Implementation of project management and lean production practices in a SME Portuguese innovation company

Abstract

Competitiveness in a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, known by the acronym VUCA, is accelerating companies towards innovation. To ensure business continuity and control risk, companies must manage operations and projects with skilled teams and applying project management methodologies.

The research described in this paper was undertaken in a SME Portuguese company, specialized in offering research and development solutions for industry. The main goal of the research is to implement project management good practices and lean production methodologies to improve the global performance of the company. A structured and adaptive toolkit to prioritize, select, assign resources, plan, execute and monitor projects is also in development to help the company reaching its strategic goals.

The action-research methodology was used, with the researcher becoming part of the work environment, actively participating in the necessary tasks with other internal stakeholders, in a context of learning by doing. To implement the project management customized tools linked with the company strategic plan, the researcher used Business Process Management (BPM) and Lean principles. Some expected findings are the BPM customized solution implemented in the company as well as better organization and more efficient processes at the company, supported by Project Management methodologies.