PMI Project of the Year Award
The Umatilla facility was asked to safely destroy one of the largest stockpiles of U.S. chemical weapons inventory in the country. They were asked to complete the task by April 29, 2012. The world would be watching as the company took on this colossal assignment. Jackson II (n.d.)
The Project Team Exhibited Exceptional and Ethical PM Practices
There are five project management process groups and the Umatilla facility initiated each of these activities to achieve their goal. The process was initiated, planned, executed and monitored. Schwalbe (2011)
To initiate the process the U.S. Army brought in the engineering firm of URS because they realized the extent of the risk that would have to be undertaken. Through the planning process, the team came up with a plan for the first phase which would be to package each nerve agent into different categories or “campaigns” whereas only the designated chemical could be incinerated. By executing this plan the risk would be reduced. This process would be executed over a designated span of months. Forming campaigns assisted the Umatilla factory in terms of safety because it helped them to know at all times what was being destroyed. Jackson II (n.d.)
Obstacles that Could Adversely Impact the Triple Constraints
One of the problems that URS faced was that even though they were able to recruit about 20 percent of employees who were to work on this problem from their current workforce, the majority of them were inexperienced. There weren’t many local employees who were able to decommission chemical weapons. Because of this concern, URS hired most of the employees early and began training them right away. Jackson II (n.d.)
They were able to simulate what the employee would actually be doing in a real life situation. It was like a practice run. This enabled employees to become familiar with what they would be doing and how to do it safely. When an employee ignored the rules and was exposed to mustard gas, the USR team responsibly shut down the site for a month so that there could be an investigation. A root-cause analysis was conducted and corrective actions were taken. This is where monitoring and controlling the process played a part. A new department was formed to take a look at possible risk conduct of employees. Specialists were assigned to the new department to monitor toxic entry performance to make sure that the employees were safe and to give opinions on how to increase performance. Jackson II (n.d.)
Monitoring and controlling should be conducted on a regular basis to make sure that the employees were not exhibiting behavior that would be conducive to violating safety precautions. If problems were found the Specialist would take corrective actions. They would identify any necessary changes that may be needed to keep the project on track. Schwalbe (2011)
The team came up with better way of handling the cake mustard agent it saved time when they found out there was a possibility that they wouldn’t be able to adhere to the timeline. The project was completed nearly six months ahead of schedule and was millions of dollars under budget. At the close of the project URS had incinerated over 155,000 sarin or GB nerve agent ammunitions, over 2,500 ton containers of mustard blister agent and over 60,000 VX nerve agent containers. Jackson II (n.d.)
Closing processes consist of the phase of project being formally accepted and the project being proficiently concluded. Some paperwork is sometimes involved in this activity, for example, filing project files, completing contracts, documentation and receiving formal acknowledgement of the work being completed as part of the project. Schwalbe (2011)