Essay The New Royal Adelaide Hospital Case Study – Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Task:

Introduction
Project quality management is referred by the Project Management Body of Knowledge as processes regarding the planning, managing and controlling of project quality so that it aligns with the organization’s quality objectives (Project Management Institute, 2017). It is expected that the end result is fit for purpose and conforms to requirements (Wright & Lawlor-Wright, 2018). The cost of quality can be caused by one or more reasons and results in a flow on effect of other project failures and short falls. A dive into the new Royal Adelaide Hospital case study revealed a number of quality related issues. This report will highlight key issues; assess the reason for their occurrence, the effect they had on the development and how they could be avoided in the future.

Background
Quality is often perceived by people as luxury, however from a project perspective quality plays a much larger role and can even improve the long-term success of a project. In the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, it was a gold-plated project, many of the inclusions not associated with a hospital, with money being spent on luxuries rather than requirements. This resulted in a cost of quality.

The new Royal Adelaide Hospital started construction in 2011. It had an initial budget of $1.7 billion (AUD) and a scheduled completion date of May 2016 (Varano, 2017). However, it soon became apparent that this was not going to be the case due to unrealistic schedules, budget blowouts, design flaws and lack of clearly specified requirements etc. Seventeen months after it was originally scheduled to open the day finally arrived. On the 5th of September 2017 the $2.4 billion (AUD) Hospital opened its doors to the public.

Issue: Deaths on Site
The loss of life on a project is a tragedy, but even more so when it is as a result of poor-quality control.
The new Royal Adelaide Hospital experienced two fatalities during the construction, both involving a scissor lift.
The first incident occurred on the 27th of November 2014, with Mr Castillo-Riffo, 54. He was crushed by a scissor lift, sustaining fatal injuries to his head and neck. The second fatality happened on the 20th of February less than two years later. Mr Wyatt, 63, was also crushed in a similar way to Mr Castillo-Riffo, involving the scissor lift (Schriever & Hough, 2016).

CAUSE(S) SUMMARISED:
• Pressure to finish the project
• Procedural failure
• Lack of accountability and safety culture
 

CAUSE(S) EXAMINED:
Pressure to Finish the Project
As the project had such high media coverage and was receiving on going scrutiny over budget blowouts and schedule delays, there was an immense pressure on all involved to complete the project as promptly as possible. It is considered that these delays resulted in workers being pressured to speed up completion which resulted in disregard for proper safety measures (Rice & Cook, 2016). The pressure to complete a project should be managed according to realistic schedules. Project management standards provide processes to manage and alleviate these pressures, as conveyed by Papke-Shield et al, (Papke- Shield et al. 2009).

Procedural Failure
There were motions put in place after the first casualty, that required a mandatory two people operate the lift as to avoid future fatalities. The spotters were meant to stop a similar incident happening again, but these procedures failed.