What is project planning and why is it important?
■ Project planning involves five stages.
– Identifying the activities within a project;
– Estimating times and resources for the activities;
– Identifying the relationship and dependencies between the activities;
– Identifying the schedule constraints;
– Fixing the schedule. ➔
488 Part Three Planning and control
Introduction
Anuar Kamaruddin, COO of United Photonics Malaysia
(EPM), was conscious that the project in front of him was
one of the most important he had handled for many years.
The number and variety of the development projects under
way within the company had risen sharply in the last few
years, and although they had all seemed important at the
time, this one – the ‘Laz-skan’ project – clearly justified the
description given it by the President of United Photonics
Corporation, the US parent of UPM, ‘the make or break
opportunity to ensure the division’s long term position in
the global instrumentation industry’.
The United Photonics Group
United Photonics Corporation had been founded in the
1920s (as the Detroit Gauge Company), a general instrument
and gauge manufacturer for the engineering industry.
By expanding its range into optical instruments in the early
1930s, it eventually moved also into the manufacture of
Case study
United Photonics Malaysia Sdn Bhd
Source: Corbis/Eric K K Yu
■ Project planning is particularly important where complexity of the project is high. The interrelationship
between activities, resources and times in most projects, especially complex ones,
is such that unless they are carefully planned, resources can become seriously overloaded at
times during the project.