/attReglogin.do?ev

entId=EVT5374

Please watch out for space soon in Chapter Website

www.pmimumbaichapter.org for further details and

awaits big bonanza to Early Bird Participants

precursor to the Event.

Alternatively you may mail to

[email protected]

Or contact on

+91 22 28792194 / +91 22 61175444



PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE - Mumbai ChapterUnit No. 642, Mainframe 1-B Wing, Royal Palm (India), Aarey Milk Colony, Goregaon (E), Mumbai - 400065Tel. +91-22-28792194 | Website: www.pmimumbaichapter.org | Email Id: [email protected]

Renew PMI Membership

Avail PMI Economic Exception Scheme at reduced rates, Hurry!

Membership Benefits of PMIActivities of PMI Mumbai Chapter

Organizes Weekly talks by industry professionals to share their experiences with the members. These talks are

held at Matunga, Vile Parle, Thane, Vashi, Baroda and Ahmedabad;

Single and multi-day training programs for a range of subjects including, but not limited to,

PMP exam, CAPM exam, MS Project, Soft skills including NLP and Emotional Intelligence;

Quarterly magazine Prakalp, with article written by members;

As a member you can attend most of events free, or at a discounted rate;

Access to the comprehensive library at the Chapter office

Member Resources on PMI Website.

Access to PMI's PathPro®, a career framework - use it to assess your skills and prepare to move ahead

Free digital editions of all PMI standards.

Knowledge sharing and networking opportunities through PMI chapters and communities of practice (COP)

Online access to business and project management books and articles in eReads & Reference

Articles on the Knowledge Shelf, written by your peers and reviewed by a panel of practitioners, to help you

practice project management more effectively

Leadership and volunteer opportunities through PMI communities, certification program, research program,

standards program and other areas

Quality Publications from PMI

PM Network® a popular monthly publication that covers the project management profession, thought

leaders, news and trends

PMI Today ®, a monthly newsletter focused on Institute news, events, community activities and a column from

the PMI Board of Directors.

Project Management Journal ®, a peer-reviewed research journal that advances the understanding of project,

program and portfolio management.

Community Post, a semimonthly e-newsletter focused on project management knowledge and PMI news.

Manage India — an electronic publication on the practice of project management for members in India.

APAC e-link, Korea e-Link, Latin America e-Link and EMEA e-Link – a regional e-newsletter covering PMI

activities and news in Asia Pacific, Korea, Latin America, Brazil and EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Africa), for

members in those locations.

Documents

Prakalp dec 14