Project Management for Innovation 4.0: The case study of the FALC Project

In recent years, Industry 4.0 has been emerging in the industrial sector. It is based on automation and the incorporation of new technologies that can improve a company's working conditions and its production capacity. Therefore, society is facing a technological transformation that goes hand in hand with the digital transition process. This change led companies to approach new markets implementing new products, processes, methodologies, services and business models. In fact, technological innovation does not only bring changes in the technology itself, but forces the entire business model to adapt and thus to evolve. This research is aimed at analysing the management method of a specific industrial project which involves the innovation of an airplane component assembly line. It is named FALC project, and it is a research project that aims to apply new technologies to make an assembly line as automated and innovative as possible, with the final goal of increasing productivity while reducing costs. However, to achieve this objective, in addition to important technological research, it is necessary to have a consistent and efficient management model. One of the most crucial points is precisely the choice of the Project Management methodology, which depends on the characteristics that the specific project presents. This is a difficult task for managers of innovative projects, because historical data of similar projects do not exist, and so there is not the possibility to make rational estimates. Therefore, this study has the goal to observe the actual management methodology of the FALC project and identify its errors and limitations to find a solution to improve it. In order to propose an efficient alternative to manage the project, the two main Project Management approaches are taken into consideration: Waterfall and Agile. They are analysed with respect to the specific case of the FALC project and a list of pros and cons is created to choose the most suitable one. Then, the methodology selected is applied starting from the Initiating phase to the Planning and Scheduling phases, including the Risk Management. The outcome of the research is that when dealing with innovative projects, an organization should not only focus on the innovation of the product, but also of the management model. Furthermore, the entire organization should follow the transition, otherwise no innovation can be successfully implemented.