Why Project Fails Ciba Vision
CIBA vision is a leading manufacturer of contact lenses. They are recently confronting organisational restructuring and launching new R&D initiative to develop products to prevent threat from J&J in the low-cost running business model. However, the project was not successful due to several reasons. In this report, the factors that caused the project failure will be discussed and analysed.
1. Poor administrative management
CIBA vision generally could not manage effectively with several projects, due to the poor quality of planning, implementation, failure in monitoring and controlling the processes.
1.1) Quality of planning / Implementation
Project failure can be prevented with good quality of planning based on deliverable based work breakdown structure. CIBA Vision's current structure are limited in the productivity due to its own inhibition to the massive multi-year project code-named "Godzilla". The senior management team carried on with the project with no clear strategy in terms of developing products. It was unclear who is responsible for which task and hence become eventually losing capabilities in production engineering in both R&D and manufacturing sectors. Even though the project was aimed at lowering manufacturing costs, however, it just highlighted the weakness of company.
1.2) Failure in monitoring and controlling the processes
Efficient and effective monitoring is essential to projects to succeed, nevertheless, it is unlikely for Project Manager (PM) to control the entire operation cycle from manufacturing to sales. Due to the lack of a consistent monitoring at an overall level of the R&D and manufacturing, the project could not be efficient and the quality may not be guaranteed. A Project Manager needs to be trained in these techniques for preventing project failure.
2. Political problems
According to Elaine Axby (2012), politics is “the means by which people acquire and leverage power to get
1. Poor administrative management
CIBA vision generally could not manage effectively with several projects, due to the poor quality of planning, implementation, failure in monitoring and controlling the processes.
1.1) Quality of planning / Implementation
Project failure can be prevented with good quality of planning based on deliverable based work breakdown structure. CIBA Vision's current structure are limited in the productivity due to its own inhibition to the massive multi-year project code-named "Godzilla". The senior management team carried on with the project with no clear strategy in terms of developing products. It was unclear who is responsible for which task and hence become eventually losing capabilities in production engineering in both R&D and manufacturing sectors. Even though the project was aimed at lowering manufacturing costs, however, it just highlighted the weakness of company.
1.2) Failure in monitoring and controlling the processes
Efficient and effective monitoring is essential to projects to succeed, nevertheless, it is unlikely for Project Manager (PM) to control the entire operation cycle from manufacturing to sales. Due to the lack of a consistent monitoring at an overall level of the R&D and manufacturing, the project could not be efficient and the quality may not be guaranteed. A Project Manager needs to be trained in these techniques for preventing project failure.
2. Political problems
According to Elaine Axby (2012), politics is “the means by which people acquire and leverage power to get
References: Kerzner, H., (2009), Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, Conflicts, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., New Jersey. Axby, E., (2012), "Project Failure", lecture notes distributed in the MSIN3001_Project Management, University College London, 12th of October. Merna, T., and Al-Thani, F., F., (2011), "Corporate Risk", General definition of risk management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., New Jersey.