Vrassidas Leopoulos

The importance of stakeholders’ analysis for the effective management of risks in any business sector has been widely recognized and depicted in International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards. This kind of analysis is even more necessary in businesses and organizations dealing with significant technological and market changes, such as the provision and usage of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as a marine fuel. In the LNG bunkering industry, several methods have been proposed to support risk management. However, they all suffer from an important drawback: they guide risk management mainly to the identification, analysis, and control of potential accidental events within a health and safety or a technical reliability analysis framework, failing to structure the correlation of risks with the actual actors, i.e., the numerous stakeholders whose decisions may influence directly or indirectly the organization’s objectives. This paper presents a method to systematically analyze the role of stakeholders and their ability to pose threats and/or opportunities to an organization. The proposed approach employs the Social Network Analysis (SNA) methodology to model and analyze stakeholder interests, interactions, and relationships that are important to the organization’s objectives. The method is applied in a small-scale LNG bunkering project at a Greek port.

Researchers have not studied the human side of project managers thoroughly. Decision-making mechanisms lie not only in technocratic knowledge but also in practitioners’ inner cultures and personal lifestyles. Highlighting the human (f)actor behind the strategic decisions made in projects reveals a new path for analyzing project managers. This article applies Bourdieu’s practice theory within the field of project management through a qualitative study into 17 successful and experienced Greek project managers. The results exhibit the common social characteristics of successful project managers and suggest that project managers must be viewed from a sociological perspective as well.

This paper presents a case study concerning the implementation of a Risk-Based Inspection Framework (RBIF) in an aluminum industry. The purpose of the study was to structure a framework, in which every machine would be ranked according its risk level. The risk level would provide guidance on where the maintenance department should concentrate the inspection/maintenance effort on, in order to avoid lengthy and costly failures. To accomplish this, historical data regarding the industry’s maintenance interventions were registered in a database and software @RISK was used as a prediction tool to estimate the Probability of Failure (PoF) of each machine within a given period of examination. The results of the study were compared with older ones in order to examine the performance of the machines over time. Based on the results, a machine categorization was proposed, which can support the maintenance program development. Copyright © 2016 Praise Worthy Prize - All rights reserved.

Purpose: – This paper aims to propose a method for the development of quality management systems (QMS) that allows the consultant that undertakes the support of the organisation to take advantage of a corporate memory. The consultant develops a new QMS based on a preliminary draft that is created using suitable reference processes from a library, selected according to the features of the organisation's production system. Design/methodology/approach: – The method adopts a taxonomy of production systems, based on a set of features (e.g. degree of the products’ customisation, form of purchasing, etc.) and creates a library of reference processes that satisfy the requirements of the standard and are suitable for each particular type of production system. Findings: – The QMS developed according to the proposed method satisfy both the requirements of the standard ISO 9001 and the needs of the organisation in which the QMS is installed in the biggest possible degree. The duration and cost of the project for the new QMS is reduced and the effort is oriented towards the process adaptation and improvement. Research limitations/implications: – The proposed approach is general and can be applied to several types of industries. However, the proposed taxonomy is applicable to manufacturing companies. For other types of organisations specific taxonomies should be developed. Originality/value: – The originality of the paper stems from the development of a QMS based on reference processes rather than the modelling and reviewing of as-is processes.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the requirements for assuring the managerial capability of organisations implementing projects of public interest. It presents the case of Greece, and the family of newly developed set of standards concerning the managerial maturity of public organisations and the management of projects funded by European Union support frameworks. Design/methodology/approach – Using the case study approach, the paper presents the current status in Greek public administration concerning project management. Further, it presents how the new set of standards improves public management and public organization maturity for managing projects. Findings – The paper presents the problems faced and the drawbacks encountered from the management of large programmes and projects from public bodies in Greece. Further, it presents the structure of a system for assuring managerial capability (SAMC) in Project Management and how its application can improve management efficiency and effectiveness. Originality/value – The paper presents a newly developed SAMC in project management that can be applied to public bodies and organisations managing projects. This system has been adopted by Hellenic Organization for Standardization as the new standard ELOT-1429:2008.

The technological advancements of the new network economy are changing the marketplace and impelling changes in strategic alliances and partnership structures within the e-supply chain (e-SC). E-SC managers need to consider multiple performance characteristics and trade-offs between conflicting tangible and intangible factors in order to evaluate participants. In this context, the authors present a comprehensive methodology for evaluating and rewarding participants in the parapharmaceutical e-SC. The paper consists of three parts. The first one provides a review concerning the criteria and the methods used for partners' evaluation and proposes a framework for selecting the most appropriate decision making approach. The second describes the parapharmaceutical e-procurement processes in Greece, while the third proposes an ANP-based methodology for partners' evaluation. The criteria, which influence the final decision, are presented and the results indicate that the development of a learning climate and the advanced collaboration among partners dominate the decision making process.

This paper presents a newly developed project monitoring and controlling method based on the synergy between project risk management (PRM) and earned value management (EVM). Its fundamental attribute is the introduction of the criticality index in EVM, which effectively models a dynamic aspect of the project frequently ignored in practice that is the existence of multiple critical paths. Two new stochastic indices are introduced, namely the weighted EAC