Are soft skills the solution?
The recent spotlight on the Infrastructure Development Bill highlights the problems our country faces with getting projects completed within budget and on time. This is however not an issue exclusive to either the public sector or to South Africa.
Projects are not only an integral part of infrastructure development, but also a key element in service delivery improvement, technological advancements and environmental sustainability imperatives. Problems with project completion reduce resources available for developments and improvements in other areas.
A staggering 42% of respondents to a recent survey said they did not know how often projects are completed on time, on budget and within scope.
Project completion challenges
Well-known challenges related to project management experienced by even seasoned project managers include lack of support resources and the variety of complex project management tasks that need to be performed. Lesser-known, and less technical, inhibitors to successful project completion include the lack of knowledge about project completion, as well as a lack of opportunities for the formal recognition of successfully completed projects.
Impact of soft skills on successful projects
When project participants across the supply chain are not aware of the project outcome, motivation for future projects is reduced, posing a significant risk for project funders. The lack of feedback may also result in the continuation of project-related practices that are no longer needed, leading to wasted resources.
Survey data verifies that soft skills are necessary to manage stress created by supply chain projects strikes at a personal level among project team members.
“The communication of project outcomes does not receive nearly enough focus,” says Keabetswe ‘KEA’ Mpane, SAPICS director. “It is in the best interest of an organisation funding a project organisation to promote the use of a supply chain management mindset that spans the dynamic relationships of project participants located inside and outside organisations.”
The silver bullet: supply chain project management
According to APICS, the US-based professional association for supply chain and operations management, supply chain project management “enhances the best of a supply chain professional’s skill, including forecasting, soft skills, planning, and risk management. This combination builds strategic and advanced management experience and positions the professional for a higher management position and successful career path.”
Further benefits of a supply chain project management mindset include:
· holding accountable those who must deliver;
· helping prevent silos from forming, promoting cross-functional collaboration and enhancing the capability of an organisation to succeed at complex projects;
· turning ideas into practical endeavours that consider strategy in terms of organizational culture and behaviour, priorities, risks, resources, and visibility.
Supply chain management in South Africa
“Supply chain and project managers in South Africa must learn to become resilient,” says KEA. “No project is ever as simple as it seems on paper, and it is impossible to predict every risk and potential problem area. Proactively building resilience into supply chains will make it a lot easier for projects to get back on track when problems arise.”
Contributed by SAPICS, the Association for Operations Management for South Africa
