Critical Chain Project Management

Written by Fabio Labrini. The Critical Chain method in Project Management(CCPM) is a method to plan, execute, manage, and control both single and multi projects, which emphasizes the effects of resource allocation and activity duration uncertainty. It has demonstrated over the past 10 years its ability to significantly reduce the duration of projects, to ensure that projects are completed on time, and to increase resource productivity.[...] The Critical Chain method mainly differs from the traditional methodologies* on the attention it places on the resource availability, and flexibility of starting time rather than task order and strict scheduling. In this paper, with traditional methods it is referred to The Critical Path Method (CPM) and Program evaluation and review technique (PERT)

25% of the challenge in multi-project systems is planning and scheduling; 75% of the challenge lies in executing and managing those projects. With the most potential for the benefits of Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), they also have the biggest paradigm shifts in behaviors. However, there are few conference talks or webinars detailing how to properly execute and manage projects.

We provide the best solutions to meet the needs of large project organizations looking for increased speed, reliability, and quality.

Safran Electronics & Defense in France is a factory of 400 people that make Flight Control Systems. [...] Convinced that the situation was critical, they decided to deploy Theory of Constraints. This reduced the Work In Progress by over 85%. They then decided to change the plant layout, simplifying the production flow and organizing machines by product families. The target of the new layout was to help in further reduce lead times, simplifying the flow of parts and increasing global productivity… Around 48 machines needed to be moved without disturbing the production flow.

Guillaume Brethenoux, Maintenance Manager in charge of this project used the Critical Chain Project Management approach to challenge the initial planning of 5 weeks and eventually achieve the reengineering of the shop floor in… 6,5 days!

Discover how to shorten the duration of CAPEX projects and layout changes with the Critical Chain Project Management approach. Tuesday April 5th 2022. Presented by Philip Marris. With several recent examples. 4:30pm Paris time CEST = 10:30am New York EDT.

Factories must often modify their layouts, install a big new machine, install entire new production lines to improve their flow of parts or modernize their facilities. Modifying a plant layout or leading an important CAPEX project requires strong project management skills. The cost and disturbance of finishing late are significant and quite easy to calculate (lost sales). […] Coordination of many departments (Engineering, Production, Purchasing, Methods, Supply Chain). Many subcontractors are often involved.  There are often space and co-activity constraints (2 tasks that cannot be done at the same time). And, of course, top management wants it all done very quickly. …

Join this highly informative virtual masterclass to explore flow-based scheduling that allows you to deliver projects on time, even in an imperfect world.

Critical chain, critical path - what's the difference between these two project management methods? That's exactly what we're going to examine briefly in this blog post.
The critical chain is a resource-oriented method and represents the longest chain of tasks, taking into account limited resources and is used with the aim of achieving the minimum project duration. The critical chain planning is not only about determining what to do and when to do it, but who actually does it. The critical chain method brings these two new thoughts to project planning:

No Multitasking is not allowed!
There are no individual buffers!

LinkedIn Live Session with Sanjeev Gupta, Founder & CEO, Realization Technologies, about this new technique of Flow Management in projects. Companies that have implemented flow management in their projects are able to complete their projects 25%-40% faster.

Host: Project Control Academy

Using the TOC solutions to Project Management environments allows companies and individuals to become effective and efficient, and even to build a decisive competitive edge!

Test your understanding about Critical Chain Project Management thanks to our 10-question quiz. Results and explanations are directly available at the end of the quiz.

Guest lecture by Sanjeev Gupta. Flow-Based Scheduling and control can unearth significant and underappreciated potential to improve the performance of projects in execution. The only catch it may involve changing our tried and trusted methods. In this guest lecture, Sanjeev Gupta shares his recent ideas about the fundamental value scheduling and control brings, the root causes of performance problems on projects, and how these can be overcome.

Ian Heptinstall, Sanjeev Gupta and John Dyson

In this introduction I describe the three core 'rules' of CCPM, that tackle the primary causes of inefficiency in traditionally-managed projects: 1. Focused work and reduced multi-tasking; 2. Aggregated Safety & 3. Buffer Management. Combined, these allow you to deliver the same project, with the same people, significantly faster and using less effort.

Eliyahu Goldratt discusses how to improve project management using Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM). 1h32 audio with slides. Date unknown.

Aurora is being leveraged by General Dynamics Electric Boat (EB) for the scheduling of various aspects of submarine construction. With this, EB is provided with intelligent scheduling capabilities not available in other project management software. The AI-based systems streamline EB’s large-scale production scheduling. Production tasks are prioritized by balancing resource capacities with manufacturing requirements and constraints. The result is a dynamic schedule that adapts to real-time production variability, as well as the injection of unexpected new work. This allows EB to execute the plan as efficiently as possible.

"Bearing in mind the high level of uncertainty, how come that before the execution of a project begins we find ourselves giving concrete commitments - agreeing on detailed content, budget and due date?"

Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt - Project Management the TOC Way, Chapter 2.