4. Structures for an improvement project - the Permanent Way Company The Permanent Way Company is a global player in the construction and maintenance of railway infrastructure - lines , signaling and communications systems . The work relies on the formation of teams to carry out projects and these are drawn from different divisions of the company . The divisions of the firm are based around the different relevant specialism , mechanical , electrical , electronics and signaling , construction and surveying . Within each of the different divisions of the firm there are different specialism - for instance , designers , cost engineers marketing engineers and IT specialists . Most projects involve working across several divisions , often drawn from geographically diverse locations As a result of major worldwide growth in the market for their services , the firm undertook a review of their processes . Key weaknesses identified included their ability to deliver projects on time . This was consistently the main complaint of their clients (usually national rail operators ) who were becoming increasingly concerned with the ability of their suppliers to deliver. A new 'project system' had been put in place that stated the documentation requirements for large projects , but this had not been well implemented , and its use was very inconsistent within the firm . A Project Management improvement team was convened and tasked with improving the processes of the firm , with a nominal 12 months to see some results The question that they faced at the first meeting was : where do we start ? Everybody had their own ideas - we should start training people straightaway , we should employ a firm of consultants to find our needs , we should write a report to the board , we should adopt one of the bodies of knowledge and base our work around that . The meeting broke up with no agreement of the way forward , other than that another meeting should be held . 1. What are the inputs , outputs , constraints and mechanisms for the project ? 2. Using the 4-D model of the project , identify t the work that the team should be undertaking in each phase within the indicated timescale . Suggest an appropriate period for each phase of work . 3. Show how the 7-5 would help identify the issues that needed to be tackled in each phase 4. What is the complexity of this project ? Try to estimate it on the scales suggested in this chapter. 5. How might the application of one of the bodies of knowledge help in this scenario . Use the web addresses provided to find out more about the bodies of knowledge to help you answer this