Personally I would first address the more important issue, which I feel is the clumping of the material. I think this is more important because it affects the research directly while the syringe is made from a material that requires minimal research. Spending the most time on perfecting the mixture so that it does not clump is priority 1. Although, I would also take into consideration that the material will need to be used in a syringe. This effects the thickness of the solution as it must fit through the needle head of the syringe. Once all this is complete, the syringe can have research done on it to ensure the dual chamber and all other functions are in working order.
One very obvious answer to the question is to be ready with all the data and all the graphs well plotted and every images or protocol details minutely prepared for the research. Before publishing a research article in any journal, it is very important to find out what are the degrees of difficulties which will arrive in the experiments which are performed in the research. Before the deadline arrives the most important things which any per company or any organization looks into are the figures and it is very much imperative that the deadlines are also allotted in such a manner by the project managers such that the team gets enough time to perform and statistically show that the data is significance. However a great deal of work also goes into the plagiarism in which we have to make sure that none of the work is actually being referred from someone else only for managing the deadline.
One very obvious answer to the question is to be ready with all the data and all the graphs well plotted and every images or protocol details minutely prepared for the research. Before publishing a research article in any journal, it is very important to find out what are the degrees of difficulties which will arrive in the experiments which are performed in the research. Before the deadline arrives the most important things which any per company or any organization looks into are the figures and it is very much imperative that the deadlines are also allotted in such a manner by the project managers such that the team gets enough time to perform and statistically show that the data is significance. However a great deal of work also goes into the plagiarism in which we have to make sure that none of the work is actually being referred from someone else only for managing the deadline.
First, it's important to sit down with the team to understand what the problem is and brainstorm its possible causes. Our team first tackled the issue of the formulation clumping and leaking from the syringe. From this, we decided that perhaps the carrier and the syringe in which the formulation was stored could be the causes for the problem. Because the deadline was fast approaching, we decided to back our shelf life claims with research as well as a shortened stability study. We chose a carrier that had been well researched in its performance with growth factors. The carrier we had chosen has been shown in literature and clinical settings to work well in the shelf life we wanted to achieve. While we were able to get our solutions approved in time for the deadline with research and a shortened shelf life study, this may not always the case if you are working with novel products. In cases where your device or product are new and not as well researched, the risk of releasing a product to market that is untested could be far greater than the need to complete the project within a given deadline. Subsequently, the project may have to run for longer than the allotted time in order to ensure a safe product.
As a project manager, I would need to consult the gantt chart and use my negotiating skills to keep a project on pace. If a task was delayed or a complication occurred, the impact of the delay needs to be accessed on the project deadline and available resources. In Simulation 2, one of the goals was to minimize the delay by quickly coming up with ideas for new syringe designs which were immediately made and then tested. The cost of this was on Manufacturing and the project team as more hours would be required to prepare the materials and make the new designs. If I were the project manager I would have to justify these costs and negotiate with my project team to find a solution.
In this week's Simulation 2, we are working for a company called BoneFix, which is partnering with company called FactoSet to create a competitive product that delivers a growth factor that aids in bone regeneration. BoneFix has obligations to meet certain milestones in order to be able to maintain a partnership with FactoSet and to continue using their growth factor. The challenge has come up where the carrier that BoneFix has been developing is not meeting the shelf life requirements because it is clumping and leaking. In the simulation, we are part of the project as members of the research team.
If you were the project manager of this project, what tools would you use to keep this project on pace? Valuable time has already been used up developing one carrier, and the deadline to meet the obligations to FactoSet are fast approaching. On the other hand, rushing research activities like shelf life tests and animal studies can lead to misleading results. How would you manage the project team to still be able to have all of the deliverables ready in time?
I would manage the project team to first see what was completed so far to ensure none of the verification tests have created a sort of issue (whether or not this was a mechanical related issue or a biological issue or a packaging related issue). If there really is an issue, sometimes it is best to run your accelerated aging tests to not rush the system, but to be able to test out the areas of issues and run through the list of possible variables that should be changed. If the project team does estimate the project to be late, I would bring this up to the senior leadership team and hold my team (as well as myself) accountable for this delay and explain that the team will work towards remediating the issue. It is best to keep in mind that the product is not just to make money for the company, but to also aid the customer (surgeon or patient alike) to have the best possible out come with the highest level of safety. There are times that a team needs to make the hard decisions and have the project run late than to rush a project and have a type 2 error that causes high risk to a patient.
I think in this situation the project manager for research section will be an individual who plans and produces the project steps and stages and must consider everything correctly to finish the project in matter of time and one tip to do that in such a situation is determining the project timeline very very carefully because it's very critical, so we should know the exact time of project finishing time, how much time will need to finish each sub-project and consider every detail which needs time to be done.
As a project manager, I would first and foremost ensure my team understands the importance of time management and our specific role as the research team and how imperative our timeliness is because “shelf life” is a time constricted variable. As a project manager, I would be very transparent about time lost in our project and how that is affecting the project regarding our deadline. I would also hold a meeting with my team members just to review important criteria such as making sure that everyone understands the scientific understanding of shelf life and the relevance of the BoneFix as deliverables and “why” our teams' timeline is so important. After that, As the PM, I would set goals for our team followed by putting a checklist together (that I would further break down based on the group and the day-daily checklists). Next, I would set aside time every day to review the progress of each day as it relates to the deadline and make sure that the team is aware. We would do a huddle daily, mini or long- whatever the needs of the team are to make sure we are all on the same page and if not, double back to get everyone on the same page to ensure team success by making small changes where necessary. As the PM, I will follow up with tasker emails and periodic checks on progress emails to always be aware of our team’s productivity. These are the measures that I will follow to ensure that I am managing my team’s timeline for this shelf-life-specific deliverables project.
