33 Literatur [1] Neumann, R./ Bredemeier, K.: Projektmanagement von A-Z. Das Handbuch für Praktiker. Campus, Frankfurt/ New York 1996 [2] Porter, M.: Wettbewerbsvorteile (Competitive Advantage) - Spitzenleistungen erreichen und behaupten. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1986 Autoren Prof. Dr. Ruedi Niederer, D i p l o m - M a t h e m a t i k e r (ETH Zürich), promovierte 1992 am Institut für Informatik der Universität Zürich. Spezialisiert auf quantitative Methoden und Evaluation; leitete zahlreiche empirische Projekte im nationalen und internationalen Rahmen; Professor für empirische Methoden und Statistik an der Fachhochschule Solothurn Nordwestschweiz. Leitet seit 1999 das Institut für interdisziplin ä re Wirtschafts- und Sozialforschung (IWS) an der Fachhochschule Solothurn Nordwestschweiz. Stephanie Greiwe M. A., Studium der Japanologie, Geographie und Politischen Wissenschaft an der Universität Bonn und an der Keiô-Universität in Tôkyô. Ist ausgebildete Journalistin und arbeitete an verschiedenen empirischen Forschungsprojekten mit. Seit 1999 wissenschaftliche A ssistentin am Institut für interdisziplin ä re Wirtschafts- und Sozialforschung (IWS) der Fachhochschule Solothurn Nordwestschweiz. Prof. Dr. Christoph Minnig studierte Volks- und Betriebswirtschaft an der Universität Fribourg und promovierte 1991. Von 1992 bis 1995 Forschungsaufenthalt am Center for Organizational Research an der Stanford Universit y. Seit 1996 Dozent an der Fachhochschule Solothurn Nordwestschweiz, Leiter Forschung des Bereichs Wirtschaft; Experte in Organisationsfragen. Prof. Dr. Thomas Schwarb war zehn Jahre lang als Informatiker tä tig und studierte berufsbegleitend Ökonomie an der Universität Basel; Dissertation zum Thema Personalauswahl. Anschließend Leiter der Personaldienste eines großen öffentlichen Spitals. Seit 1998 ist er als Dozent im Fachbereich Human Resource Management an der Fachhochschule Solothurn Nordwestschweiz tätig; Experte im Personalmanagement und in qualitativen Methoden. Anschrift der Autoren Fachhochschule Solothurn Nordwestschweiz Technik - Wirtschaft - Soziales Institut für interdisziplin ä re Wirtschafts- und Sozialforschung Riggenbachstraße 16 CH-4602 Olten Tel.: ++41/ 62/ 2 86 01 99 Fax: ++41/ 62/ 2 96 65 01 E -Mail: iws@fhso.ch P M - A U S - / W E I T E R B I L D U N G I m ersten Beitrag „Projektkostenplanung und -kontrolle: Überblick über neuere Entwicklungen“ stellt Heinz Schelle verschiedene methodische Ans ätze zur Schätzung von Projektkosten und Systeme zur mitschreitenden Kostenkontrolle dar. Bei den Kostenschätzverfahren wird vor allem auf Expertenbefragungen und Möglichkeiten einer methodischen Erweiterung sowie auf Kostenkennziffern, die in Projektdatenbanken gespeichert sind, eingegangen. Die Vielzahl der in der Praxis anzutreffenden Varianten der projektbegleitenden Kostenkontrolle wird durch die Klassifikation in drei Kategorien unterschiedlicher Komplexität überschaubar gemacht. Einige neuere Entwicklungen wie Zielkostenrechnung, Prozesskostenrechnung und der ehrgeizige Versuch, die Projektkostenplanung und -verfolgung mit der kurzfristigen Erfolgsrechnung, der Gewinn- und Verlustrechnung und der betrieblichen Finanzplanung zu kombinieren, werden skizziert. Der in der 13. Aktualisierung begonnene Beitrag von Karl-Heinz Biere zum Thema „Qualitätsplanung in der Produktentwicklung - Anforderungen und praktische Umsetzung“ wird fortgesetzt. Biere beschreibt die verschiedenen Methoden des Qualitätsmanagements wie etwa Produkt- und Prozess- FMEA. Zahlreiche Beispiele und ein Vorgehensmodell erleichtern die Umsetzung in der Praxis. Einem bisher in der Literatur weitgehend vernachlä ssigten Thema, nämlich dem „Krisenmanagement in Projekten“, widmet sich Michael Neubauer. Er stellt die von ihm entwickelte Methodik KOPV (Kommunikationsorientierte Problemverlagerung) vor, die durch die Verfahrensschritte ● Analyse der Situation ● Ermittlung des zu erwartenden Schadens ● Ausarbeitung von Lösungsalternativen ● Darstellung des Nutzens der vorgeschlagenen Lösungen und ● Verhandlung charakterisiert werden kann. Neubauer betont besonders, dass es häufig erforderlich ist, bei der Suche nach Lösungsalternativen das Problem selbst zu verändern. Heinz Schelle ■ 14. A ktua li sieru n g der Loseblattsa m m lu n g „ Projekte erfolgreich ma na gen“ herausgegeben von H. Schelle, H. Reschke, R. Schnopp und A. Schub, TÜV-Verlag. P R O J E K T M A N A G E M E N T 3 / 2 0 0 0 34 The Consolidation of Production Facilities of Two Merging Companies H A R A L D R . D Ö R R U N D H E R M A N N K E U P E R Zusammenfassung Durch die Fusion der Diagnostikfirmen Dade und Behring im Jahre 1997 ergab sich die Situation, dass an zwei Standorten Reagenzien für die Gerinnungsdiagnostik produziert wurden. Zur Kosteneinsparung und Effizienzsteigerung wurde beschlossen, die Produktionsaktivitäten des Standorts Miami, USA, nach Marburg, Deutschland, zu verlegen. In einem 18-monatigen Projekt wurden Produktionsanlagen und -prozesse sowie unterstützende Funktionen so transferiert, dass es bei weiterhin laufendem Absatz nicht zu einem Lieferabriss kam. In dem folgenden Artikel wird das Umfeld des Produktionstransfers beschrieben und dargestellt, welche Aufgaben zu lösen waren und wie das Projekt strukturiert und ausgeführt wurde. Abstract To manage a project of consolidating different operation facilities is always a challenge. The following article describes the tools and management techniques which have been used to master this project. The approach how to structure the project to build a core team and manage all side topics like budgeting, progress monitoring (earned value) will give an excellent overview about all aspects of project management. Mayor hurdles had been the complexit y of the project (dependencies on other internal projects), difference in culture and language, regulation/ authorit y requirements and the risk of technical failure (biological products and technical equipment transfer). Schlagwörter Earned Value, Internationales Projektteam, Produktionsverlagerung, Projektplanung 1 INTRODUCTION In October 1997, Dade International (Deerfield, IL) and the Behring Diagnostics unit of Hoechst AG (Frankfurt, Germany) completed their merger by forming a new company called Dade Behring, Inc. The company is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, with a branch office in Frankfurt, has approximately 8,700 employees throughout the world, operations across the industrialised nations, and the broadest available offering of products and services for clinical laboratories in hospitals and elsewhere. With leadership positions in areas such as chemistry/ immunochemistry, Hemostasis/ coagulation, microbiology, plasma-protein analysis, cardiac diagnostics, drug monitoring, and quality assurance, approximately half of Dade Behring’s annual sales of 1.3 billion USD are in the United States and half in other countries worldwide. Dade International as well as Behring Diagnostics were strong in the field of Hemostasis with reagent manufacturing sites in Miami, Florida, USA and Marburg, Germany. Hemostasis analysers and reagents are used in testing the ability of a patient’s blood to form and dissolve clots. After a thorough investigation the company decided to close the Miami plant and consolidate all manufacturing activities for Hemostasis reagents to the Marburg site. Both companies had an overlapping product portfolio (reagents and instruments). Parallel to the operations transfer two other major projects (cross application, customer conversion) were launched in order to consolidate the portfolio, thus minimising the number of products to be transferred. The objectives were to run Behring reagents on Dade Instruments and vice versa (application) and then to convert customer to the new combined portfolio. At the same time, the company decided to consolidate warehouses which resulted in major inventory moves. The interactions between these projects had a considerable impact on 35 P M - F A L L B E I S P I E L / F A L L S T U D I E the course of the transfer project but will not be covered in this case study. 2 SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT To increase the capacity for filling, freeze-drying and packaging in Marburg, a high speed, fully automated line for filling, capping, labeling and packaging and two large freeze-dryers weighing 175,000 lbs or 80 metric tons each had to be transferred from the Miami plant (Fig. 1). After consolidation, 40 different packages of reagents from the Miami site remained in the portfolio. The product transfers included the bulk formulation, filling, freeze-drying and packaging as well as the quality control procedures. For two products, the manufacturing process consisted of semi-automated test cartridge manufacturing line employing a unique technology and equipment. For all products, a complete set of bills of material and routers had to be established in the SAP system used at the Marburg site. Validation of equipment and production processes and validation documentation according to the standards applicable in the diagnostics industry were an essential part of the project. Together with the transfer of production processes and equipment, the tasks of functions related to operations (Master Production Scheduling, Quality Assurance/ Document Control, Complaint Handling) had to be transferred. The following written objectives and measures of success were defined at the outset of the project: ● at least one batch of each product manufactured full scale meeting specifications with a complete set of validation data, ● product quality to be maintained during and after transfer, ● no serious delays in supply of Hemostasis products due to transfer activities on either site, ● shut down of Hemostasis operations in Miami, ● appropriate infrastructure and expertise in Marburg in place, ● observation of constraints on capital, budget and on the addition of personnel in Marburg, ● time span 18 month, Dec 97- May 99. It is essential that at the beginning scope and limits of the project („is/ is not“) are agreed upon with the upper management and documented. Otherwise, additional tasks creep into the project and the workload may quickly become unmanageable. 3 THE CORE TEAM FORMATION AND STRUCTURE Formation of a project core team was a crucial step before the project was started. All relevant functions (manufacturing, production scheduling, engineering, quality control, quality assurance and finance) were represented in the team. As a general policy, both sites were represented equally in the team. Some team members had to be added or replaced during the course of the project. During most of the time, the team consisted of 12 members. This number was the result of a trade-off between a manageable team size and the need to involve various functions both in Miami and Marburg (Fig. 2). Except for the project leader and coordinator, all team members remained in their line functions and regularly faced priority clashes which occasionally had to be resolved by the project leader. The core team met weekly for telephone or video conferences to exchange information, to update the project plan and to agree on short term actions. Short minutes of the meeting were distributed afterwards. For the first 12 months, a face-toface meeting was held monthly, alternating between Miami and Marburg. These meetings allowed a de- Fig. 1: The big freeze-dryer will be loaded on a truck in Miami P R O J E K T M A N A G E M E N T 3 / 2 0 0 0 36 tailed review of the project progress and were essential to form and maintain a team spirit. Initially, the formation of subteams which were to focus on groups of tasks (e.g. quality management, engineering) was considered to be important. However, structured subteam work was often replaced by close, but informal contacts between the people involved on both sides. The project status was monitored, sponsored and supported by a steering committee which consisted of selected members of the upper management. 4 CAPITAL AND BUDGET Major investments were required at the Marburg site to prepare for the equipment to expand the capacity. At the same time, the equipment had to be refurbished and reworked because of the differences in the U.S. and German power supplies and safety standards. The capital plan which was set up at the start of the project was kept within 10 % despite the fact that several unexpected changes had to be made during the project. For ongoing costs, a budget was set up initially to cover the costs of project management and travel, hiring of personnel/ severance, inventory transfers, validations, manufacturing scrap etc. The budget was 9.5 Mio USD. 5 GENERAL APPROACH AND STRATEGY After an extended fact finding phase the project plan was developed using Microsoft Project. The general approach was to simultaneously transfer and validate the production processes on the existing equipment in Marburg while additional inventory was built in Miami. Because a key aspect of the transfer was the transfer of filling and lyophilisation capacity, a consistent strategy of overlapping production was not possible. It was therefore decided to first transfer high volume liquid and low volume lyophilised products, which did not heavily depend on the Miami equipment and could be covered by the existing Marburg equipment. During this phase, Miami continued to build transition inventory. The next step was then to transport, refurbish and rebuild the equipment which in the case of the freezedryers took up to 6 months. The most critical piece of equipment to be transferred was the high capacity fill line and the timing of the dismantling became the focal point of the project plan. During the down-time of the equipment, Marburg produced at the products already transferred at reduced capacity and the inventory previously built for the remaining products was used to bridge the gap between demand and supply. Almost simultaneously, the production of high volume lyophilised products to Marburg was validated at a slightly reduced scale. 6 THE PROJECT PLAN The project plan was developed using Microsoft Project in the following sequence: ● generic plan for product transfers, ● grouping of 42 products into 7 groups, ● development of a detailed plan for each product group, ● development of a plan for building preparation and equipment transfer, divided into major components of equipment, ● transfer plan for functions such as production scheduling, documentation transfer, quality control, complaint handling and quality management. As a rule, the various tasks were subdivided such that no task lasted longer than 1-2 weeks. This allowed a continuous monitoring of the course of the project. A conscious effort was made to limit the number of links Fig. 2: Core Team Miami Transfer and General Manager Hemostasis, J. Engelke 37 P M - F A L L B E I S P I E L / F A L L S T U D I E between the tasks in order to reduce the complexity of the project. The capabilities of Microsoft Project to plan resources and budget were not used. The project plan contained approximately 1,300 tasks at the time when the base plan was set. During the weekly core team meetings, the plan was updated and distributed afterwards. The weekly updates were essential for the success of the project. 7 EARNED VALUE For a high-level overview on the project progress, an earned-value approach was chosen as described by Department of Defense (DoD) [1]. Earned value management (EVM) describes one of the tools available to the program manager for managing program performance. Earned value defines a method for determining the amount of work performed at a point in time. In general this measurement uses the planned resource cost of a task as it’s value and earns this value for accomplishing the task. This earned value may then be compared to the cost incurred to date of determine over/ under spending for work accomplished. Our approach was used in a nonstandard way in that only the value of work planned through time as a measure of the schedule of performance. After the base plan was set, approximately 200 tasks and milestones in 1,300 which were critical to the success of the project received values on an arbitrary scale of 1 to 6, 6 being the most important. The total sum of values was 500. The earnedvalue chart (Fig. 4) shows the time course of the values as they accumulate with the completion of the critical tasks. Base plan, forecast and actual progress are displayed. The black line shows the baseline which has been set at the beginning of the project. The baseline was never changed. The grey interrupted line is the updated finish. It recognises all changes during a project. The underlying black line shows the current achievement. The tasks and milestones have been selected from MS Project to generate the chart by a macro. A comparison of actual vs. base plan clearly shows that the project had a late start but during the whole project had the speed which was necessary to complete the project in a timely manner. The earned value chart was updated weekly and served for quick orientation of the core team and to report the progress to the steering committee. 8 FINAL PROJECT REVIEW After the completion of the project, a project review focused on things which went well and on lessons which were learnt. It is not surprising that there are many things which would be done differently if the project had to be started again. However, the early development of a general strategy as outlined above and the application of project management techniques proved to be essential for the success. 8.1 Participation of Employees One of the big surprises of the project was the professionalism and constant active participation of the staff of the site to be closed. At no time Fig. 3: A crane is lifting the generators into the new building Fig. 4: Earned value 24. 8. 1998 P R O J E K T M A N A G E M E N T 3 / 2 0 0 0 38 the Marburg team members experienced any hostility or ill-feelings of employees who were soon to be out of their jobs. During the whole project, the Miami site was well managed under extremely difficult circumstances. Without this, the project might quickly have turned into a disaster. As mentioned above only two persons were fully assigned to the project. The clash between daily business work and dedication to the project on both production sites were therefore a constant point of discussion. Underestimation of workload, documentation and validation on one side and over-commitment of resources on the other side were often hard to resolve. 8.2 Cultural Differences Both the project leader and the project coordinator had lived in the USA for an extended period of time and were familiar with the cultural and mentality differences between the USA and Europe. All the other team members had not been exposed to each others cultures for any length of time. Within the core team, the differences in management style and experience were considerable. For obvious reasons, the team language was English which puts non-native speakers at a disadvantage. Awareness of the cultural differences and of communication difficulties had to be created particularly among the US team members. Team formation was therefore a complicated process. Nevertheless, during most of the time, the team behaved as a single team and grouping into US and German participants could be avoided. 8.3 Experience and Training In the former Dade Inc. major Hemostasis operations activities had been transferred from Puerto Rico to Miami just before the project described here was started. The experiences gained from this transfer, and in particular the project management skills, were an excellent basis for the transfer from Miami to Marburg, although many characteristics of both transfers were distinctly different. Although a considerable effort was made to train Marburg technical staff on the new products in Miami, it would have been better to have more people trained in Miami for a prolonged period of time (apprenticeship). In critical situations, unplanned visits by Miami staff were required to resolve urgent manufacturing or validation problems. This clearly shows how the transfer of expertise strongly depends on the transfer of people. Another important way to transfer expertise was to offer a one to three years expatriate program to a few, carefully selected employees from Miami. The costs of the programs are clearly offset by the effectiveness of production support during the difficult phase after the transfer. Another crucial component for the success of the project was the choice of experienced contractors for dismantling, shipping, refurbishing and rebuilding of equipment. The right choice of specialists can help to avoid major difficulties and delays. 8.4 Use of the Project Plan Whereas project management techniques were commonly used in Miami, they were applied in Marburg only to small projects and with limited success. In the initial phase of the project, a lot of time was spent to train the Marburg team members how to read, review and update the project plan. It was important for the team members that they understood the usefulness of the project plan as a means of coordination and communication. Only when a lot of attention is paid to the review and update of the plan, it can prove its real strengths. As an outcome of this project, training on project management techniques was intensified in Marburg. 8.5 External Influences Because of the merger, the company and in particular the product line Hemostasis underwent major changes. In particular, the interac- Fig. 5: Generators for freezedryers have been installed in Marburg