Strategic Project and Quality Management: A case Study of Wembley Stadium 1

Introduction

The current literature on project management or project strategy mainly focuses on the

goals and plans of the project strategy. The existing literature considers that these goals and plans

are aligned to the organizational strategy. Artto, Kujala, Dietrich and Martinsuo (2008) define a

project as a temporarily endeavour that create a unique outcome or result. The authors further

note that a project is limited by time, resources available, budget, and performance specifications

to meet the needs of the stakeholders. Aubry, Hobbs and Thuillier (2007) decry that a good

number of projects fail before they get to accomplishment. The reasons for project failure are

very many and they depend on the nature of the project and the preparedness of the organisation

implementing the project. In order to understand the project failures, it is important to understand

project management. Artto, Kujala, Dietrich and Martinsuo (2008) define project management as

the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to achieve the three main constraints

of scope, time, and cost. Skills and techniques applied give project managers the opportunity to

make a project successful in terms of achieving the intended goals and objectives based on

scope, budget, and time. Therefore, a project is considered to have failed if it does not meet these

three constraints. Project failure affect finances and demoralises employees who work hard and

diligently to complete the work. The case of Wembley Stadium project failure will be analysed in

this report to illustrate project quality management difficulties and offer recommendations on

how quality management could have been applied to overcome the project’s operational quality

failure.

Wembley Stadium Project

Wembley Stadium is the home for English football which was built in 2000s to replace

the original structure built in 1923. Wembley Stadium is built on the site of a stadium that was
 Strategic Project and Quality Management: A case Study of Wembley Stadium 2

demolised in 2003. Wembley Stadium is governed and owned by a subsidiary of Football

Association (FA) known as Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL). Wembley is regarded as

the largest football stadium in England, the largest stadium in the United Kingdom, and the

second largest stadium in Europe with over 90,000 seats. Wembley Stadium was constructed by

Multiplex- an Australian construction firm- at a cost of £798 million. The project was estimated

to be completed in 2002 but took 5 years longer and the costs were doubled. The stadium is

considered as a project failure because of delays and increased costs. Though the stadium uses

innovative steel arch that has aesthetic appeal, it is load bearing and has the chances of blocking

views within the stadium.

Contrary to the popular belief, the stadium is short of quality especially on the missing

retractable roof which covers the playing ground. Owing to its design, delays and costs, the

company that built the stadium sued the engineering consultants behind the project for £253

claiming that the consultants offered unsatisfactory services (Basu 2012). The case of Wembley

Stadium is a good example of project failure due to quality. There were eight major lawsuits

connected to the project quality and three of them were related to definition of project quality.

The litigations against the two contractors of the stadium- Honeywell Control Ltd and Multiplex

Construction Ltd- were aimed at resolving the statement in the contract that indicated that the

project would have extensive, high- quality corporate hospitality farcicalities as well as state- of-

art communication systems that would be installed by Honeywell (Basu 2012). In 2007, £1

million was allegedly spent on photocopying alone during the dispute that related to issues such

as famous arch, roof design, and ground works. Though Multiplex won the court case, it lost £2

million (Wilks 2015). Therefore, the project is regarded as a failure because the costs increased

by 32% and a lot of costs were incurred in legal bills with Multiplex legal costs quoted as being
 Strategic Project and Quality Management: A case Study of Wembley Stadium 3

£45 million (Wilks 2015).

The case of Wembley Stadium is not isolated because the construction industry in the UK

is underachieving despite that it has capacity to deliver the most innovative and complex projects

to match any construction industry globally. The manner in which Wembley Stadium was

designed is a clear indication that the construction industry in the UK is very innovative.

According to a report given by the task force on construction led by Sir John Egan in 1997

revealed that the construction industry invests very little in training, capital, and research and

development resulting on low profitability and increased quality management issues. The report

suggested that ambitious targets and effective performance measurements are necessary in

delivering improved results. Therefore, the case of Wembley Stadium can be improved through

quality management. Wembley stadium project failed on three aspects; scope, time and cost and

hence quality management systems can be used to address these failures. In the eyes of people

Wembley stadium project may be seen as elegant construction, but there are various issues about

project quality management since the mistakes made during the construction were huge and

caused a lot of costs and hence a loss of profit during and after completion.

Recommendations

Pheng and Hong (2005) based their argument on total quality management model to

assert that quality is key in any project. The effectiveness of construction projects is measured by

their quality in terms of scope, time, and cost. The authors argued that any project is regarded as

successful if it achieves the intended aims and objectives within the set budget and timeline.

Therefore, though Wembley Stadium project achieved the intended purpose of hosting football

games in the United Kingdom, it is regarded as a failed project because it delayed with almost

five years and the cost doubled. Citing the critical success factors for construction industries
 Strategic Project and Quality Management: A case Study of Wembley Stadium 4

mentioned by Abdullah, Asmoni, Mohammed, Mei and Ting (2015) and Achanga, Shehab, Roy

and Nelder (2006) it is clear that budget and time are very critical to the performance of any

project. The authors argued that when a project delays it costs increases because the budget set

for a particular time period must be amended to compensate the increased time period.

Effective Project Management

Abbasi, Wajid, Iqbal and Zafar (2014) argued that effective project management is key to

project performance and success. Project management involves hiring professionals and

managers with the required experience and skills to manage a project. One of the mistakes made

by Football Association was to allow its subsidiary, the Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL)

to run and manage the project instead of hiring highly experienced and professional managers to

handle the project. Managers with experience in stadium construction have ideas on the potential

challenges that may be faced and are aware of how these challenges could be addressed. For

instance, managers who have run and managed other stadiums in Europe or other parts of the

world are aware of the requirements in stadium construction, the right budget, and the best time

period. Because of the management challenge, the operators could not agree with the

stakeholders (the government) for two years (2000- 2002 to the specifications of the project. The

operators had signed a contract with Multiplex Ltd to start construction without any

consideration of the cost that would be incurred monthly following delays.

Sweis, Sweis, Hammad and Shboul (2008) discussed the cost effects of delays in

construction projects with a focus on Jordan and argued that delays increase costs especially

when the operators do not sign contracts that favour them in the event there is a delay. The

authors further noted that the use of professionals in project management helps in reducing costs

because professionals know how reduce costs by indicating in the contract when it should be
 Strategic Project and Quality Management: A case Study of Wembley Stadium 5

pended and when it should count. Therefore, due to delays Wembley National Stadium Ltd

demanded faster completion of the project to compensate the days the construction was not in

operational. This could negatively impact on the quality of the project. Therefore, if there were

effective plans to ensure that FA gave the mandate of running and managing the project to a

professional organization or to managers with the necessary skills and experience, the costs

incurred during delays would not have incurred. The success of Wembley Stadium would have

been realized if the FA board members had confidence with the WNSL managing the

construction project. As mentioned by Lindahl and Ryd (2007), stakeholders should have

confidence and trust with the management of a project in order to give it full support. The project

was bound to fail because some FA board members had completely lost confidence WNSL

management of the construction of the stadium because they felt that the subsidiary could not

competently make true the visions of the FA board: These visions included host the 2005 World

Athletics Championship and the 2006 World Cup (Basu 2012). Based on the theory of total

quality management it can be argued that WNSL signed a contract with Multiplex Ltd on a deal

of £332 million without determining the real cost of the project. The operation cost was

calculated to be half the amount at the completion date. Therefore, it is recommended that WNSL

could have used higher standard and appropriate logistics to configure and organise such a huge

project. The operations of the stadium indicate that WNSL did not have experience in running

and managing such a huge project.

Total Quality Management

Quality management involves analysis of the stakeholders. For instance, WNSL chose

Multiplex Construction Company based on the perceived experience the company had with other

stadiums and they agreed that the cost would not exceed £332 million. However, it turned out
 Strategic Project and Quality Management: A case Study of Wembley Stadium 6

that Multiplex did not have such a great experience as expected by WNSL. Zeng, Lou and Tam

(2007) suggested that before settling on a company for construction, it is important to weigh the

company’s strengths and weaknesses especially with regards to experience and resources. The

authors therefore suggested continual improvements to ensure that if the constructing company is

unable to perform as expected, it can be replaced by another one before more harm is done to the

proposed project. Based on this suggestion, it is recommended that WNSL should have used

TQM systems to construct the stadium whereby the construction is done in stages. This would

have allowed the operators to examine and assess the experience and capabilities of the

constructing company and make changes in due time. For instance, in January 2004, scaffolding

collapsed at the building area killing one worker and another one was seriously injured In

January 2006 Multiplex announced that the reason for the delay of the project was because they

used the wrong type of concrete in laying the foundations of the stadium. In March 2006, a 30

meter roof beam slipped resulting in evacuation of 3000 workers from the site. These three

incidences indicate that would WNSL used total quality management strategy it would have

realized the inexperience nature of Multiplex and hence the operators could have cancelled the

contract and sign another one with a more experienced company. The suggestion of total quality

management was supported by Abdullah, Asmoni, Mohammed, Mei and Ting (2015) in their

argument that continued improvement in project management helps in saving time and working

within the budget because errors and mistakes can be easily identified early enough and changes

made before a lot of money is used on the project.

Agreement among Stakeholders

The concept of total quality management (TQM) asserts that all member staff must be in

agreement and fully committed to maintain high quality of work in all aspects of project’s
 Strategic Project and Quality Management: A case Study of Wembley Stadium 7

operations. Quality is achieved when all team members and stakeholders work together towards

achieving the set goals and objectives. Total quality management principle could have been used

in the construction of the Wembley Stadium to ensure that all stakeholders (contractors,

operators, and the government) work together. In supporting total quality management and

continual improvements Bryde and Robinson (2007), Tam, Deng, Zeng and Ho (2000), and

Nycyk (2008) argued that delays in projects are eliminated or reduced with continual

improvements. For the case of Wembley Stadium, continual improvement would have ensured

that there are no increased costs incurred in the construction period because improvements would

be done continually. As noted by Morris (2013), all projects follow the same generic

development cycle: Concept, feasibility, design, and execution. Based on the reasons for

identified for the failure of Wembley Stadium it is clear that feasibility was not done

appropriately. The project was supposed to start on 2000 and end on 2003 but it extended to 2007

due to financial problems and disagreements over the stakeholders. Therefore, it is important to

focus on the feasibility of a project prior to its commencement in order to effectively estimate

budget and allocate resources effectively. According to Morris (2013), the progression of any

project is linear though there may be some significant iteration within stages especially during

the early stages. Therefore, the operators of the projects could have identified any challenge

regarding quality and cost and made iteration during the early stages. For instance, when the

operators realised that there were disagreements with the government and FA board members,

they could have written to Multiplex Ltd seeking to pose the contract until the disagreements are

addressed. This way the operators (WNSL) could have addressed the issue of increased costs due

to project delay.
 Strategic Project and Quality Management: A case Study of Wembley Stadium 8

Conclusion

Based on the analysis of the failure of Wembley Stadium, a clearer image is printed on

the reasons for the failure and recommendations given on what could have been done to prevent

the failure. The analysis shows that the project delayed with 5 years thus, doubling operations

costs and failing to meet the expectations and visions set by Football Association. Some of the

issues given in this report that led to the failure of the project include poor and inexperienced

management of WNSL could not have resulted to proper and effective management of Multiplex

and push the company for better outcomes and timely completion. The mismanagement of time

by the constructing company coupled with disagreements with stakeholders resulted to increased

time wastage and hence delays of the project. Therefore, quality management is an important

aspect in any project management to save money and time. This is because the failure of the

Wembley Stadium project is mainly attributed to lack of quality management. The

recommendations given in this report could have resolved the problem in the project and could

have led to better results such as quality project, timely completion, and save on money.
 Strategic Project and Quality Management: A case Study of Wembley Stadium 9

List of References

Abbasi, N., Wajid, I., Iqbal, Z. & Zafar, F. (2014) ‘Project failure case studies and suggestion.’
International Journal of Computer Applications, 86(6): 34-41
Abdullah, M., Asmoni, M., Mohammed, A., Mei, J. & Ting, L. (2015) ‘Critical success factors of
project quality management system for Malaysian construction industry.’ Journal of
Technology (Sciences and Engineering), 74(2): 123-131
Achanga, P., Shehab, E., Roy, R. & Nelder, G. (2006) ‘Critical success factors for lean
implementation within SMEs.’ Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management,
17(4): 460–471
Artto, K., Kujala, J., Dietrich, P. & Martinsuo, M. (2008) ‘What is project strategy?’
International Journal of Project Management, 26(2): 4-12
Aubry, M., Hobbs, B. & Thuillier, D. (2007) ‘A new framework for understanding organisational
project management through the PMO.’ International Journal of Project Management,
25(1): 328-336
Basu, R. (2012) Managing quality in projects. Burlington: Gower Publishing Company
Bryde, D. & Robinson, L. (2007) ‘The relationship between Total Quality Management and the
focus of Project Management Practices.’ The TQM Magazine, 19(1): 50–61.
Lindahl, G. & Ryd, N. (2007) ‘Clients' goals and the construction project management process.’
Facilities, 25(3/4): 147–156
Morris, P. (2013) ‘Reconstructing project management reprised: A knowledge perspective.’
Project Management Journal, 6-18
Nycyk, M. (2008) ‘Records management practices in construction industries: Australian
perspectives.’ Records Management Journal, 18(2): 140–149.
Pheng, L. & Hong, S. (2005) ‘Strategic quality management for the construction industry.’ The
TQM Magazine, 17(1): 35-53
Sweis, G., Sweis, R., Hammad, A. & Shboul, A. (2008) ‘Delays in construction projects: The
case of Jordan.’ International Journal of Project Management, 26(6): 665-674
Tam, C. M., Deng, Z. M., Zeng, S. X. & Ho, C. S. (2000) ‘Performance assessment scoring
system of public housing construction for quality improvement in Hong Kong.’
International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 17(4/5): 467–478.
Wilks, S. (2015) ‘The century’s most troublesome construction projects.’ Global Construction
Review. [online] Available
<http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/perspectives/centurys-most-troublesome-
construction-pr8oje8ct8s/> [Accessed Mar 21, 2019]
Zeng, S. X., Lou, G. X. & Tam, V. (2007) ‘Managing information flows for quality improvement
of projects.’ Measuring Business Excellence, 11(3): 30–40.