Completion of the Project

Manager Zee is responsible for ensuring the timely completion of the project within budget. 

When the project begins to fall behind in schedule, three alternatives may correct the problem. The first is to examine the work remaining to be done and decide whether the lost time can be recovered in the next steps. If this is not feasible, consider offering an incentive for on-time completion of the project. The incentive could be justified if you compare this expenditure to potential losses due to late completion. Finally, consider deploying more resources. This too will cost more, but may offset further losses from delayed completion. 

It is imperative to the success of a project that it be clearly defined before it is undertaken. Any definition should include the criteria for determining successful completion of the project. It is reasonable to expect changes to occur once the project is under way, but these changes should be documented along with any resulting impact on schedule and budget. 

The longest route through a network that contains activities absolutely crucial to the completion of the project. 

As analytical chemists, we are often called upon to participate in studies that require the measurement of chemical or physical properties of materials. In many cases, it is evident that the measurements to be made will not provide the type of information that is required for the successful completion of the project. Thus, we find ourselves involved in more than Just the measurement aspect of the investigation —we become involved in carefully (re)formulating the questions to be answered by the study, identifying the type of information required to answer those questions, making appropriate measurements, and interpreting the results of those measurements. In short, we find ourselves involved in the areas of experimental design, data acquisition, data treatment, and data interpretation. 

Weekly meetings were held to discuss construction progress and costs and to adjust construction schedules. These meetings contributed significantly to the timely completion of the project without loss of production. 

Figure 1.2. Rate of application of engineering manhours of various categories. The area between the curves represents accumulated manhours for each speciality up to a given % completion of the project [Miller, Chem. Eng., p. 188, (July 1956)].

The schedules shown to the committee were simply lists of things that had to be done and the time estimated to complete each of them. Alternative paths that would be generated as decisions were made were not evident, nor were any time-related probabilities assigned. The schedules presented to the committee are extremely vulnerable to unforeseen or external events. Moreover, the committee was not provided with total project cost estimates, even of a conceptual or preliminary nature. Without these estimates, it is extremely difficult to evaluate engineering decisions and select the most cost-effective technologies. Based on the lack of documentation, the committee concluded that an adequate preproject plan for a modified baseline process at Pueblo may not exist. If this is true, the completion of the project on schedule and within budget is unlikely. 

When involved in the choice of Project Manager for a multi-functional team, an R D Manager needs to recognise that the driving force for completion of the project, as in the above example, is from manufacturing and marketing. These functions will be occupied with the detailed implementation of the outcome of R D and are the best people to provide the management of the project beyond the research phase. 

The completion of the project is followed in Project Management terminology by the Closeout. It represents the formal end of the project when the deliverables, the WHAT of the project have been delivered. Again, this should be widely communicated, and all those contributing to the success of the project formally thanked by the sponsoring senior manager. Formal reward is in order depending on the company s attitude to remuneration and performance related pay. 

Separation of the individual monoamides from each other proved to be a major obstacle to the completion of the project. This separation was not possible using TLC or open-column chromatography methods. With TLC, only the d-amide was separated from the b-, e-, and f-amides. Using HPLC,... 

When the series of activities is diagrammed, it can be seen that many possible paths exist between the start and the end. The critical path is defined as that path involving the desired (usually shortest) duration for completion of the project. The mathematical concepts of both PERT and CPM are normally of sufficient complexity that a digital computer must be used for the solution. By the appropriate network computations, a final sequential procedure is developed which gives the critical path that must be followed from the start to the end to complete the job in the most efficient manner in a given duration of time. 

The Project Manager must implement a permanent filing system to turn over to plant operators at the completion of the project. 

These are areas where all project managers, whether acting as such or as construction managers, must assume the leadership and exert their power to influence the outcome of the field activities and insure successful completion of the project. 

Many have contributed to this book. Authors, speakers, and attendees at the symposium deserve our special gratitude. Their enthusiastic support has made our task in organizing the symposium a most pleasant one. To our reviewers, we are deeply in debt. Their timely review of the chapters was crucial to the completion of the project. A grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) greatly eased the financial burden of symposium participants. For that, we thank Edward Bryan at NSF for his support and interest in this project. Throughout the preparation process, the staff of the ACS Books Department was most helpful. We wish to thank, in particular, Colleen Stamm and Rhonda Bitterli for their professional assistance. 

A pyrolysis system has been developed to recover useful material from scrap tires. An actual plant was constructed in 1979 The plant will be on a trial for a year to demonstrate that the equipment of the plant satisfies the test specifications and that the recovered carbon black has the quality demanded by the rubber industry. After passing one year tests, it will be put into commercial operation. This project is a full scale recycling for scrap tires supported by public agencies which also supported the pulverizing plant in Osaka. It is expected that the completion of the project will open a new course for recycling and disposal of waste. 

We would also like to thank the various contributors to this book for their efforts, their commitment and their patience during the completion of the project. And, finally, we wish to thank Chris Harrison of Cambridge University Press for his encouragement throughout the process that led to this book. 

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