The Course

Supply Management is the process of managing relationships, information, and materials flows across organisational boundaries to deliver enhanced customer service and economic value. Supply managers aim towards synchronizing and amalgamating these flows through the implementation of a specific ordering of work activities across time and place, with a beginning, an end, clearly identified inputs and outputs, as well as a structure for action.

Project Management is also a structured process of managing work flow in a specific order across time and place. The close similarities between these two processes provide a firm foundation to expand the supply manager’s world view to adopt project management principles and techniques. This course focuses on integrating project management principles into the supply management process. In this course, you will learn how project management concepts could be applied to enhance supply management. You will also gain an understanding of the tools and techniques used to initiate, execute, manage and control a project. Possible initiatives for the improvement of supply management through the application of project management concepts will be emphasised.

The Goals

• Following completion of this course, delegates will learn how to:
  • Organize, plan, launch, track, and close a project
  • Create a clear project objective and work breakdown structure
  • Master project planning, execution and control skills
  • Identify the skills necessary to lead or serve on a project team
  • Utilize project management related techniques
  • Create an accurate project timeline
  • Incorporate uncertainties in project time ands cost plans
  • Use various project scheduling techniques
  • Plan a project balancing the constraints of scope, time, cost and quality
  • Complete project cost estimation and financial evaluations
  • Build and maintain effective and efficient project procedures and processes
  • Identify improvement opportunities to better manage supply chains
  • Demonstrate proficiency in developing project plans and making sound decisions

The Delegates

This course is designed for professionals who are interested in supply management, including leaders, managers, supervisors, and persons responsible for evaluating and improving their company's supply management programs and activities. The course is also tailored for the needs of those seeking ways to improve, enhance and maximize the value they add to their organisations through better management of their supply systems.

The Process

The course is a mixture of speaker input, several mini-case studies and facilitated discussions. Participants will gain detailed knowledge of project management concepts and techniques by active participation in the group discussions.

The Benefits

• Delegates attending this course will gain:
  • An understanding of the striking similarities between supply management and project management; and learn new skills in order to apply project management principles as effective tools which if successfully implemented will enhance the delegate’s professional capacity to manage supply chains.
  • An improved personal knowledge of developing and managing project plans, and identifying, controlling and responding to project risks.
  • An enhanced personal decision making capability.

The Results

Individuals and organisations will be better educated in relation to perceiving and managing their supply systems as unique projects. Individuals will learn how to identify potential opportunities for supply chain improvements, and will have the ability to demonstrate clear, quantifiable short and long-term results thus ensuring better supply chain performance. Organisations, in turn, will have better control on their supply chains through the utilisation of project management best practices.

The Core Competencies

• Delegates attending this course will enhance their competencies in the following areas:
  • Project Management
  • Project Planning and Monitoring
  • Project Scheduling and Budgeting
  • Risk Management Planning
  • Team Building
  • Relationship Management
  • Principled Negotiations
  • Trend Analysis and Forecasting
  • Project Reporting

The Programme Content

• Day One : Setting up the Scene
  • Project management terminology and life-cycle project phases
  • Overview of the Project Management Process
  • Key areas of Project Management Body of Knowledge
  • Supply management and project management: similarities and differences
  • Types of integration
  • Impact of early decisions on project success
  • Classical project phases
  • Project scope – parameters & constraints
  • The concept of Value-for-Money project delivery
  • The project supply chain

Day Two : The Project Environment – Objective Parameters

• Opportunities and Problems
• Identifying, analyzing and managing project stakeholders
• Project Charter Development
• Beyond SMART Objectives
• Introduction to project planning
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Task characteristics and duration assessment
• Planning and scheduling methods, including critical path scheduling
• The importance of schedule updating
• Incorporating planning in planning and scheduling
• Principles of project estimating
• Understanding resource estimating in projects
• Cost estimation techniques
• Implementing cost control
• Contingency and escalation

Day Three : The Project Environment – Subjective Parameters

• Project quality and reliability issues
• Project information management
• Project communication management
• Project risk management
• Risk vs. uncertainty
• Risk mitigation strategies
• Contingency planning
• Performance measures and indicators
• Project process maturity
• Root cause analysis

Day Four : Effective Project Relationships Management

• Suppliers/contractors selection
• Project manager skills
• Building and sustaining professional relationships
• Trust and trust building
• Principled negotiations
• Leadership skills
• Dealing with professional disagreements

Day Five : Project Execution and Closure

• Change control processes
• Identifying measurements of project success
• Project monitoring
• Integrating project scope, time and cost
• Leading and lagging indicators
• Project plan update
• Project reporting: to whom and to what level?
• Closing and evaluation the project
• Project success factors
• Application of lessons learned