First Five Months Of The Project example essay topic

Critical Care Hospital - Case Study By: Diane M Incident for Discussion: Critical Care Hospital Critical Care Hospital has planned to purchase a CATSCAN within the next six months. Though not mentioned in the text, the cost of the equipment will be at least several hundred thousand dollars, and could even exceed one million dollars. Additionally, major renovations are required to the radiology department where the equipment will be housed. Unfortunately, the construction project cannot be started until the machine is in place, which will be five months from now.

The Project Manager ('PM') feels that she may be able to expedite the construction schedule by utilizing a resource allocation version of the Critical Path Method ('CPM'). Getting the machine up and running is of great interest to the hospital, as revenues generated by the CATSCAN are projected to be in the range of $25,000 per month According to the text, the project is slated to have a duration of twelve months. The waiting time for the CATSCAN is five months. This leaves the PM eight months to accomplish her goal. Given that the equipment is arriving simultaneously with the onset of the construction project, I would suggest a combination of a heuristic approach using an 'A sLate As Possible' ('ALAP') prioritization with a fast-track approach to the actual construction The reason for the ALAP approach is the five-month delay prior to the equipment being delivered. Holding off on allocating resources during this slow period should, in theory, allow the PM to reserve monetary resources for the Crash period.

I would imagine that part-time allocation of administrative support, to solicit construction bids, generate reports and management approval requests along with full-time PM participation would be sufficient. The PM during this time will be working with hospital management to generate a detailed project plan and Scope of Work. Several critical elements come into play in this situation. For example, two relocations of the existing radiology department, or at least the area that will house the CATSCAN will be required during the construction period. The first will be for the purpose of clearing the required space for the new CATSCAN area, including construction corridors, to a temporary location.

Then, after the equipment is installed and renovations complete on this area, the rest of the department will need to be renovated as well. This aspect of the project will require extensive coordination with other departments within the hospital. This includes administrative staff, medical personnel, suppliers (pick-ups and deliveries), janitorial staff, and primarily the radiology staff itself. During the first five months of the project I would suspect that this coordination and planning alone would consume 50% of the PM's time.

About 40%of the time will be spent researching physical resource requirements of the machine. This will include securing bids from contractors and reviewing them from both a technical standpoint and from the perspective of the contractors ability to allocate sufficient resources to meet the PM's objective. It will also involve negotiating contracts, potentially establishing JIT relationships with related suppliers as well. There are also issues such as public relations, signage, noise and dust abatement, etc. that can be researched and planned during this initial period. Once the machine has been delivered the fast track scheduling begins. It seems to me to be the most effective way to finish the project ahead of schedule.

In this case, the primary issues are going to be electrical and temperature control. Although full sets of drawings were prepared ahead of time, there are bound to be a number of change orders as the process continues. As stated in the text, while these changes are to be expected, they are generally no more extensive than what is average for a project handled in a more traditional manner. The hospital setting is ideal for double or even triple shifts in the construction area, assuming noise abatement is sufficient so as not to disturb patients. It is assumed that the contractor who was awarded the job presented a Scope of Work that detailed how they were going to complete the project within the PM's time frame. This is where the allocation comes into play in my opinion, not in utilizing hospital staff for the most part, but in reserving budgetary funds to pay premium rates to the external contractor.

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