An Analysis on the Design Phase of Euro Shuttle Wagons Project - Essay Example

An Analysis on the Design Phase of Euro Shuttle Wagons Project Executive summary Channel tunnel shuttle service is a means of transport by rail through the channel tunnel. The process of building shuttle wagons carries different development phases and associated risk, design phase of a Tunnel project faces tight time scale and heavy liquidated damages associated with delays, therefore efficiency and consideration of all elements in each phase is very important. There are different cases reflecting inefficiencies in the development processes of above discussed projects, of which one is ‘Eurotunnel shuttle wagons case’, this case focuses on design and manufacturing phase of Eurotunnel shuttle wagons. Euro tunnel had contracted TransManche Link (TML) to build the Channel Tunnel, and TML had subcontracted the manufacturing of Shuttle wagons to rolling-stock manufacturers, with transferring of building task ultimately to rolling-stock manufactures risk of tight time scale and heavy liquidated damages (LDs) is also transferred to them. The objective of this study is to analyse and work on inefficiencies of development process of above discussed Euro tunnel wagons project. There are number of inefficiencies have been seen in the design process; initially safety clause were ill-defined and only considered gradually, this shows that there were some design parameters which were firstly not defined. Another design flaw intergovernmental commission raised was poorly designed wagons to carry heavy goods vehicle. Changes required by the intergovernmental commission may not only cause time-delays but it may also required changes in other elements due to ripple effect. So the risks identified in this project are time delays, risk of cost efficiencies, risk of pay back of borrowing on time, risk of disruption on design schedule and risk of disturbance in further production processes. Reasons identified in lack of efficiencies are project scope which was not clearly defined, poor planning, poorly designed design parameters, and lack of proper communication between active parties. There are number of project management techniques could have been reduced the rising risk and issues but unfortunately no measures were taken. Introduction This study focuses on the development issue of Euro channel tunnel wagons to give an insight on rising project management issues; and to come up with possible solutions, and to suggest possible project management structure and theories to decrease associated risks in the project. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to analyse flaws of project development phase and to suggest structures and methodologies that could and should have been used. The report will provide background of the project to better understand the situation; then it will address design and manufacturing flaws in Euro channel tunnel wagons project, which is contracted to TransManche Link (TML) to build the Channel Tunnel, and subcontracted to build shuttle wagons to rolling-stock manufacturers; then it will propose project management theories and structure that should have been used to minimise the project risk with analysis; and then it will discuss key findings of the report. Project background Euro tunnel shuttle service is a shuttle transport service that expresses street vehicle by rail through the channel tunnel. The wagons used for the shuttle have a large loading capacity; and it has a separate space for passengers, and freight vehicles. Eurotunnel had contracted TransManche Link (TML) to construct the Channel Tunnel, and TML had subcontracted a group of rolling-stock manufacturers to build the Shuttle Wagons. The Tunnel project usually has a very tight timescale and heavy liquidated damages (LDs) linked with delays and so this one. Eurotunnel’s success rate is dependent on the timeframe of tunnel being finished and ready to start its operations in particular season, otherwise interest payments would start to devastate the profit of the project. There are many aspects of design, construction and operation of the Euro Channel Tunnel Wagons project that needs approval from the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC), a body of British and French civil servants. The main focus of project manager during development phase of the project is and should be on safety, defence, security and environmental issues, as IGC takes these issues as criteria to evaluate the performance of channel tunnel project. The safety clause was not clearly defined at the start of the project and was later gradually defined; this was not only because of the unfamiliarity of tunnel channel to safety regulators, but also because of the allegation of events such as the UK Kings Cross Fire in November 1987. Due to lack of safety, changes are required to meet IGC considerations and the effect of those changes was not only delays but it also had impacted on other related elements of the project and characteristics of the product, and on the image of TML. These effects have forced management to either to complete design tasks in a complex parallel way than a usual systematic way or two concentrate on elements for which environment has not yet frozen. To complete the additional work resulted from redesigning of activities, additional workers were hired and training of those workers by in-house managers shifted their focus from designing to training and due to eventual shortage of specialised engineers many unspecialised engineers were also hired. Identification of project management related issues and risks Lack of defined design parameters from the beginning has decreased the chances of achieving milestone and project success. The major issue of the design phase of this project is safety issue which has created project risk of attaining desirable outcome at given time scale and to meet obligations. Time delayed factor due to redesigning has created schedule risk Redesigning of activities in the Tunnel Channel project has required re-performance of many tasks and recruitment of many extra workers to finish the project on time which has created cost risk Redesign caused disturbance in the design schedule which has affected other sub activities of the project, thus increasing project implementation complexities and has evolved control risk. Heavy liquidity damages by the delay of project have seemed to minimise project profit over interest. Purposed Work breakdown structure Stake holders and their criteria of success or failure Euro tunnel shuttle authority, it is the authority is responsible for all tunnel services; it is the one who decided to build the euro tunnel shuttle wagons. The criteria of success for euro tunnel shuttle authority is the implementation of the project on time which it has recommended, and if fails timely implementation or find any technological fault in wagons on later stage of implementation than it considers it a project failure. TransManche Link (TML) is a contractor to build the Channel Tunnel. For euro tunnel, TML is responsible for building the euro tunnel shuttle wagons so the success criteria for TML is timely completion of the project; if the project fails to meet time-lines than it is a project failure for them. Group of rolling-stock manufacturers is a subcontractor to build shuttle wagons. Group of rolling-stock manufacturers are the one who is ultimately responsible for the creation of shuttle wagons therefore their success criteria is most crucial, timely completion with no involvement of additional cost and resources with minimum technical risk in the design and production process is the success criteria for them, while lacking of any success criteria may lead to project failure for them. End users are the stakeholders which are the passengers in this case, who uses the tunnel wagon service. For passengers, success criteria of this project are safety, comfort and ease in travelling. If the passengers find the project unsafe, discomfort and no timely arrivals then they considered it project failure. Discussion and analysis There are number of risks associated with this study, which have been discussed earlier under the heading of Identification of project management related issues and risks. These risks could/should be recognised and managed by risk management technique of project management which aims in identifying and minimising all possible risks associated with undertaken project, it is a proactive approach rather than reactive and it improves chances of achieving goals within given time and budget. As discussed earlier associated risks with this project are control risk, project risk, schedule risk, and cost risk that could be easily managed by the practice of this technique. There are several issues which seemed to be connected in this study such as design flaw resulted in redoing of activities which has incurred additional cost and delays in the process therefore there is a need of classification of possible risk associated with different development phases and activities, for that risk break down structure should have been adopted by the manufacturers to better manage the risk. The likely hood of occurrence of above discussed risks could be known through risk assessment form which could ease the risk detection and process. Design flaws has created many issues in this study which could have been mitigate through the presence of alternate or contingency plan as this plan could have reduced the associated cost and liquidity damages. Conclusion To conclude, there have been different issues sighted in the development of shuttle wagon project, which are related to design process of Euro tunnel shuttle wagons. They include design flaws which have raised safety issues and ease issues in freight compartment, which have been followed by redesigning cost and time delays. To overcome these issues number of project management techniques have been suggested, it includes risk management technique, risk break down structure, use of risk assessment form and contingency plan. Successful implantation of these techniques could have lessened the risk of project failure. 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