As the world¡¦s high degree of urbanization, greenhouse gas emission by vehicles, home appliances and industrial production is increasing year by year and according to the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) report urban carbon-dioxide emissions accounted for 80% of total global emissions. In order to encourage the alternative energy development, Taiwan government actively promotes the subsidy for alternative energy implementation, thus making the solar energy industry booming in recent years. Based on the government procurement competition mechanism, the procurement competition needs to be transparent and fair. Faced with competition in the industry, companies must reduce costs and improve quality while also required to enhance the customer satisfaction. Therefore, a good engineering project control becomes the most important factor to enhance a company's competitive ability. Particularly, when professional management is getting more and more important nowadays, solar energy system¡¦s building construction is not only limited to technology and equipment level, but also the enterprise configuration of internal human resources and outsourcing. Moreover, how to minimize cost and how to use efficient way to make the project work on schedule are the important issues for policy makers. This study is based on a domestic solar systems engineering project, and focuses on the distribution and configuration of the limited internal and external resources of multiple projects in progress. It uses the Critical Chain Project Management in the Theory of Constraints to break through limitations. VBA programming is used to find the minimum cost of human resource conflict in the project scheduling, furthermore Arena simulation system is utilized to establish the best configuration of human resources deployment to provide decision-making mechanism. The simulation result is verified that it can really help to provide a decision-making reference to project managers to obtain the ideal scheduling and resource allocation.

While most western hydropower sites are already developed or protected by legislation, the aging hydropower park requires refurbishment actions. Especially to tackle the challenges of an increased fluctuation at the grid coming from the expansion of other renewable energy sources such as wind power. The company Fortum is carrying out a number of major refurbishment projects every year and want to enhance their time performance during the outage. Delayed projects are resulting in unexpected costs and production losses. By investigating 20 historical refurbishment outages from a project manager perspective, the delays are related to different sections of the outage time. These sections are referred to as work packages, meaning a set of activities related to a functional part of the plant. The material is based on interviews and project documentation. The outages are divided into three groups depending on the amount of delay and some additional set of factors are used in a comparison. The results are discussed from a time management and a multi-project perspective. The study can be viewed as an initial study to address time management challenges in a company. The methodology proves to be an efficient way to get time management challenges at a company to the surface. The results displays late manufacturing deliveries and overruns of assembly and erection durations as the most common reasons of delay. A number of potential success/failure factors are suggested. It is also pointed out that small projects are at risk being more delayed compared to larger ones.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to describe how IKEA AB, works with projects today. Further, the aim is to give a suggestion on how a Project Management Information System could look like in the multi-project organization IKEA AB. In order to control and monitor, this study also includes performance measurements, in the form of KPIs, into the Project Management Information System.   Background: In today’s business life many companies are a multi-project organization with several ongoing projects at the same time. By using a Project Management Information System organizations are able to monitor, control and support projects. IKEA AB described having a set project methodology, but that project managers often work in their own way, and that this lead to a problem with monitoring and supporting project.   Methodology: The methodological approach in the study is action research. The contacts and interviews were conducted thru a semi-structured approach with people related to projects in different ways, project managers and management board members.   Findings: The findings of the study are that projects at IKEA AB are not conducted in a cohesive way. The suggestion for a Project Management Information System at IKEA AB containing of several parts; the system need to include a project plan, KPIs to monitor cost, time and resources, and project members feelings needed to be monitored during execution. The information also needed to be presented in two separate dashboards to deliver the right information to the right person.

To plan resources for multiple parallel projects is not an easy task, this has been experienced at a contract manufacturing company called Sanmina in Örnsköldsvik where this thesis work was performed. The aim of this thesis was to identify the problems with the resource planning process used today and to come up with a feasible solution. Different factors such as routines, formalization, time resources and opportunities for recuperation was also investigated to see if a solution to the identified problems could be used to decrease the amount of perceived psychological stress reactions. The thesis was divided into three phases, a pre-study phase, an implementation phase and an evaluation phase. In the pre-study phase a series of interviews was performed to get a better understanding of the current problems and this knowledge was then used to see if any existing tool for resource planning could be used. No tool was found that fulfilled all the requirements. In the implementation phase a new tool was developed with the requirements found in the pre-study. In the evaluation phase this new tool was tested in workshops on faked projects and then evaluated in the form of interviews with the attendees. The conclusion from this evaluation is that this new tool will in fact reduce the perceived amount of stress in the studied case at Sanmina in Örnsköldsvik. To be able to verify that this is the case for any multi-project organization a much more extensive evaluation would have to be done with real projects in different companies in different trades.

This study used action research to study the implementation of Critical Chain methodology in a multi-project environment. It used a medium sized company, which is an original equipment manufacturer, but due to the complexity of the equipment each is executed as a project. This creates a multi-project environment.The object of the research was to find the contributing and inhibiting factors to CC implementation. It further sought to discover improvements in business performance due to CC methodology.The study found resistance to change prevented CC implementation. The resistance to change was supported by incorrect application of CC principles and a false sense that CC is contributing to the business. On business performance improvements it was found that order intake improvements of thirty seven per cent year on year and reduction in lead time of projects due to implementation of CC principles. The latter also opened new markets which strategically benefitted the company. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

<p>This licentiate thesis discusses management and control ofan industrial business that implements several projects at thesame time, a so-called multi-project business. The questionthat will be answered is: What distinguish the management of amulti-project business and what is crucial for the managementto focus on? The thesis is based on a case study at a companycalled Adtranz Signal in Sweden. Adtranz Signal develops,designs and delivers signal and safety systems for the railway.They are a perfect example of a modern company that operatesthe main part of their business with projects.</p><p>The discussion will take us beyond the single project andabove the project manager. This is necessary because projectmanagement literature, by tradition, emphasizes on theindividual project, and the complexity of problems when aproject is executed isolated from the ordinary business. Todaythere are only a few empirical and theoretical studies ofmulti-project businesses, especially those that focuses on howindustrial companies use projects and lead project work.</p><p>The scientific contribution in this thesis consists of twoparts. The first part is a profound empirical description ofhow management, control and realization of a multi-projectbusiness work. The second part is a further development of theliterature considering management problems in a multi-projectbusiness. Finally there are three important conclusions pointedout:</p><p>•It exists dependencies and connections between theprojects in the companys multi-project business•Thedifferent dependencies can be categorized•Thedependencies and connections are important and must be handledsince they effect the management of the multi-projectbusiness</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Management and control of a project business,industrial projects, multi-project business, multi-projectenvironment, project-based company, project management</p>

This licentiate thesis discusses management and control ofan industrial business that implements several projects at thesame time, a so-called multi-project business. The questionthat will be answered is: What distinguish the management of amulti-project business and what is crucial for the managementto focus on? The thesis is based on a case study at a companycalled Adtranz Signal in Sweden. Adtranz Signal develops,designs and delivers signal and safety systems for the railway.They are a perfect example of a modern company that operatesthe main part of their business with projects. The discussion will take us beyond the single project andabove the project manager. This is necessary because projectmanagement literature, by tradition, emphasizes on theindividual project, and the complexity of problems when aproject is executed isolated from the ordinary business. Todaythere are only a few empirical and theoretical studies ofmulti-project businesses, especially those that focuses on howindustrial companies use projects and lead project work. The scientific contribution in this thesis consists of twoparts. The first part is a profound empirical description ofhow management, control and realization of a multi-projectbusiness work. The second part is a further development of theliterature considering management problems in a multi-projectbusiness. Finally there are three important conclusions pointedout: •It exists dependencies and connections between theprojects in the companys multi-project business•Thedifferent dependencies can be categorized•Thedependencies and connections are important and must be handledsince they effect the management of the multi-projectbusiness Keywords:Management and control of a project business,industrial projects, multi-project business, multi-projectenvironment, project-based company, project management / <p>NR 20140805</p>

Introduction: A trend for organisations to change from single to multiple project management has been observed over the last couple of decades. Organizations shifted their focus from single project management towards the simultaneous management of the whole set of projects as one entity – project portfolio. New multi-project settings require a new management approach and practices to successfully manage a portfolio. A common practice in organizations is to evaluate projects after they had been carried out. At that point not much can be done and it is impossible to improve performance and prevent failure. Hence, problems that occur in projects’ implementation phase remain unsolved and even unidentified. Constant control, review and monitoring of projects’ performance in the implementation phase could lead to the problematic portfolio areas being spotted and timely management decisions being made in order to improve the overall portfolio performance. Problem: How do organisations manage projects within a portfolio that perform poorly in the implementation phase? Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is: to describe to what extent and in what ways organizations control, review and monitor project performances in the implementation phase; to identify if organisations use any methods, tools or techniques in order to spot projects that perform poorly according to their expectations; and to discover what happens to the poorly performing projects in the implementation phase after they were identified. Method: An electronic qualitative questionnaire had been constructed and sent out to the 46 sampled Swedish companies currently running project portfolios. 115 most suitable respondents had been chosen to answer the survey. Frame of Reference: Theoretical framework is built on the literature within project portfolio management field, mostly concerning control, review and monitoring of projects of projects’ performance within their implementation phase; practices used to manage poorly performing projects as well as the value of organizational learning. Conclusion: The research results show that even though majority of the studied organizations are aware and striving towards efficient project portfolio control, review and monitoring, a lot of space for improvement still remains. Results reveal that organizations are trying to keep track of projects’ performance within a portfolio, however, very few poorly performing are identified. Moreover, the management practices for underperforming projects are still very limited if not non-existent.

<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>A trend for organisations to change from single to multiple project management has been observed over the last couple of decades. Organizations shifted their focus from single project management towards the simultaneous management of the whole set of projects as one entity – project portfolio. New multi-project settings require a new management approach and practices to successfully manage a portfolio. A common practice in organizations is to evaluate projects after they had been carried out. At that point not much can be done and it is impossible to improve performance and prevent failure. Hence, problems that occur in projects’ implementation phase remain unsolved and even unidentified. Constant control, review and monitoring of projects’ performance in the implementation phase could lead to the problematic portfolio areas being spotted and timely management decisions being made in order to improve the overall portfolio performance.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Problem: </strong>How do organisations manage projects within a portfolio that perform poorly in the implementation phase?</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The purpose of this thesis is: to describe to what extent and in what ways organizations control, review and monitor project performances in the implementation phase; to identify if organisations use any methods, tools or techniques in order to spot projects that perform poorly according to their expectations; and to discover what happens to the poorly performing projects in the implementation phase after they were identified.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Method: </strong>An electronic qualitative questionnaire had been constructed and sent out to the 46 sampled Swedish companies currently running project portfolios. 115 most suitable respondents had been chosen to answer the survey.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Frame of Reference: </strong>Theoretical framework is built on the literature within project portfolio management field, mostly concerning control, review and monitoring of projects of projects’ performance within their implementation phase; practices used to manage poorly performing projects as well as the value of organizational learning.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The research results show that even though majority of the studied organizations are aware and striving towards efficient project portfolio control, review and monitoring, a lot of space for improvement still remains. Results reveal that organizations are trying to keep track of projects’ performance within a portfolio, however, very few poorly performing are identified. Moreover, the management practices for underperforming projects are still very limited if not non-existent.</p>

Att bedriva projekt som projektledare har genom tidens gång haft olika innebörd. Förr kunde det exempelvis handla om att bygga pyramider, medan det i dagsläget istället kan handla om implementering av IT-system hos organisationer. Under de senaste decennierna har projekt blivit den vanligaste formen för utförande av organisatoriska aktiviteter inom både industrin och offentlig förvaltning. Cirka 90 % av alla projekt som bedrivs i dagsläget sker även under parallella förhållanden, där en organisation utför fler projekt samtidigt, något som har gett upphov till så kallade multiprojektmiljöer. Tidigare forskning vittnar om ett flertal negativa konsekvenser som uppstår i multiprojektmiljöer, med fokus på tre karaktärsdrag: tidspress med dess snäva deadlines, fragmentering då en och samma projektledare har hand om flera projekt samtidigt, samt resurskonflikter då resurser inom organisationen delas av flera projektledare och linjeenheterna.   Studiens syfte är att tillämpa Amabile och Kramers (2011) koncept om inner work life, för att utforska hur projektledare påverkas av att arbeta i så kallade multiprojektmiljöer. Vår forskningsfråga blir därför: hur påverkas projektledares inner work life av att arbeta i en multiprojektmiljö? Amabile och Kramers (2011) koncept innehåller totalt tolv olika underkategorier som påverkar en individs inner work life.     För att besvara frågeställningen använde vi en kvalitativ metod. Fyra projektledare verksamma i multiprojektmiljöer inom den privata sektorn intervjuades. För att analysera deras svar använde vi oss sedan av en tematisk analysansats. Studiens resultat tyder på att projektledare påverkas både negativt och positivt av att arbeta i multiprojektmiljöer, där negativ påverkan är mest förekommande ur ett helhetsperspektiv. / The meaning of conducting projects has changed over time. A long time ago it could be a matter of building pyramids, today a project may consist of implementing a new IT-system. In recent decades, the project work form has become the most common approach for execution of organizational activities, both in the industry sector and public administration. Approximately 90 % of all projects conducted today are being run under circumstances where several projects are carried out in parallel, which has given rise to so-called multi-project environments. Previous research highlights a number of negative consequences that arise in multi-project environments, where the most prominent characteristics are time constraints including tight deadlines, fragmentation as a single project manager is in charge of several projects simultaneously, and resource conflicts as resources within the same organization are shared between several project managers and line units.   The purpose of our study is to apply Amabile and Kramer's (2011) concept of inner work life, to explore how project managers are affected from working in a multi-project environment. Our research question is therefore: what are the impacts on project managers inner work life from working in a multi-project environment? Amabile and Kramer's (2011) concept contains a total of twelve different categories that affect an individual's inner work life. To answer the question, we used a qualitative approach. Four project managers working in multi-project environments in the private sector were interviewed. In order to analyze their responses we used a thematic analysis approach. The results of the study indicates that project managers are affected both negatively and positively from working in multi-project environments, where negative impact is most prevalent from an overall perspective.