Dominated By The Owner Of The Project Management Problems And Countermeasures

As an integral part of management science, Project Management is a new all-round soft science. In recent years, there have been unprecedented research and application of this science both domestic and abroad. Project Management has been successfully applied in large projects. By means of such scientific management and supported with the high-efficient computerized management approaches, projects have obtained remarkable economic and social benefits.Conventional project execution and design mode which has been applied in China for a long time, namely the project management mode with owners as the investment body, is quite different from the way of project management generally accepted in the world. The project management system current in China was established in the early years after the founding of People’s Republic of China based on the pattern of ex-Soviet Union, which was suitable for the national conditions and economic level of that time and had played an important role in helping New China establish its own engineering design teams and strengthen capital construction management. This way of management may function well when owners are rather experienced in project management or the projects are simple and small. However, in recent years, as the economy in China is developing rapidly, there are more and more large-scaled energy, traffic and chemical projects and the project quality standard and modernization level are required higher. The project management and organization is required to be more professional and experienced accordingly. The importance of project management in improving project quality, schedule and investment benefit is becoming more and more distinct day after day. The conventional management mode is hardly adapted to modern management requirements due to its disadvantages such as low professional level, no way to gain experiences and use experience for reference. After forty years’application, the conventional project execution and design mode has not been improved with the times, and become more and more unsuitable for the rapid technology and industry development. To sum up, the conventional mode has the following three major disadvantages.The first one is the mono-functional design institute-oriented mode, which can not assure the cost, schedule and quality of the projects.The second one is its isolated and static design and equipment procurement procedures, which are not consistent to the general practice in the world.The third one is its empirical and static management approach, which brings lower investment benefits and higher risks to projects.Since 1970s’, we have participated in engineering design and construction of large petrochemical package units. Especially since the implementation of the opening-up policy after the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of CPC, we have cooperated with foreign engineering companies and made investigation on their ways of design and project execution, and so we have got acquainted with the project management system, procedures and approaches generally accepted in the world. In order to survive and develop in the globalized market changes and more intense competitions in commodity production and market economy, enterprises must adopt the state-of-the-art technologies and scientific management. Project Management will play a critical role in project execution. As the socialist market economy system in China is being perfected, capital construction market is becoming more standardized and China has become a member of WTO, there would be more fierce competitions all over the world. Project management of real meaning is urgently needed in China so as to satisfy the demands of domestic and overseas markets with more severe competition. We are aware of the project management approaches currently applied in the world, but can we simply copy them? The answer is "No". We must make our own way in project management by integrating China’s national conditions.As is shown by relevant statistical data, more than 85% of new projects still use the conventional project management mode at present, i.e. to execute the projects with owners as the investment body. This is because the owners would reluctantly give up their control and decisive rights on the projects, however, they lack of project management experiences and the projects are large with big investment. How to make proper management on these projects with good coordination with the owners and how to exert the leading role of engineering design in the project execution so as to reach the quality control, cost control and schedule control targets and optimize the owners’social and economic benefits? Using modern project management principles and methods, the author of this paper analyzes in detail the conventional project management mode with owners as the investment body and discusses the effective ways to improve project management ability and level of Chengda Company. It is expected that these research and discussions may provide some hints and reference for similar engineering companies in China to improve their project management and adapt themselves to project management modes with Chinese characteristics.The basic frame and clues of this paper are:a) General presentation of Chengda Company and its project management modes; b) Detailed analysis on Chengdars project management modes with owners as the investment body; c) Brief presentation and analysis of international project management modes;d) Detailed analysis on cases of project management with owners as the investment body and related recommendations.