Performance Measurement for Project Management
Every enterprise which employs a diverse and multifaceted workforce to facilitate organization, production, and service, from major international corporations to local community churches, utilizes a concept known as performance management to maximize their efficiency and effectiveness. The field of performance management has been defined by managerial researchers as a "strategic and integrated approach to increasing the effectiveness of companies by improving the performance of the people who work in them and by developing the capabilities of teams and individual contributors" (Armstrong and Baron, 1998), and the technique has been used since the 1970's by businesses seeking to improve their organizational results. For the sake of the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino's proposed luxury tour bus renovation project, it is essential to examine the complex issue of performance management from the varying perspectives of the different stakeholders involved, including the project's sponsors (MGM Grand Hotel and Casino), the project manager's tasked with ensuring successful completion, and the various team members, suppliers, and consumers who contribute input to the implementation process. The following performance measures have been identified as critical to the eventual success of the luxury tour bus renovation project, as substandard levels of performance in any of these capacities could result in systemic failures throughout the entirety of the project life.
Every operational process engaged in by a person, whether a worker or a customer, presents an array of opportunities for that person to commit avoidable mistakes which nullify the operation's beneficial potential. By designing a product or mass production system in such a way that these mistakes cannot be made, or essentially "fool-proofing" something so that it can only be used correctly, it is possible to reduce or eliminate entirely the type of errors which can cumulatively cost companies millions of dollars per year. The Japanese have perfected this concept of specifically engineered fail-safes through the widespread use of Poka-Yoke, a term which is "translated as 'resistance to errors' by avoiding (yoker) errors resulting from inattention (poka)" (Dudek-Burlikowska & Szewieczek, 2009). By recognizing the potential for defects in the performance of any process, and consciously redesigning that process in such a way as to remove the chance of that error occurring, it is possible to create systems that can only be operated in the intended fashion. The underlying philosophy and methodology of Poka-Yoke "was introduced by Dr. Shigeo Shingo in 1961 & #8230; one…
