LEAN PROJECT MANAGEMENT: A case study of a biomass power plant project in the UK

Nowadays, companies are continuously seeking to create and sustain competitive advantages to improve their performance and strength their market position. Lean philosophy has allowed organisations to confront the current and future challenges to many industries. Lean focuses on identifying and elimi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Eto, Rodrigo
Format: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2009
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/22946/
Description
Summary:Nowadays, companies are continuously seeking to create and sustain competitive advantages to improve their performance and strength their market position. Lean philosophy has allowed organisations to confront the current and future challenges to many industries. Lean focuses on identifying and eliminating waste throughout a product or service value stream, extending not only within the organisation but also along the company’s supply chain network. The competitiveness in the UK biomass energy market has increased the pressure on players to improve their performance by developing successful projects faster. Based on the above statement, this study will adopt Lean Philosophy to analyse the management of biomass power projects in the UK with the following purposes: 1. To map the current origination and development phases of biomass projects and identify the key deliverables; 2. To identify current wastes in a biomass project and propose actions to mitigate them; 3. To evaluate the current origination and development processes and identify possible redesign and critically evaluate the benefits that the company can expect from it. The conclusion of this research indicates that Lean is an appropriate philosophy to analyse the management of biomass power plant projects. The analysis of the project suggests that the elimination of wastes leads to process improvements, thus reducing the project lead time.