新温布利球场的项目管理

杨 凌

中山大学新华学院

Abstract：It is well known that the project of Wembley Stadium is controversial. Although many researchers have put forward the measurements to evaluate whether the project is success or not， few people use these measurement in evaluating the new Wembley Stadium in detail. In this paper， the traditional metaphor of iron and the risk management are applied to measure the project of Wembley Stadium subjectively and the results show that this project meets the object and risk can be controlled although it is overrun and late finish.

新温布利球场的项目管理

Project Management of The New Wembley Stadium

杨 凌

中山大学新华学院

Abstract：It is well known that the project of Wembley Stadium is controversial. Although many researchers have put forward the measurements to evaluate whether the project is success or not， few people use these measurement in evaluating the new Wembley Stadium in detail. In this paper， the traditional metaphor of iron and the risk management are applied to measure the project of Wembley Stadium subjectively and the results show that this project meets the object and risk can be controlled although it is overrun and late finish.

1.Introduction

Currently， project becomes increasingly important in both public and private organisations， such as construction，designing new product， holding a sport event et al. The main reason is that it tends to be a competitive advantage to support the organisations (Jonas， 2005)， such as improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisations’ performance，attracting more customers’ attention， adding more profits. The objectives of a project are significant to be paid attention because the success depends on whether the objectives can be reached. However， the objectives may be easily changed because of meeting the customers’ need through the new product or service.

New Wembley， one of the most famous stadiums around the world， is an international icon known as the home of English football and the venue for some of the world’s biggest concerts and events (DNP， 2008). On the base of the existing old stadium， the reconstruction as a big project can bring more benefits. The report from Wembley Stadium (2015) described that Wembley can provide a first class experience for fans of football， music and sport， which attracting more than 2 million visitors per year since the project finish. Thus， the significant change of Wembley can satisfy the increasing customers’ need and facilitate the relative service and business around the stadium. Obviously， its competitive advantage is maximizing its sustainability of the function. The aim of the construction was to design and build a state-of-the-art special national stadium which would be the home of English football and to host large events such as Cup Finals， music events and athletics (Network，2008). But regarding to the detailed objectives of the project，they extremely depended on the stakeholders and it is one of the reason why this construction was over delayed. But it is obvious that this project extremely emphasised on the quality (safety effect， social effect， environmental effect etc).

However， the project is complicated to be managed. Thomas and Mengel (2008) presented that there are many uncertainty since the project begins so the project managers have many difficulty in dealing with the project complexity. Construction of the Wembley stadium was not easy to be finished， which can be presented not only on the building design (access， seats， pitch，appearance， toilet etc) but also the relative service (transport infrastructure， restaurant， shops etc). During the process of the reconstruction， the overdue and over budgets raise the controversy. Thus， making big effort in the project management for the project is noticeable. In order to further analyse and evaluate the new Wembley construction， iron triangle and risk management are applied in this paper.

2. Evaluation

2.1 The iron triangle

The metaphor of iron presents that cost， quality and time are three constraints on the success of project (Adedeji， 2011). So when implementing the Iron Triangle into practices， it is important to take the three elements into consideration and keep the necessary balance between them. Meanwhile， the criteria whether the project is successful is multidimensional but the importance of each criteria is different depending on the objective. Freeman and Beale (1992) argued that iron triangle will be easier to determine which objective should be prioritized for a specific project. Given that the quality of the new Wembley construction is constant， the cost and the time plays important roles in the project.

Regarding to the quality， the wide range of the vague content is regarded as controversial issue. A project focus on not only related to the items devised in the project but also on the related thing. For example， the new Wembley construction is not only the building but also the related service design such as the restaurants. Turner and Bredillet (2009) suggested that only the various stakeholders can define what quality actually means in the context of a specific project. Indeed， the quality of a project has been refereed to different kinds of area with the increasing change in technology for satisfying all stakeholders. Wembley’s business development director Ruth Kaye have ever claimed that “Delegates and guests will benefit from our friendly and professional approach， high quality facilities， and desire to give them an unforgettable experience” (meetpie， 2015). In order to evaluate this construction， the quality performance measure was to investigate the impacts of new Wembley stadium project.

Economic impact for this project is undoubtedly significant. Since opening in 2007， Wembley has attracted more than 2 million visitors per year (WembleyStadium， 2015)， which significantly increases the tourism for London. These visitor not only offer the effort to the ticket sales but also stimulate the development of surrounding area such as restaurants， shops，transportation etc. Meanwhile， the stadium operates 30-35 daysa year， which presents high utilization (London gov， 2014). Once the stadium has been fully paid for， profits will be invested in the FA (London gov， 2014). Meanwhile， since it opened， it has been responsible for many events such as Olympic games，FA， Rugby Union， Rugby League and American football as it was designed not only for football. According to Whembley stadium official website (2015)， 8% of all Olympic tickets sold were for football at Wembley. So the function of the new Wembley stadium can be utilised effectively so as to create the maximal economic effect.

It is also necessary to evaluate the environmental impacts (energy， waste， water， transport) in the quality of the project. In terms of energy， as applying 100% of its electricity from the supplier’s green tariff， this stadium has reduced energy consumption by 28% until nowadays and the annual percentage energy savings are shown in Figure 2 (WSSPT， 2012). Since operating the waste recycling and recovery programme，Wembley stadium is now a ‘zero waste to landfill’ venue (Wembly Stadium， 2015). All waste in the Wembley stadium can be recycled and transfer into the electricity， which strongly presents the economic-friendly theme. However， for the water consumption， the water saving facilities in Wembley still has challenge. The stadium’s water consumption is greatest on event days because over 90，000 people apply the facilities while maintenance activities such as cleaning， jet-washing and watering the pitch waste a significant amount of water on nonevent days (Wembly stadium， 2015). Therefore， in water saving aspect， Wembley stadium still need the improvement in the relative facility.

Figure2：The annual percentage energy savings in Wembley Stadium.

For the social impact， the new Wembley construction has won the support from the local people. Thanks to the reconstruction， roads， rail and pedestrian routes were upgraded by investing more than £70m， which not only copes with the traffic jam because of the influx of fans on major event days but also bring the benefit for local residents and businesses (Wembley stadium， 2015). Local residents are the key stakeholders of new Wembley and the project manager should make sure their needs and expectations were met. Although many local residents are unsatisfied because the construction of the new Wembley delayed for a long time， they enjoy the benefit from this project after termination.

In terms of time， it is limited and the project time overrun will result the serious potential damage and the more complex and costly the corrective measures will be to the project (Navon，2005). Therefore， the shorter period of project in a reasonable range can improve the efficiency. For Wembley Stadium project，it took 5 years longer than estimated. The original plan for the reconstruction was to be finished sometime during 2003 but it was delayed by a succession of financial and legal difficulties (Scott， 2006). The extension of the Wembley stadium project is common because the schedule last for a long time and the many uncertainties can happen so as to affect the extension.

Currently， the need to estimate the cost of quality in projects becomes an essential role because the objective of achieving a product with a good quality is not only to meet the customer needs， but also to do it at the lowest cost (Abdelsalam & Gad，2009). Meanwhile， large， complex development projects suffer from substantial cost (Pheng & Chuan， 2006). Therefore， the cost is a big constraint on the activities of the project and affects the quality of the project. For the reconstruction of Wembley，due to its delay， it was well over budget and finished with total costs towards £1bn which was over 20% more than expected (Scott， 2006). Until 2007， the reconstruction was complicated but the total cost reached ￡798 million. The shocking cost is rare across the world. However， the cost overruns can be reasonable and understandable if the quality can be ensured and there is enough funds to support. Chantal et al. (2010) explained that the main causes of cost overrun include scope changes， the utilisation of new technologies， and the increase of construction materials and labour prices.

2.2 Risk management

2.2.1 Definition

Currently， the risk analysis becomes increasingly important in the project management of projects because dealing effectively with uncertainty and unexpected events helps achieve project success (Nerija & Audrius， 2012). Especially for the reconstruction of Wembley， it is a complex project so that many items， works are filled with the risk. Although the possibility of risk in the reconstruction may be small， the adverse results would be destructive if they happened. Therefore， if the project plan is not comprehensive and unthoughtful， the project members will have less preparation， which leads to the failure of the project. Meanwhile， Sehrawat et al (2014) illustrated RM has a systematic process including identifying the risk category，analysing the possibility of the risk and control the risks in projects or organisations.

2.2.2 Risk identification and analysis

As for the construction projects， the risks are so complicated that it includes many different sources. Shen (2001) categorized them into six groups in accordance with the nature of the risks， i.e. financial， legal， management， market， policy and political， as well as technical risks. PMBOK® Guide (2008) also identified the risks but into 5 aspects： technical， external，organizational， environmental， or project management. Some are specific and applicable in construction but some are not. Based on the previous categories of the risks and combined with the reconstruction of the new Wembley， the risks in project (time， cost， quality)， technology， and human resource was to be measured. Generally， some risks can be analysed quantitatively while others are not (Nerija & Audrius， 2012). But in this paper， the risks were analysed by combining the secondary literature about Wembley stadium reconstruction and the theories of risk management.

Project risks

Project risks mainly describe the uncertainties in cost，time， and quality. Any change appears in time， cost， quality will result positive or negative impact. For example， without considering whether the cost of opportunity product will rise， the outcome of the project may be adverse (Zavadskas et al.， 2008). For the construction of Wembley stadium， in March 2006，Multiplex indicated that it loss ￡150 million and the work was delayed and is the prosecuted by the shareholder litigation in Australia (PMI， 2008). Meanwhile， Wembley National Stadium Limited (WNSL) reduced ￡38 million from Multiplex to penalise for the late finish and overrun (PMI， 2008). In the initial plan stage， WNSL was over-confident and ambitious so as to offer the higher requirements so that they lack of the sufficient consideration on the cost. Therefore， in this project，the large gap between the expected plan and the result discloses the process was filled with trouble and this project left the bad impression on both the citizen but also the sports organisation such as FIFA.

In terms of the work quality， deflective work not only results in construction delays and additional cost but also it easily leads the liability for the deflection (Zavadskas et al.， 2009). For this reconstruction， the good work quality was ensured because there is no significant accident in the construction. Although the turf was complained by many athletes (e.g. Michael Oven) because it is slippery， the overall quality is admired across the world. Therefore， the risk in work quality is reduced in this project.

Technological risks

Technological risks refer to designing errors， lack of technologies， management errors; shortage of the qualified labour (Zavadskas et al.， 2009). Wembley Stadium was designed by architects HOK Sport and Foster and Partners with engineers Mott MacDonald. HOK is a global design， architecture，engineering and urban planning firm and other designers are all excellent engineers. Thus， the shortage of the qualified labour is not the element of the technological risks in this project. There are many high technologies not only in the appearance but also in the internal design so that the designers meet the big challenge. For example， when designing the facilities，a complete waterproofing system (including technical design service， on-site technical support， as well as a waterproofing membrane and waterstop combination) is required to provide high grade waterproofing for the basement area and retaining walls (GRACE， 2007). However， it is not easy to finish because the technical detailed problems should be solved carefully. Otherwise， the technical error will result the adding cost and bad quality. Obviously， this stadium can effectively operate the function of the waterproof system.

Human safety risks

For the project manager， ensuring safety is extremely important in effectively managing risk in the construction projects because a reputation for safety is a valuable asset (David et al， 2014). Fatal injuries easily happen when the workers work in the high altitude， apply the dangerous equipments or work without the protection. Undoubtedly， the reconstruction of the Wembley stadium is filled with the danger. Once the safety of the workers is under the threat， the reputation of this project would be negative. In the process of this construction， a carpenter named Patrick O'Sullivan， died when a platform fell more than about 100m and landed on him in January 2004 (BBC，2004). This accident may bring the panic for other workers and raise the criticism among the nationals.

2.2.3 Risk control

Risk control is a strategy which reduces or eliminates sources of risk and uncertainty impact on the project’s deployment (Zavadskas et al， 2009). For the reconstruction of the Wembley stadium， the aim of the risk management is reducing project， technological， and human safety risks. Regarding to the project risks， as WNSL assisted Multiplex in finance in the end (PMI， 2008)， the liability， the litigation and the late finish. In terms of the technical risks， the project managers have a elaborate plan in technology because the objective of this project focuses strongly on the quality. For the Human safety risks， although the accident happen unexpectedly， the attention on the safety was improve so that the outcome was not worse.

3.Conclusion

Based on the success criteria applied in this paper， the new Wembley Stadium may be seen as a failure because of the overrun and late finish. However， the success depends on if the objectives are met or not. Lehmann and Ing (2008) indicated that the project success could then be measured against the agreed objectives. In this project， the theme is meeting the stakeholder’s requirement and keeping the function for a long time. Undoubtedly， the citizens are satisfied when this reconstruction finishes although it failed to meet the cost saving，right schedule. In addition， this project is challenging because of the project， technological， human safety risks but the project managers can effectively control and solve in the final stage. However， if more modification in dealing with the risks were set， lesser risks would happen. According to this project， the lesson can be obtained. For example， if the project managers in the new Wembley stadium consider comprehensively on the initial plan before execution， the cost， time criteria can be reached and the relative risks can be reduced. As a whole，although there had a dispute between contractors， they finally dealt with the issues well to complete the project and reach high quality so many achievements in this project (e.g. the technology， architecture art) are worthwhile to be learned. Therefore， the Wembley Stadium is a success project.

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AUTHORS

1Ling. Yang is born in Guangxi Province on June 30th，1991. In 2015， she achieved the Master degree in University of West of England which is located in Bristol， UK and majored in International Management.

She had been a teacher in Guangzhou Science Technology Professional College from February in 2016and then move to Xinhua College of Zhongshan University in Dongguan to act as a teacher for International Trade in August， 2016