Research On Project Resource Allocation In FAW R&D Center

After many years of product development and technology development(science & technology research), the R&D Center has created a relativelycomplete product process and system. However, with the increasinglyintensified market competition and rapid development of automotivetechnology, the traditional management can't adapt to the new challenges anymore. In the practice of exploring efficient and orderly project management,we are always puzzled that we can't satisfy project requirement even if wehave more resources in hand. Why? Through analysis on the abovementionedproblem with emphasis on research on the characteristics and correlations ofdifferent resources, we provide some suggestions on the overall allocation oflimited resources for multiple projects.Resources are defined as skillful labor, equipments, services, inventory,finished products, raw materials, budget or capital, while time is a measure onresources requirement or continuous utilization period rather than an actualresource. It's better to regard money as the evaluation base for the resourcesused for the projects rather than a resource. In addition, we need to take anindependent consideration of the intangible resources such as information orknowledge. The resources needed for the projects at the R&D Center includehuman resources, facility resources and technical resources. The attributes ofhuman resources include skill level, specialty structure, developability,replaceability and evaluation sensibility; the attributes of facility resourcesinclude capability per equipment, capability of combined equipments,requirement for supporting facility, assurance requirement, software status,and replaceability; while the attributes of technology resources includetechnology advance, technology maturity, technology economy and otherforms of technology resources. There is complex pertinence among the threetypes of resources. The human resources are combined with the facilityresources, the facility resources and technical resources rely on each other,while the technical resources and human resources coexist. The resourcespertinence of multiple projects are linked by technology pertinence.Due to complex pertinence of the projects resources, the research on theresource allocation should be extended to the organization and beyond theproject instead of being limited within the project. The purposes for theresearch are as follows: Firstly, to provide a full risk analysis on the resourcesto prepare the project resources guarantee plan in the preliminary stage of theproject so as to supply plenty of resources for the project. Secondly, to takespecial insurance measurements which for the key resources during process ofthe project to reduce the interference on them. Thirdly, to make a full andobjective evaluation on the effect on the correlated project when the resourcesneed to be adjusted. Fourthly, to make the decision on the resource allocationfrom the whole organization view instead of an individual project.The factors affecting the resource allocation include:1. Project organization form: The human resources and technicalresources will become the main conflicts in the project due to differentorganization forms. The facility resources will also have influence on theefficiency and configuration due to different organization forms.2. Two modes of project management and risk management in thepreliminary stage: one is the planning mode based on technology, the other isthe planning mode based on market, the two modes representmedium-and-long-term projects and short-term projects respectively, and hasan influence on the rules and methods of resources allocation. In the resourcesallocation plan for medium-and-long-term projects, the allocation oftechnology resources is the key, while the continuity and high specialization ofthe staff are the focuses in the management of human resources. For theshort-term projects, we pay more attention to the facility resources, while thereplaceability and comprehensive capability are the focuses in themanagement of human resources.3. Project environments, which include corporate business operation,strategy and corporate culture, factors in customers and leadership, intellectualproperty protection, and factors in project evaluation.4. Resource replaceability, which refers to replaceability between humanresources, facility resources and technical resources as well as replaceabilitybetween the above resources and capital. To some extent, the other tworesources can possibly supplement one of the three resources.5. The importance of project: As a tool to define strategy of resourceallocation of the whole organization, it will necessarily imposedisadvantageous influence on the projects of low importance. However, it'sadvantageous for the whole organization to balance the overall resources.Due to the characteristics and relations of the resources for the project,the conflict in resources will exist throughout the whole project. As a result,it's very hard to optimize the allocation of the resources in the project. It is,actually a miniature of the comprehensive management of an enterprise.Although we can't find out a quite complete resource allocation system, it'spossible to make an evaluation on the efficiency of resource allocation andanalysis on the measures that the R&D Center will take recently.We should pay attention to the followings during the resource allocation.1. The traditional market economy is based on the relative scarcity ofproduction resources. However, as one of resources, knowledge can beproduced, reproduced, and even unlimitedly reproduced. Therefore,knowledge is not expected to be efficiently allocated and be utilizedautomatically based on the market because it's inefficient to allocate theknowledge resources and encourage the knowledge production with marketeconomy.2. R&D resources allocation can be regarded as the vector of allocationmeasurement and direction.3. The internal enterprise governance structure is closely related with theresources allocation of the project.4. Projects and the resources are interactively acted. The utilization ofresources should be advantageous to improve the overall capability of theresources instead of merely consumption of resources.