SAV

SDC

Swiss-AIT-Vietnam Management Development Programme

c/o HCMC University of Technology, 268 Ly Thuong Kiet, Dist.10, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Tel: (84-8) 865 08 80 Fax: (84-8) 865 08 81 E-mail: SAV@netnam2.org.vn / swissait@hotmail.com

Project Management
Project paper

EVALUATING THE PROJECT FOR SETTING UP

AN INDUSTRIAL MAINTENANCE TRAINING
CENTRE

Instructors:
Dr. Tran Phuong Trinh
Mr. Phan Trieu Anh

SAV Management Development Programme.

Ho Chi Minh City
July 1999

ABSTRACT
This project has been accomplished. All problems have been solved (or ignored). But
those solutions are not the best. On the other hand, a similar project will be initiated in
Ha Noi. Therefore, the study to find out some better solutions is necessary. This is the
reason why we conduct this paper.
All the problems of this project are caused by three main reasons:

There is no clear commitment between Vietnamese party and French party at the
beginning.

The ambiguity between the training center -the output of the project- and the project
itself.

The project structure is not clear.

This paper will analyze the problems and give some recommendations for the new
project managers (at Ha Noi) and stakeholders such as: trying to get the strong
commitment at the beginning, differentiating between training center and the project,
restructuring project organization.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... II
TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................................IV
Part I: Introduction.......................................................................................................2
Part II: Project profile...................................................................................................2
2.1 PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS......................................................................................2
2.2 STARTING POINT OF THE PROJECT..........................................................................4
2.3 PROJECT OBJECTIVE, LOCATION, DURATION AND BUDGET.......................................4
2.3.1 Objective.......................................................................................................4
2.3.2 Project Location:............................................................................................5
2.3.3 Major phases:.............................................................................................5
2.4
PROJECT ORGANIZATION, SCHEDULE, KEY PERSONNEL AND THEIR BACKGROUND. .7
2.5
PROJECT SCHEDULE..........................................................................................9
2.6
WORK BREAKDOWN AND PROJECT SCHEDULE...................................................10
2.7 BUDGET AND FINANCIAL STRUCTURE....................................................................10
Part III: Problems........................................................................................................11
3.1 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROBLEMS......................................................11
3.2 ANALYZING PROBLEMS........................................................................................13
3.4 RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................................19
Part IV: Conclusion....................................................................................................21
BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................B

Part I: Introduction
The use of project management to accomplish the many and diverse objectives of our
societys varied organizations continues to grow and it has made a significant
contribution to the practice of management. Therefore, searching and analyzing current
practical project management and concerned matters enable us to be more
understanding on this field.
Generally, the final stage of project life cycle, evaluation and termination, has been
rarely paid attention. However, it is found that this task plays a very crucial role in a
project success. That leads us choosing the project of setting up a Industrial
Maintenance Training Program at University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh city (HCMUT).
This project completed last year. However, the similar project will be carried out in the
North of Vietnam. Furthermore, due to its natural characteristics, each project is
potentially emerged certain problems. Thus, deliberate understanding, analyzing and
proper recommendation or solution will be useful for project stakeholders.
This paper is attempted to describe and analyze the Project and its problems then
propose some specific recommendations and solution to the problems.

Part II: Project profile

2.1

Project Stakeholders

a. Ministry of Foreign Affair, France Government

Objective of Ministry of Foreign Affair is to develop and enhance cooperation between
Vietnam and France. It was the sponsor of the project. Therefore it had influences on
funding process for the project. In addition, this aid project was also aimed at better
using French companies resources, that was, through this project, French companies
could transfer technology as well as equipment, creating jobs to the French.
b. Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

Influence of the Ministry of Education and Training was referred to administrative

procedures, ensuring that the project was legally carried out. That Ministry played a
role in supervising the project works and the project teams performance.
c. CODIFOR - Development and Technology Cooperation company.
CODIFOR, a private company, was the contractor of the project. Its objective was
merely profit. It was in charge of technical area of the project. It provided the projects
technical personnel resource from the French party. At the same time, it made the final
decision about selecting and purchasing equipment in framework of the project. It had
full experience in similar projects in other countries (15 other developing countries). It
had to meet the requirement of its customer - France Government. Therefore actually
CODIFOR did not commit to the projects quality.
d. HCM city National University
HCMUT is also a member of HCM city National University. The policies of HCM city
National University influenced some activities of the project.
e. Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology
Objective of the university was to develop a new training program. It provided the
project with physical condition, such as land, building, human resources. It also
assigned personnel of Vietnamese party, including administrative manager, assistants
and lecturers. It also influenced administrative procedure of the project. On the other
hand, HCMUT required the project to follow all regulations on college training as
others.
g. Mechanical Faculty
Due to the similarity between the fields, Mechanical Faculty played the main role in
implementing this project. The Faculty wanted to take advantage of the physical
condition of the project after finishing. It was likely to become lab center of the faculty.
The major of Projects personnel are taken from this faculty. Mr Ngoc, Project manager,
used to be vice dean of the faculty.

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

h. Trainees
There were two types of trainees. The first type was college students. The second type
was employees of factories, companies. Trainees who participated in the training
program wanted to improve their knowledge. It was likely to become skillful to industrial
maintenance field. This would help them to look for their jobs.

2.2

Starting point of the project

Since 1991, France and Vietnam Governments discussed the establishment of an

Industrial Maintenance Training Program within the framework of the Program for
Cultural, Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Republic of France
and Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
CODIFOR made investigation in the North, Middle and South regions of Vietnam.

Eventually, it decided to carry out the project in South where the industry has been
rapidly developing. It was found that demands for technicians of industrial
maintenance who would work for industrial factories were occurring.
On 15 October 1995, an agreement was signed between CODIFOR (delegated by

the Government of France) and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology

(delegated by Ministry of Education and Training) in Paris.

2.3

Project Objective, Location, Duration and Budget

2.3.1 Objective
The goal of this project is setup an Industrial Maintenance Training System in Vietnam,
including 8 modules: Mechanic, Electricity, Compressed Air, Hydraulic, Welding,
Electronic, Air Condition, and Automatic.
Objectives:
Establishing infrastructure:

8 lab rooms for 8 training modules

3 class rooms

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

1 library

3 office rooms

Transferring equipment:

8 equipment modules for 8 lab rooms

4 computers computer lab

Transferring knowledge:

Training 8 permanent teachers in France for 8 modules

Training part-time teachers in Vietnam

Developing curriculum and document system:

Translating 8 curricula for 8 modules

Modifying and developing curricula to conform to Vietnam situation.

Training industrial maintenance technicians (trial):

Training 300 technicians in 3 courses

Training technicians for Vietnamese companies. The trainees was required to be

skillful in industrial maintenance.

This project must be accomplished in 3 years (1996,1997,1998), and the budget is
10700000FF.

2.3.2 Project Location:

The project was located at Block C, Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology. This
location was selected because it was very convenient for project implementation.
University of Technology is one of the largest universities in Ho Chi Minh city. It would
be able to sufficiently provide the project with material conditions as well as personnel
resources.

2.3.3 Major phases:

There are 3 major phases.
Phase 1: Concept and Development (1991 - 06/1996)

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

First discussion between Vietnamese Government and French Government in

1991.

Agreement signatures of two parties on October 15th 1995.

Discussion of goals, alternatives, overall criteria, costing and scheduling estimates

in 1996.

Phase 2: Implementation (1996 - 1998)

1996:

Preparing infrastructure.

Teaching French for Vietnamese Teachers.

Organizing the first Entrance Exam of Industrial Maintenance Branch

for students.

1997:

Start the first college class of Industrial Maintenance Branch.

Continuing French classes for Vietnamese Teachers.

Continuing to install machines for infrastructure.

Conducting translation activities and editing books.

Organizing the second Entrance Exam of Industrial Maintenance

Branch for students.

1998:

Start the second college class of Industrial Maintenance Branch.

Continuing to conduct translation activities and edit books.

Organizing the third Entrance Exam of Industrial Maintenance

Branch for students.

Start the third college class of Industrial Maintenance Branch.

Introducing Training Ability and courses of the center to firms,

factories, companies in HoChiMinh city and Bien Hoa Industrial
Zone.

Offering chances for Vietnamese teachers to have further training in

France from one to three months.

Phase 3: Termination (1998)

The project was evaluated to be successful.
Vietnamese party suggested lengthening two more years till the end of year 2000.

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

2.4

Project Organization, schedule, key personnel and their background

Project organization (figure 1 & 2)

a. CODIFOR is a contractor, directly performs the project. Its responsibilities are as
follows:
-

Identifying the required equipment and facilities and purchasing, transporting and
installing these equipment.

Assigning and paying salary for the qualified French lecturers.

Transferring technology and related matters.

b. HCMC University of Technology (HCMUT): is a partner in the project, is responsible

for:
-

Cooperating with CODIFOR to perform the project

Providing and setting up the infrastructure condition

Providing Vietnamese personnel

Insuring the administrative procedures

c. Project team:
The center is managed by The Industrial Maintenance Center is managed by two coproject managers: A Technical Manager appointed by the French Party, An Executive
Manager appointed by the Vietnamese Party. Their authorities are equal.
-

Executive manager: Dr. Le Minh Ngoc, he is a lecturer of University, specializing is

mechanics. He is in charge of administrative management, organizing training
courses, integrating project activities, including scheduling, approving, making the
reports after discussing with the Technical managers.

Technical manager: Dr. Alain George Noel. He is responsible of coordinating with

Vietnamese co-workers, managing, controlling the techniques and technological
aspects. He has much experience in performing similar projects in other countries.

Three assistants: administrative and general affairs assistant, training assistant,

and communication assistant. They are assisting managers in equipment and
infrastructure repairing and installing; training, contacting related organizations to

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

organize internship courses for students. Vietnamese trainers and assistants are
employees of HCMUT.
-

Eight module managers: managing the training tasks in their own modules.

The center includes 8 modules. Each module is managed by a head of module and
consists of 4 to 6 trainers. (refer to Figure 1)
A Project Review Board comprising representatives of each party is set up to control
the operation of Execution and Technical Managers and ensure the progress of the
project as planned.

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

Vietnam Ministry of
Eduaction and Training

France Ministry of Foreign

Affairs

HCM University of
Technology

CODIFOR

Executive
Manager

Adminitrative Department

Technical
Manager

M1

M2

M3

M4

M5

M6

M7

Figure 1: Organizational structure of the Industrial Maintenance Training Center

Executive Manager

Admin.
Assistant

Training
Assistant

Com.
Assistant

Figure 2: Organizational structure of Administrative Department

Chief
Accountant

Secretary

Treasure

Safe guard

M8

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

2.5

Project Schedule
Activities

1996
1st
quarter

1. Preliminary Planning
2. Detail Planning
3. Conducting 1st Exam
4. Starting the 1st class
5. Teaching French for
Vietnamese teachers
6. Installing machines
and transferring
technology
7. Conducting 2nd
Entrance exam
8. Starting the 2nd class
9. Translating Materials
and editing books
10. Conducting 3rd
Entrance exam
11. Starting the 3rdclass
12. Self Introducing
training ability and
courses of the center
13. Transferring 7
Vietnamese teachers
to French for further
training

2nd
quarter

3rd
quarter

1997
4th
quarter

1st
quarter

2nd
quarter

3rd
quarter

1998
4th
quarter

1st
quarter

2nd
quarter

3rd
quarter

4th
quarter

2.6

Work Breakdown and project schedule

The project can be broken down into following works

Establishing infrastructure: building up workshops, classes, offices,

Transferring equipment: transporting equipment and facilities, installing these

facilities to the workshops.

Transferring technology: transferring know-how, training teachers, students:

Developing curriculum and documents: Translating documents and modifying

and developing curricula to conform to Vietnam situation.

Training industrial maintenance technicians: Recruiting and training the first

batch of technicians

2.7 Budget and Financial Structure

Project requires the budget funded by the two parties as follows:
a. France Government party contributes 10,700,000FF
Budget structure is as follows:
Machinery and Equipment

7,400,000 FF

69%

Other expenses:

3,000,000 FF

31%

Including Travelling and accommodation expenses

of French professors:
The budget is funded along the project phases as follows:
1996: 6,700,000 FF
1997: 2,000,000 FF
1998: 2,000,000 FF
Vietnam party (HCMUT) contributes in form of land, workshop, and human resources
to the project.

Part III: Problems

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

3.1

11

Historical development of the problems

The main problem was an inappropriate project organization.

In 1996, the project was approved and assigned to HCMUT. There was no bound
equivalent capital contributed by Vietnam party. HCMUT contributed to the project by it
owned capital in form of infrastructure (VND 1 billion equivalent). Therefore, the project
was strongly depended on HCMUT.
Ministry of Education and
Training

France, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs

HCM University of
Technology

CODIFOR

HCMNU

Indutrial Mantenance Center

Students

Figure 3

Project Organization

Since the very first day, there was no unique way of organizing project. Many
controversial ideas were arisen that whether the Project belonged to Department of
Mechanic or HCMUT. Consequently, the Project was on the controlled of two
management levels.
During the first year, this organizational structure has caused many difficulties in
administrative procedures, conflicts on the selection and recruiting batch, proportion of

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12

devising the collected tuition to the involved participants, project team organization, and
participants of project team and their benefits.
During the next two years, 1997 1998, increased numbers of recruitment batch as
well as class sections resulted in some negative effects in schedule. There was the
increased work load on the project team.
It is found that, this multi-level structure has caused many problems:
-

The complicated administrative procedures, it takes time to get works through, thus
restrains relations with outsiders as well as looking for trainees who are currently
working in factories or plants.. The procedures concerning to the number of
students should be recruited and selected, signing of re-training contracts with the
factories and plants, organizing academic seminars, personnel recruiting, the
proportion of devising collected tuition fees must be approved through many levels:
Mechanical Department, HCMUT, even HCMNU. This limits the relations with
outsiders, and therefore restrains. For examples, the Project manager could not
directly sign the re-training contract with companies but it must be approved by the
HCMUTs Rector, this lengthens the process of preparing the initial procedures in
organizing such training courses. Meanwhile, the other local Colleges could directly
and quickly contact the companies in carrying out the similar tasks. The
opportunities of carrying out such courses were therefore limited.

Difficulties in looking for resources staffing to the project. HCMUT was responsible
for supplying personnel outside Mechanical Department but in fact they did not.
Besides, some key personnel had left the project during the first year such as Mr
Huan, training assistant and Mr Mai, administrative assistant, had left the project in
1996 after several months working for the project.

Limited budget for organizing the training courses. HCMUT kept 33%, HCMNU kept
4% of training tuition of this center, therefore the money left was not enough for
training expenditure such as teachers salaries (35%), buying materials for
experiments (19%) and other allowances for project members (9%). The retained
amount of 28% of tuition fees was not enough for sustaining the projects
operations.

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-

13

It is difficult to harmonizing the schedules of the two parties because Vietnamese

teachers worked in many activities, the project had not the win-win solution of
negotiation of schedule between France party and Vietnamese party.

All have caused many problems to the project

3.2

Analyzing problems

There were many stakeholders who involved to the project. Each of them had its own
interest when participating in the project. The interest determined the stakeholders
degree of commitment to the projects success.
It is found that the organization had many hierarchies. It takes much time for the across
administrative procedures to be approved through many levels, Mechanical
department; HCMUT and in some cases, they must get the approval from National
University. For instance, the following was the procedures of getting a recruitment
decision from Ministry of Education and Training.
IMTC HCMUT Training Department HCMUT Rector HCMUN Ministry of
Education and Training.
It took approximately 2 months. Mr Ngoc executive manager had submitted the
proposal in April but got the approval in June. He said that it would have taken about 10
days if he had could submit the proposal directly to Ministry of Education and Training.
That organization reflected that the project depended very tightly on the HCMUT.
Therefore, the authority of the project manager was very limited. This caused an
inappropriate project team structure, a difficulty in allocating resources, time delay. All
of them influenced the projects quality.
3.2.1

Unsuitable project team structure

In the project, there were two co-managers who took the same level of authority. This
was really ineffective because none of them kept the supreme power to make final
decisions and integrate the project. However, there was no decision making
mechanism, thus it took time to get a decision approved. The execution manager
represented Vietnam part and the technical manager represented the French part. The

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

14

reason for this setting two co-manager was that all HCMUT and CODIFOR wanted to
have adequate authority in managing the project.

Executive Manager

Module #

Training
Assistant

Figure 4

Technical Manager

Secretary

Treasure

Safe guard

Actual Project Team Organization

However, this caused sometime conflict between two managers. The execution could
not control technical field of the project. Otherwise the technical manager could not use
resource for the technical field. Moreover they had cultural difference which caused
misunderstanding and culture clack. The French manager had a not much experience
about training system of Vietnam. Therefore his requirements sometimes did not match
the practical conditions. For instance the French manager required project staff to work
full time for the project. The Vietnamese manager knew that it was unreasonable
because all Vietnamese teachers had to participate in many activities. But, the
execution manager did not have enough authority to reject the decisions of the
technical manager. This was also a cause of lacking project members.
3.2.2

Difficulty in asking resources

a. Working capital:
Working capital

was raised from tuition fee, which was amount of 1,000,000

VND/semester/student. The project was considered as a part of HCMUT. So it had to

be complied with HCMUTs regulations on training and recruiting. Allocating tuition fees
followed Regulation No. 42/98 BGH for training college.
The average total amount of college tuition fees: 240,000,000VND per semester.
Submitting to National University: 4%
Submitting to HCMUT : 33%
Teaching compensation: 35%
Remaining tuition fee of project: 28%

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15

In which:
+ 19% for experiment materials
+ 9% for allowances of projects members
Therefore, the proportional budget used for paying to participants in teaching as well as
managing is very low. Their income is just promptly equivalent to regulated wages
( 20,000 VND per session). That might not encourage the involvement of participants
and teachers to the project.
Obviously the complex hierarchy influenced working capital use of the project. The total
tuition fee was devised into many parts HCM city National University, which
participated little in the project also got one part of the total tuition fee. Therefore, the
remaining part was little and not enough to compensate its operating expenses.
Budged for experiment materials was 19% of total which serving 240 students.
Therefore the project had to restrict its expenses for its materials which was used for
training.
Almost expense of the project based on re-training tuition fees. But this training source
was not stable. Moreover, IMTC had to submit 25 % of these fees to HCMUT.
Therefore the annual project budget was fluctuated. This caused difficulty in project
management as well as ensuring projects quality.
b. Human resource availability
-

The projects human resource was provided from HCMUT and CODIFOR.
However, the resource was often in stress. The center was usually in shortage of
teachers. For example, every semester, there were from 12 to 15 subjects that
required 20 25 teachers but in fact IMTC had only about 10 teachers.
Consequently, IMTC needed to invite about 10 15 visitor lecturers. A Module
commonly required at least 4 to 6 teachers, there was in fact only 2 to 3 teachers
per Module But it was also not easy to invite teachers to training in the center
because the salary was so low. Moreover, some young Vietnamese teachers who
had been trained firstly by French trainers left the project to come back to their
department or to work for other companies. Besides, some key personnel had left
the project during the first year such as Mr Huan, training assistant and Mr Mai,
administrative assistant, had left the project in 1996 after several months working
for the project.

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16

The reasons for the shortage were:

-

Low salary did not encourage trainers committing to the project. Moreover, working
hours for all people who participated in the project was very strictly managed under
the supervision of French part.

HCMUT had many projects and they did not consider the project very important
because HCMUT had many concerns about many types of training such as postgraduate level, university level, college level. And IMTC was under-concerned. So it
did not pay attention to the project. HCMUT actually paid more attention to the
projects existence than quality of higher vocational training. Therefore, after
providing infrastructure condition for the project, HCMUT had no longer committed
to allocating resources to the project. HCMUT did not assign personnel for the
project, therefore, Vietnamese teachers could left the project after working some
months on the project. For instance the project manager had asked HCMUT many
time for Electrical teachers but had not response from HCMUT while Electrical
Dean refused the project managers requirement because all teachers of that
department were so occupied.

The execution manager did not really keep the legal right to ask for resources from
other departments because this project was a functional matrix project.

According to this organizational structure seeming to matrix organization, the

functional resources employed in the project were rather fixed. This helped the
project manager to use functional resource effectively. Actually any resources was
available for the project.

The main contractor is CODIFOR, a private company specialized in technical support

and development. Its objective is profit and best utilized its held resources. On the
other hand, it has to meet the requirement of its customer, France Government.
Actually CODIFOR did not commit to the project quality. Some of the French trainers
just had B.Eng degree and lacked of training experience. Therefore resources which
CODIFOR provided for the project was not always suitable and sometime did not meet
the projects requirement.
The consequence of the human resource problem was:
-

Many courses were postponed to the next semester because of lacking

Vietnamese teachers who participating in training.

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

-

17

The project lacked assistants who tasked project works. Some members of the
project team left their position to move into other positions. During a long time, the
project could not looking for staff replacing the vacant. Lacking people who tasked
project work induced the execution manager to be in charge of almost project jobs.
He worked as a project manager, at the same time as a person who tasked the
project. That means the project lacked really a real project manager who directed
project activities, integrated them and established a communication channel. This
contributed to make the project management ineffectively.

Lacking good trainers influenced the training quality. This was due to both parties.
CODIFOR did not supply good personnel and HCMUT had not many good teachers
participating in training students. The reason was that good teachers left the project
for another jobs with higher salaries. Almost Vietnamese teachers working for the
project was young teachers who just graduated from universities.

3.2.3

Unmatched schedule

Apart from teaching these courses, Vietnamese teachers had to participate in the
Technological Transfer lectures provided by CODIFOR. The fact is that, CODIFORs
schedule did not match with Projects. For instance, except in summer, Vietnamese
teachers were so busy teaching many courses, they thought summer was the most
appropriate time for them to attend Technological Transfer lectures but at that time,
French trainers were not willing to work in summer.
If CODIFOR does not carry out the technological transfer to the project with in a fiscal
year, it cannot transfer the outstanding budget to the following year. Therefore,
CODIFOR usually forced to adjust projects schedule to fit with its. In this case, the
execution manager could not interfere CODIFORs schedule. In some cases, transfer
courses for Vietnamese teachers was delayed even if after knowledge relating the
course was conveyed to students as a result of time constraints of Vietnamese
teachers. That affected the quality of the training courses.

3.3 Evaluation of the projects quality

The projects quality is considered by the technology skills of student after graduated.
Many students of the project got jobs in local as well as foreigner industrial factories
right in the internship period (30%). This reflects the projects success. However the

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

18

industrial world also find that the students are not very much skillful, their knowledge
was not practical enough. On the other hand, this field of industrial maintenance
requires employees to be skillful and ready to jobs. The causes are:
-

Practical lessons

Lack of equipment what help improving students knowledge.

Lack of appropriate trainers due to both parties. CODIFOR did not give good
trainers and IMTC did not have enough good teachers.

According to training method of the center, theory and practice lessons would perform
parallel.

In many cases, in order to follow the schedules, the two lessons were

sometimes not parallel, the one placing prior the other.

The importance of training program is to access a practical method rather than theory
one. Therefore, it required Vietnamese lecturers to participate in all transferring
courses. But as mentioning above, the lecturers often were absent in the courses.
Consequently this has influenced certainly the quality of training, leading to quality of
students.
All equipment of the project was provided by CODIFOR. But CODIFOR, in order to
reach its objectives, did not commit so much to quality of the project. As the result, the
equipment provided as well as specialists and courses in technology transferring
sometime did not match requirement of this field. This also influenced the training
quality. For instance, IMTC announced that they lacked measuring system to measure
the current operation statement of machines. This system was very important for
training of industrial maintenance. And the project lacked of models that help students
understand more in machine details. In addition, the project manager also announced
of lacking Automatic Module. This was due to the unclear contract at the beginning
about related equipment.
For the first time of developing the field in Vietnam, the qualitys student is acceptable.
There were some factories where recruited the students graduated from the center,
such as MeKong Co., Cattle Food Factory Conco. They also commended that the
center should focus more on the training quality.

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

3.4

19

Recommendations

Through the project implementation process, we see some problems. The biggest
cause is the inappropriate structure. In order to have a better project next time, some
recommendations are proposed as follows:
3.4.1 Structure of the project organization
The project had two managers with the same level of authority, one was Vietnamese
(executive manager) and one French (technical manager). This structure led to
occurrence of conflict between two managers. French manager did not understand well
about Vietnamese practical conditions. Therefore, we suggest that the next project
should have one project manager and that project manager should be Vietnamese.
The technical manager should be subordinate of project manager.
It is impossible to take project apart from HCMUT, however, it is better to let it be less
dependent on HCMUT, that makes it easier for the project manager to handle works.
Besides, as mentioned above, the executive manager had not enough authority to find
personnel for the project. This was due to the inappropriate structure of the project.
Therefore, we think the balanced matrix structure is most appropriate for this type of
project.
Finally, HCMUT kept 33% of training tuition from this project, this meant that HCMUT
treated the project as a its function. This was not reasonable. We suggest two
alternatives.

HCMUT should consider this project as having two main parts. The first part is
training activities. The second part is the technological transfer. HCMUT can apply
the predefined policies for other departments to training activities part of the project
such as keeping 33% of training tuition. But with the second part of this project,
HCMUT must give IMTC a fixed annual budget to cover projects transactions.

HCMUT should apply favorable budget policies for IMTC because this is a project,
and IMTC can not afford all the expenditures.

3.4.2

Human

For French trainers, we should clarify more clearly at the beginning about their
degrees, technical experiences, training experiences and practical experiences.

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20

For Vietnamese party, HCMUT should be responsible for assigning qualified people
for the project and have policies to keep them working for the project also.

Finally, we should think about the student recruitment processes. IMTC focused
more on practice than theory, therefore, we should choose certain kinds of exams
that express the practical ability of examinees.

3.4.3

Schedule

The time was delayed because of Vietnamese party. The reason was HCMUT did not
supply enough people, besides, those who worked for the project did not give much
time for it because of time constraints. The suggested solution here is HCMUT should
pay more attention on the project, they should have appropriate policies to encourage
Vietnamese teachers working for the project or they should give the project manager
more authority to find project members through departments.
3.4.4

Budget:

The budget coming from France was used for machines, French trainers salaries and
expenditures. Vietnamese party had no budget supply from any organization.
Therefore, IMTC had to use the training tuition for Vietnamese teachers salaries,
project members salaries and materials for experiments for students. The budget was
not enough for all of those, consequently, the salaries were low, no body wanted to
work for the project, and materials were not enough for experiments, therefore the
quality of students were not practical enough.
Our suggestion is that HCMUT or National University should find project sponsors for
this project. This project should have an annual fixed budget which managed by the
project manager.
Finally, in order to have better project next time at Ha Noi, we have some
recommendations:

In the contract, we should clarify more clearly about opportunities for Vietnamese
teachers to be trained in France.

We also need to clarify about machine quantity and quality in the contract.

We should pay more attention to French trainers knowledge.

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center

21

Part IV: Conclusion

In the previous part, we describe the Project and identify its problems.
Recommendations and conclusions are also proposed on the basis of our
understanding on the field of project management. These proposals would be not very
useful for the implemented Project, however, it would be meaningful and necessary for
the concerned members in carrying out a similar project.
To the participants, by doing this project paper, we have realized many interesting
points in Project management. We can broadly understand the real nature of the
project, its potential problems as well as project management practices in Vietnam.
Thats also our expectation in doing this project work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Avraham,

S.

et

al.,

Project

Management

Engineering,

Technology

and

Implementation, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1994

Meredith, J. and Samuel, M., Project Management: A Managerial Approach, Wiley &
Son, New York, 1995
Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology, Ministry of Education and Training, Centre
De Formation De Maintenance Industrielle, 1996, The scientific and technological
cooperation between republic of France and SR of Vietnam.
Minutes: Management Review Boards meeting, dated 1st December 1998.
Performance report of the Industrial Maintenance Training Center during three years of
operation 1996, 1997 1998.