Shai Rozenes

Project Control: Literature Review

A project control system aims to minimize the gap between project planning and project execution in order to achieve project aims, i.e., cost, time, and content. This paper reviews the current literature on project control systems. The first part provides an overview of the nature and importance of project control. The second part deals with current project control tools and techniques, followed by a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of these systems.

MPCS: Multidimensional Project Control System

Abstract Project control systems often fail to support management in achieving their global project goals. This paper propose a MPCS (Multidimensional Project Control System) as a quantitative approach for quantifying deviations from the planning phase to the execution phase with respect to the global project control specification (GPCS). The project current state must be translated into yield terms which are expressed as a gap vector that represents the multidimensional deviation from the global project control specification. The systematic multidimensional project control is described and illustrated by a computational example.

The Impact of Project Management Methodologies on Project Performance

The project management domain includes many well-defined methodologies such as the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBoK Project Management Institute, 2008. On the other hand, project failures rate is quite high Woolridge, Hale, Hale, & Sharpe, 2009. An interesting question is: Does using these methods improve project performances? This paper reports on a study that was performed to investigate the added value of using a project management methodology versus an intuitive managing approach. The results indicate that the project performances improved by using a systematic approach.

Final-year projects as a major element in the IE curriculum

This paper presents a multi-perspective view of the final-year project of an industrial engineering and management (IEM) department. The final year project is a major element of a 4-year curriculum within any engineering discipline. Such a project gives the student an opportunity to use and implement methods, techniques and tools that he or she studied during the entire course of studies. The project is conducted in a working organisation of any type under the supervision of the academic staff. This paper presents observations from 10 years of experience during which 172 projects were performed within production and service organisations. In this paper, we present the final-year project methodology to achieve its aim and objectives supported with an assessment process to ensure professional performances.

A multi-objective approach for decision making during the project life cycle

This paper is concerned with the multi-objective nature of projects and proposes a comprehensive methodology for the decision making process during the project life cycle. We address a situation in which several decisions are considered, where each may affect the major project objectives: time, cost and scope. The objectives are formally defined and a multi-objective, mixed-integer, linear-programming formulation for the decision selection is developed. We then provide the decision maker with a set of non-dominated alternatives, each associated with a subset of the feasible decisions.

Multidimensional project control system implementation methodology

The multidimensional project control system (MPCS) is a novel project control methodology that supports project managers striving to achieve their global project goals. This paper presents a detailed procedure of the MPCS implementation process. The MPCS implementation process is described and supported using the example of a computed tomography (CT) building project to illustrate the various characteristics of the process.

Optimizing Group Waiting Time in Service System with Learning Effect

This paper deals with service lines that serve groups of customers that differ in their service processes, but have similarities regarding the service capabilities of the specific servers. This paper optimizes the problem of allocating work elements with various learning slopes to servers to minimize the system waiting time of customers in such a line. The customer groups have a large variety of service needs. The service is organized in tandem, and the service repetitions in each group causes learning effect, but due to the nature of work, server’s learning slopes can vary. The authors propose a two stage optimization methodology: the first stage is an optimization based on a non-linear formulation for work allocation with some constraints relaxation; the second stage drops the relaxations and finds a solution that is the closest to the unconstrained solution found in the first stage. The authors show that in the presence of learning, the optimal system waiting time requires assigning different workloads to different servers. This difference depends on the number of cycles of a customer group, the server’s learning slope, and the server’s location along the line. The savings in the optimal system waiting time due to the imbalanced loading of work over the balanced load case are demonstrated. KEyWORdS Group Service, Job Design, Learning Curve, Learning, Servers, Service Line, Service Load, Work Allocation

Customer Satisfaction from Inner-City Services: A Case Study

This paper examines the quality of municipal services within inner-city services. It identifies the most important service quality dimensions that determine citizen satisfaction. System dynamics approach is used to model and analyze ways to improve citizen satisfaction. For that purpose, we developed questionnaires based on ServQual. 634 questionnaires were distributed to respondents in a town neighborhood of about 16,000 citizens. The relevance of the ServQual dimensions was validated. Three of the ServQual dimensions: reliability, empathy and responsiveness, significantly predicted citizen satisfaction. The paper discusses ways to guide practitioners to improve quality attributes and enhance inner-city customer satisfaction.

Determining Manager's Load & Control Span by Modeling Management as a Service Activity

This paper shows how a production foreman and line managers can be modeled as giving variety of services. The model is essentially a queueing model with arrivals, waiting time and service. The model is first analyzed in the most general way finding the mean values of waiting times and queue length. Different management environment may have very different requirements. Our proposed model gives a good modeling solution to a variety of management styles and environments. Then, a simpler model for the control span of an assembly line foreman is developed and illustrated using a numerical example.

Modeling a manager’s work as a service activity

Planning of manager’s workload is an elusive and challenging issue that has no exact quantitative tools. This paper develops for the first time (to the best of our knowledge) an analytical model that shows how a manager’s activity and its associated workload can be analyzed as a provision of various services. The model is essentially a queuing model of tasks with arrivals, waiting time, and services (with a single server). The model is first analyzed in the most general way, finding the mean values of waiting times and queue length. While the proposed model is for one manager, it is based on very general assumptions and would fit most practical environments. Then, a simpler model for determining the optimal span of control for a manager is developed and illustrated using a numerical example.