Managing Distributed Teams in Manufacturing Projects - Challenges and Ways to Address Them

Manufacturing project management is complex. It involves the orchestration of complicated processes involving diverse resources. In addition to geographically distributed facilities, human resources involved in manufacturing projects can also be distributed, which makes their effective management really demanding.

What are the typical challenges of managing distributed resources? Read the article to find them out and learn how to manage them effectively with manufacturing project management software.

Why Is It Difficult to Manage Distributed Resources?

Most of the issues with remote resource management are associated with administering employees and material arsenal (equipment, tools, machinery, etc.). Let’s consider the most critical challenges of managing both types of resources.

Difficulties in managing distributed material resources

Materials and equipment are indispensable in manufacturing projects whose effective management is impossible without efficient allocation and utilization of material resources. However, when they are distributed, you may come across the following challenges.

Tracking the consumption of materials

Material consumption has a direct correlation with the project costs, but how can you control them when the facilities where they are used are located miles away?

Assigning equipment to the project tasks

To have comprehensive control over the draft progress, you need to assign not only people to tasks but also required equipment. Doing that remotely can be difficult.

A lack of coordination between facilities

When facilities are out of sync with each other, this may lead to additional challenges, e.g., shortage of materials or overstocking, delays in delivery, etc.

Dependence on supply chains

Supply chain issues remain an ongoing challenge for the manufacturing industry. If manufacturing facilities are located in different countries, this may cause additional difficulties and delays caused by additional regulations, geopolitical conflicts, or other factors.

Challenges of managing human resources

Effective management of employees working at remote facilities is crucial for smooth workflow and timely project delivery. However, it’s associated with the following challenges.

Allocating the right resources to the right tasks

When employees are globally distributed, it can be challenging to find the right person quickly. To do that, you need the data on employees’ skills, availability, capacity, workloads, location, experience, etc. This data is used to make decisions about assigning the most suitable people to the right tasks.

Forecasting resources for future projects

It is important to plan staffing for current and future plans. This is especially important when you have a common pool of resources to work on different projects at the same time. Ensuring efficiency is quite difficult when employees are working from different countries. This means different workplace conditions, time zones, and different holiday schedules.

Assessing performance

Remote work makes it difficult to evaluate performance efficiency. This can be complicated by the lack of centralized performance evaluation data, as well as cultural differences and language barriers in communication.

Uncertainty

Working with people living in different countries, as well as the presence of offices and equipment there, comes with some uncertainty. This is due to the economic or political situation.

As we can see, there are many challenges that you can face when managing distributed resources. However, using the right tool can optimize management. Read the next section to learn how software can help you overcome the obstacles to effective production project management.

Managing Globally Distributed Resources with Manufacturing Project Management Software

Software plays an important role in manufacturing project management. The success of complex manufacturing projects directly depends on having a reliable tool. Such a tool will help optimize manufacturing processes. It can also help in making informed decisions. Let's look at the key capabilities that will be useful for managing globally distributed resources.

Providing visibility into resource-related data

Choose manufacturing project management tools with strong resource management capabilities. One of their biggest advantages is that they can store important data and thus provide a single source of truth for each project participant. This data can then be used to manage a globally distributed arsenal.

Allocating resources

Manufacturing PM software with robust resource management capabilities can help you unlock the potential of your resource pool. It provides all the data you need to allocate resources effectively: team member competencies, availability, location, capacity, or other attributes. With this database, you can easily find the ideal person for a specific task, no matter where he or she is located.

Forecasting future workload and capacity

Software with AI capabilities is great for forecasting. You can use its forecasting capabilities to determine the capacity and workload of resources (both human and equipment) in the future. This will allow you to effectively plan current and future projects while minimizing bottlenecks.

Analyzing performance

With appropriate PM software, a manager of a globally distributed team can monitor and evaluate performance. For example, track planned and spent hours, compare productivity and have an overall picture of how well your resources are doing their work.

Managing material resources

Material resource management is another significant benefit of manufacturing project management software. They will allow you to track material consumption, and monitor equipment availability and capacity. This way, you will have a single platform to track all types of resources involved in your production.

Integrations with HRM software

This kind of integration is important for effectively managing globally distributed employees. It provides managers with relevant data on team member absences – vacations, public holidays (which vary by country), sick leave, training, etc. Having up-to-date data is important for efficient resource allocation, especially for remote teams.

Improve collaboration and communication

Since project management software provides a single source of truth, it makes collaboration much easier, no matter how far apart the project participants are.

The principles of business management are essential for aligning these tools with the strategic goals of manufacturing organizations. It ensures the smooth integration of processes and resources across distributed teams.

All the above-mentioned capabilities are available in Epicflow, manufacturing project management software with powerful multi-project resource management functionality. Epicflow lets you utilize the available arsenal most effectively across multiple projects, manage budgets, track project and resource performance, and make informed management decisions.

Conclusions

Having manufacturing facilities in different cities or countries has become commonplace for manufacturers. However, this can cause some challenges when it comes to project and resource management. The most typical challenges of managing distributed material arsenal involve tracking their consumption, poor coordination between facilities, and supply chain issues. As for human resources, it can be challenging to allocate them effectively, plan them for future projects, track their performance, and make the right management decisions. With the right manufacturing project management software, managing distributed resources won’t be a challenge—the software will provide you with all the required data and capabilities for managing human and material resources as well as informed decision-making.