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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 11, No. 8
Publication Date: August 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/abr.118.15160.
Gujar, S. M., & Shafighi, N. (2023). Project Management in the Manufacturing Sector. Archives of Business Research, 11(8). 257-
270.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Project Management in the Manufacturing Sector
Shubham Mohan Gujar
bbw University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany
Najla Shafighi
bbw University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany
ABSTRACT
This study will analyze the role of automation cloud-based project management
software in managing and optimizing manufacturing plans and data. The objective
is to understand the evolution of automated and cloud-based project management
software like Jira and Asana by incorporating beneficial of traditional Gantt charts
and work breakdown structures for manufacturing companies. The questionnaire
was designed to collect data from 100 project managers employed in various
manufacturing units. The data were quantitatively analyzed using both statistical
analysis and a test of association. The objective was to understand the factors
contributing to the automated and cloud-based project management software, and
the challenges faced by the project managers in the incorporation of traditional
Gantt charts and work breakdown structures, in the complex and time-consuming
tasks associated with project management.
Keywords: Project management, manufacturing industry, automated cloud-based
software, Jira, Asana, work breakdown structure (WBS).
INTRODUCTION
The study on agile and web-based project management as well as its extensive adoption beyond
the software industry has expeditiously emerged in past decades since project management has
become more complex with changing goals and undefined outcomes over time (Ćirić &
Gračanin, 2017). Project management was first applied on large projects by the U.S.
government-related in defence with a focus on cost and schedule management, and then
business organizations gradually adopted this idea, and at present, even the smallest
manufacturing firm knows how to operate the project management tools (Fleming &
Koppelman, 2010). Delivering the project within a specific time and with minimum cost is the
fundamental objective of project management. Yet, scholars believe that many projects exceed
their schedules and budgets (KPMG, 2013). Project management is said to be successful if it
includes the management of a group of people, knowing how to avoid problems, efficient and
quick achievement of clear objectives, and tackling new grounds. For a generic project, the idea
or concept on which the project was based will differ from its status due to the studies done on
its likelihood, its implementation, and finally its completion. From launching a project to
shutting it down, product life cycle activities often get narrowed down by traditional project
management tools. Nonetheless, currently, the complexity of projects has increased. Modern
projects have comparatively tight schedules, work on many disciplines in the project, quality
standards are very rigid, members are distributed over a wide area, and capital requirements
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Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol. 11, Issue 8, August-2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
are also very high, to name a few (Verzuh, 2015). Therefore, companies to remain competitive
are forced to diagnose changes and become flexible when facing them. Accordingly, using agile
methods is advantageous for any organization, in this ever-challenging and fast-changing
business environment.
The factors discussed above have given rise to the advancement in the practices of project
management by combining these factors of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
with the latest technology and newly developed project management tools. This paper focuses
mainly on the comparison between traditional project management and Agile Project
Management (APM) methods so that the applicability of agile methodologies in the
manufacturing sector can be examined (Grebić, 2019). Keeping in mind the fundamental
characteristics of traditional methods like Gantt chart and Work Breakdown Structure as well
as the specifics of agile methodologies like Jira and Asana, a comparative analysis of agile and
traditional methodologies has been done in this study considering their theoretical aspects.
Thus, a comparison between the applications of these methodologies is performed to
understand the impact of agile project management on manufacturing industries. Further, the
research also explains how project management has evolved, and the problems and challenges
faced by the practice of current project management. Also, how the project management is
affected due to the latest advancements in technology and the reasons for the implementation
of web-based tools like Jira and Asana.
The focus of project managers in the increasingly competitive and changing business
environment lies in attempting to anticipate changes and have details of the project before its
realization. But in this rapidly changing environment, due to the limitations of the traditional
project management approach, the discipline of project management is subjective to make the
changes acceptable for the successful management of dynamic projects (Ciric, et al., 2019).
Organizations must identify the changes and must be more capable of adapting them to remain
competitive in the market. In the given context, an extension of APM beyond the development
of software is considered a preferable response in this challenging and fast-growing business
environment. Agility is said to be a relevant issue nowadays owing to its relation to current
events, however software development-related literature is an effective source. But studies
have identified that APM is said to be more efficient and effective in manufacturing industries
considering the greater aspect of the project, as it helps in saving time and cost and reduces the
risk of over-budgeting. The fact is that there is a scarcity of empirical studies focusing on agile
and cloud-based tools, like Jira and Asana in the context of the manufacturing sector, which has
motivated the researcher here to explore the research phenomena in this relatively unexplored
field to provide new findings.
This study is significantly important from both theoretical and practical perspectives.
Theoretically speaking, the findings of this study will review new theories in the existing
literature which will help the scholars in further exploring the subject from the manufacturing
perspective. Since, the past studies are mostly based on the construction, defence, and service
sector and mostly on software development; this study will focus mainly on the implementation
of project management in the manufacturing industry with the adoption of modern tools like
Jira and Asana in this sector. Alternatively, the empirical investigation in this research could
provide a reasonable rather logical overview of the strategies to practitioners and academics
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Gujar, S. M., & Shafighi, N. (2023). Project Management in the Manufacturing Sector. Archives of Business Research, 11(8). 257-270.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.118.15160
for the introduction of APM in the environment of traditional project management in the area
of manufacturing which is still under-explored by past researchers. In addition, this research
will also guide the project managers with the help of empirical research in identifying the
drivers due to which APM has been introduced and the challenges the project managers would
face in applying those in the manufacturing industries. This study is aimed to comprehend the
role of cloud-based and automated tools, Jira and Asana in effective project management: by
investigating the manufacturing sector. The aim can be attained by answering the following
research questions:
1. To understand the challenges associated with working with project management
manufacturing tools like Gantt chart and work breakdown structure.
2. To identify the conditions that led to the implementation of automated and cloud-based
project management software in the manufacturing industry.
3. To evaluate the contribution of automated and cloud-based project management
software like Jira and Asana in the manufacturing Industry.
LITERATURE REVIEW
In the era of digitalization and automation, enterprises are forced to adopt various software to
remain competitive in the global market. Project management performs multiple tasks like
tracking and management of every single piece of work and makes sure that resources are used
effectively and appropriately throughout the organization within their designated time- period
thus, making things difficult for the managers. To prevent issues related to completing projects
on time, vendors have adopted automated project management software to make optimum use
of the project management process. The automated tool allows scheduling, collaborating,
managing, planning, and organizing all the project resources and workflow by the software
within a given period. Additionally, vendors get encouraged to adopt various project
management software attributable to the features like status updates, real-time monitoring,
and feedback sharing. Online software for project management is employed to accomplish
various projects together with a minimum investment of time and process of installation which
makes it favourable for the organization. Wherein, the system demand gets increased due to
project data centralization, mobility, and enhanced storage capacity of cloud-based online
software for project management. Cloud-based project management tools are considered more
favourable as it gets easily integrated with other applications. In addition to this, to minimize
the risk and cost of the project, medium and small enterprises are adopting cloud-based
software (Fortune Business Insight, 2021). Thus, it can be reiterated that in the coming time
the demand for project management software will increase due to industries’ customized
offerings.
Project Management in the Manufacturing Industry
Managing inventory and resources is crucial for the manufacturing industry. These industries
need to be conscious of the rising demands of the market and supplies to the market. However,
resource management is considered one of the main dimensions of expertise in manufacturing
project management software. In project management, anything that is referred to as materials,
knowledge, equipment, time, and people required for the completion of the project is identified
as a resource. Customarily, when we talk about resources, they are termed as limiting factors
as no company or industry has a limitless amount of people, time, or money. Therefore, a
resource allocation plan is drawn which is said to be the most comprehensive way of addressing