Improving efficiency: time-critical interfacing of project tasks

The paper discusses the management of time-critical operations and their dynamic interrelations in project environments. It is well known in theoretical literature that delayed operative tasks generate a cumulative effect, which delays the overall delivery time making efficient time management difficult. However, practising managers seem to be helpless with this phenomenon if judged by the often reported poor performance of project management. To control the use of time, managers tend to plan safety buffers in their operations, which bias the overall planning of projects. The result of all this is uncontrolled and unknown outcome of the whole operation and, even worse, it inherently makes development efforts very difficult to implement, as the true performance of the organization is hidden in the realization of airy plans. Based on case studies in various industrial environments, we propose that project schedules need to be managed by putting special emphasis on the time-use within individual tasks and by ensuring that work proceeds smoothly along the critical chain of tasks. To enable this, high transparency is needed on how time is used in project organizations