Project Management - Assignment PDF

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Understanding of Problem Statement of Blue Circle Cement...................................................2
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................4
Importance of Project Plan in Blue Circle Cement................................................................4
Development of Total Quality Approach...............................................................................5
Making of Relevant Changes.................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Project management could be majorly indicated as the core practice to initiate, plan,
proper accomplishment, control as well as closure of the team work to subsequently achieve
every specified objective and goal and thus meeting the respective success criterion within
the specified time (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). The project is the significant temporary
endeavour, which is eventually designed to produce any exclusive product, result and even
service with the definite beginning or ending points. These projects are time constrained or
budget constrained and is hence undertaken for meeting the respective the goals and bringing
added value and beneficial changes (Burke, 2013).
The functional activities are three types in any project, which are repetitive, semi
permanent and permanent for producing the services and products (Marchewka, 2014). The
proper management of the production approaches subsequently needs the proper development
of the distinctive technical skills as well as management strategies. According to Larson,
Gray, Danlin, Honig and Bacarini (2014), the major issue of the project management is
achieving all the required goals with the constraints. This following essay outlines a brief
discussion on the case study of Blue Circle Cement. It is a popular organization in the United
Kingdom and the case study mainly focuses on the changes that occurred in the Cauldon
Works of this organization. This essay provides a proper understanding of the organization
with relevant details. A detailed literature review is also done for this specific organization.
Understanding of Problem Statement of Blue Circle Cement
Blue Circle Cement is one of the major organizations in the United Kingdom that
produces and supplies cement (Fleming & Koppelman, 2016). The overall country’s
requirement of cement is solely met by this particular organization of Blue Circle Cement.
Various changes took place in the Cauldon Works of Blue Circle Cement in Staffordshire.

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
All the changes were then mirrored within the similar change programme at Dunbar in
Scotland (Walker, 2015). This organization took the decision to develop the cultures within
the business unit, which will be at the respective primary edge of these best work practices,
productivity and labour relation. These three factors were required for Blue Circle Cement to
further employ in all of their business units in the country (Harrison & Lock, 2017). The
respective change program included the radical overhaul of the reward systems, company
cultures and working practices. As a result, a much flexible and multi skilled workforce was
gained to work on the annualized hour contract. This contract eliminated the overtime and the
high productivity as well as low unit cost is reflected in bottom line in Blue Circle Cement
(Mir & Pinnington, 2014). The specific program enabled management about the employee
relations helped in moving from the adversarial culture of “them and us” to “win / win”
situation after involving the employees and sharing of goals.
In Cauldon Cement Works, the hourly paid workers as well as the other staffs were
getting extremely lower wages and were working with higher overtime level (Heagney,
2016). The working week with extra 60 hours were common and the restrictive working
practice is the principle with the strict demarcation within craft and amongst the craft workers
and processes. They even provided additional payments for the overtime or adverse
conditions (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017). However, this made the productivity extremely lower
even the amount of the supervision was quite higher. Due to the radical changes, a new future
vision was needed and hence Blue Circle Cement had discussion with trade unions. The
major fundamentals of the new visions were the improved skills for the entities with the
decreasing of the job grades, introducing simpler pay structures with the proper eradication of
paid overtimes and even reduced manning levels and reduction of total labour costs (Leach,
2014). Project management would be the most effective and efficient solution for solving
these types of issues in Blue Circle Cement. A proper plan of project management is highly