A Case Study of Standardization of a Project Management Tool in an Automotive Company

This paper presents a project in the automotive company whose aim was to standardize processes inherent to the use of a project management tool. This tool was developed internally with the purpose of spreading throughout the organization a methodology based on their own philosophy of lean thinking. During a deep analysis of the current procedures, some problems were identified regarding the lack of adequate use of the tool and its potentialities for project management, due to its complexity, specificity, and lack of training by the project managers. This project’s main goal was to ensure that all project managers in the logistics area use this tool in a standardized way. To accomplish this, a checklist, a training plan, work instructions and a responsibility matrix were developed. An assessment was conducted in three different projects to assess the impact of these solutions. This assessment was created by the company to evaluate the way that projects were managed according to the company’s philosophy on a scale of 1 to 4 and is composed of some criteria. The results indicate an improvement in several of these criteria, consequently improving the level from 2 to 3, because of the implementation of standardized procedures for the use of the tool and taking advantage of all its potentialities for project management.