Samples

Introduction

The average delivery time for aviation consulting firms in Cyprus during high-volume periods is 45 days, whereas Meton Skies Aviation consultant delivery times have been averaging 60 days. The longer time project delivery leads to a decrease in customer satisfaction and profits. With the decrease in customer satisfaction and company profits comes an even greater need to analyze and change the procedures of the company’s consulting department. This analytical business report will examine the reasons Meton Skies Aviation firm in Cyprus fails to deliver consultant services on time during high-volume periods and will suggest improvements to its consultant department. Examining the reasons Meton Skies Aviation fails to provide consulting services on time will improve the understanding of the issues the company needs to address and help the company improve its consulting procedures.

The research information will be consulted from academic journals, and eBooks from the Harvard library, company documents, and printed materials from the National Greek library. Also, the researched information will be compared with company projects that were delayed to determine the source of the problem. To eliminate late project delivery, a project performance control system is recommended that will combine all the procedures of each stage of the projects. Furthermore, changes in the company vacation system and policies are proposed to consider the company operation needs. Finally, forming group discussions among management consultants is recommended to improve communication, and design the project performance control system discussed above. These recommendations will improve company business planning and will result to the elimination of project delays, and cost overruns.

Research

Project consultant delays can be defined as cost overruns that extend the project’s completion time, resulting in a decrease in customer satisfaction and company profits (Alias & Mydin, 2013). Project delays can occur in any phase of a project including Planning/Scoping phase, Development phase, and Contracting phase. The project delay phenomenon has four main causes. The first cause is the design errors due to ineffective project planning (Haugan, 2001). Design errors occur when a company presents the important project deliverables insufficient to the clients. Because our company’s project management department is not using project planning software to investigate and monitor its projects, design errors occur, and attempts to correct them lead to project delays. Also, in the high-volume periods, project estimations are done based on produced designs, which can cause design errors and omissions that create problems with project specifications, plan errors, and design changes. Furthermore, because of the projects design errors, Meton Skies Aviation suspend its projects until such errors are removed (Meton Skies, 2018). These problems affect project delivery time and customer satisfaction.

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The second cause is inappropriate and inadequate procurement because of the inefficient company contract management system. A contract must cover all project scenarios and conditions; otherwise, it can lead to project delays and cost overrun (Alias & Mydin, 2013). Our current contract management system does not specify every relevant aspect of our projects and leads to time-consuming negotiations regarding projects’ budgets and schedules. Because of these negotiations, there is not sufficient time during high-volume periods to make corrections and finalize contacts or define the terms and conditions that govern the contacts. Thus, problems for developing project requirements, and estimate project budgets are occurring which lead to increased costs, lower employee morale, and challenges to forecast revenue (Abdullah, 2014).

The third cause is ignorance of projects’ post-execution (i.e., closure) phase, which can lead to project consultant delays (Alias & Mydin, 2013). The closure of the project can be defined as the final phase of the project life cycle which involves important project activities like client approval, contracts, and acquisitions (Abdullah, 2014). However, ignorance of the post-execution phase leads to unresolved disputes between the company and its clients, which affects project delivery time (Abdullah, 2014). Currently, due to the high volume of projects in June, July, and August, the company ignores its projects’ post-execution phases by not decommissioning on time after the project work has been completed. Also, stakeholders are not informed about all the necessary project details before the completion of the projects (Meton Skies, 2018). These actions delay projects because of the changes that occur in signing the projects’ certificates of completion and other expenses.

Analysis & Conclusions

Based on the above research findings, design errors are occurring in Meton Skies Aviation projects due to ineffective project planning. Thus, the company is linked with not extensive project investigation, incompetent specifications, and plans, which lead to project delays and cost overrun. Also, as Meton Skies Aviation does not present all the important project deliverables to the clients, unexpected project specification changes appear. If project issues or information are not presented clearly, project activities can be negatively affected (Alias & Mydin, 2013). Currently, the company does not list every project activity and requirements to verify project plans with clients. This foster misunderstanding between the company and customers causing conflicts and project delays.

Meton Skies Aviation contract management system does not monitor company contracts and agreements. Prices, service levels, client’s relationships, and flexibility agreements are not covered efficiently. Also, it is associated with dispute contact clauses being stated in ambiguous terms (Meton Skies, 2018). The results are conflicts between the company and clients, cost overruns, and a decrease in customer satisfaction. An effective contract management system should monitor and storage the standardized contracts, facilitate new contracts, monitor milestones, and indicate actions of unexpected changes (Carter, Oxenbury & Kirby, 2012). Finally, it must be flexible to cover client’s interactions and project changes. An effective contract management system will help the company simplify the procurement contract processes and improve cost-savings strategies (Carter, Oxenbury & Kirby, 2012).

Recommendations

Based on the preceding analysis and conclusions of the report, Meton Skies Aviation company should take the following three steps to resolve its project delivery delays during high-volume periods.

The first step is to develop and implement a project performance control system that combines and monitors all the procedures of each stage of its projects, such as contracts, payment terms, project duration, client demands, service levels, post-execution phase, and project closure. According to Kaol and Young (2009), the project performance control system will close the loop between information feedback and feedforward regarding planning, measuring, monitoring, actioning, and completing projects. This will give the company the ability to handle all the project requirements and clients’ demands, eliminate project delays, and improve its profits and customer satisfaction.

The second important step is for the Meton Skies Aviation company to create a vacation system and policies that will grant employees a certain amount of time off during the high-volume periods arranged with the company’s operating needs and project requirements in mind. The vacation system should also consider the key members of each project, which will give the company the appropriate workforce for its projects. This step will help the Meton Skies Aviation company have the necessary workforce to overcome the workload during high-volume periods.

The final step is for the management team of the company to define the project success factors, criteria, and objectives to address and design the project performance control system suggested above. This can be achieved by forming discussion groups among consultant managers to discuss any changes and actions required for any company project to eliminate project consultant delays, conflicts, doubts, and cost overrun.