Discussion Questions and Participation Questions Essay

Discussion Questions and Participation Questions - Essay Example Opportunities to expand your services 7. Better flexibility 8. Increased risk assessment 9. Improve quality 10. Increases in quantity (Brighthub, 2011). In the past I have used project management as a guide to help me complete projects. I have used project management to develop schedules, in order to optimize time, and to become more efficient at tasks. Project management skills can be improved by participation in continued education seminars on the subject, by reading peer review journal articles, and through practice among other methods. Brighthub.com (2011). The Top Ten Benefits of Project Management. Retrieved February 3, 2011 from http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/2350.aspx Chase, R. B., Jacobs, F.R., & Aquilano, N.J. (2006) Operations management for competitive advantage (11th ed). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin. 2. Safety stock is additional inventory that is held in order to mitigate the risk of a stockout. The safety stock is a considered a buffer mana gement uses to create a comfort level in which to operate. The safety stock should only be used after regular inventory runs out and if the company is unable to replenish its inventory. The safety stock should be used as a last resort in order to keep the operations going. A few years ago I worked a part-time in a warehouse for a company that manufactured paper. There were different rolls of paper that would be used as raw material for the different paper products sold by the company. The buffer or safety stock was managed by the warehouse crew. We would deliver the safety stock to the manufacturing line whenever the company ran out of its regular inventory of paper. 3. Out of the factors you mentioned about project management which I believe people can work on in order to improve their utilization of the factor is time. Time is a crucial element in project management. Projects involve the use of different deadlines for the delivery of project deliverables. In a project when one per son is late with their part of the project it creates a chain reaction which affects the work of the other members. The project manager has to provide follow up on the work of team members in order to ensure everyone is on the same page. 4. One of the first project management teams I was involved in occurred a few years back. I was a freshman in college back them and I had been assigned to my first team project as a college student. It was an intimidating experience for me because I did not know what to expect. I was very lucky to have worked with a great team of players. One of the guys was a senior business student; he served the role of project leader. He was a very outgoing person that knew how to lead others. I learn from this first experience that interpersonal relationships are a critical success factor for project management teams. 5. Engineers are very talented professionals that can add a lot of value to a project. Due to their ability to apply innovation engineers are oft en involved in project management. It would be a wise career move for an engineer to purse an MBA degree. The knowledge gained through a master’s degree program in business can be extremely beneficial for an engineer among other professionals. Professionals with a background in business are better suited to handle the pressures associated with the work of a project manager. 6. Sometimes people utilized project management skills without even knowing they are using them. No project is too small for