The
Manhattan Project
A look at Project
Management’s Origins
Presented by Team Awesome
What was the Manhattan Project?
• The US Government’s secret project to
research, develop, and test an atomic
weapon.
Scope Management
of the
Manhattan Project
Scope
• Research and Develop an Atomic Bomb
– Uranium-235/Plutonium
– Scientists
– Resources
– Packaging
Scope
• A huge undertaking like no other.
• Production of ample amounts of
"enriched" uranium to sustain a chain
reaction .
Scope
• Scientists
Robert Oppenheimer
Enrico Fermi
Albert Einstein
Scope
• Resources
– Money
– Buildings/Sites
• Oak Ridge and Hanford Laboratories
• Los Alamos, NM
– Materials
Oak Ridge Facility
Scope
• Complete and Test the Bomb
The two bombs. "Little Boy" is seen on the left, and
"Fat Man" is seen on the right
Time Management
of the
Manhattan Project
Germans had an early lead
• Originally the Manhattan Project was a race against
the Germans to be the first to make an atom bomb
• In 1938 Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann's discovery of
fission steered Germany toward developing an atomic
weapon. This motivated the U.S. to launch the
Manhattan Project
• By 1941, the Germans were leading the race for the
atomic bomb
• Germans had a heavy-water plant, high-grade
uranium compounds, a nearly complete cyclotron,
capable scientists and engineers, and the greatest
chemical engineering industry in the world
WWII Slows German Research
• Time became an ever increasing factor
in the Manhattan Project
• As WWII continued, many factors
including internal struggles, scientific
errors, and the destruction from war
limited any successful research toward a
German atom bomb
• Unlike the American program, the
Germans never had a clear mission
under continuously unified leadership
The Project Succeeds
•From the creation of the Manhattan Engineer District in
1941, time was more important than any other metric
•July 16, 1945 - At 5:29:45 a.m. the first atom bomb,
Gadget, is exploded at Los Alamos
•August 6, 1945 Little Boy is dropped over Hiroshima
•August 9, 1945 Fat Man is dropped over Nagasaki
•September 2, 1945 Japan surrenders
Cost Management
of the
Manhattan Project
Cost
•
•
•
•
Initially $6,000 was invested
The entire project cost totaled $1.9 billion
$20 Billion now (1996)
Approximately 12.7% of ammunitions for
WW2
How the money was spent
Project Management
in the
Manhattan Project
Project/Program Manager
Leslie Richard Groves
Lieutenant General,
United States Army
•In command of the
Manhattan Project
•$10b experience in
construction projects
including the Pentagon
Groves understood the challenge
• Groves asked for what he needed, and
got what he asked for
– Overtook all other programs in priority
– Virtually unlimited money available
– Limited only by how quickly the program
could find qualified personnel
Insisted unity of PMs
• January 11, 1944 - An implosion theory
group is set up with Teller as head.
• May, 1944 -Teller is removed as head of
the implosion theory group, and also
from fission weapon research entirely,
due to conflicts with Bethe and his
increasing obsession with the idea of the
Super (hydrogen bomb).
Source: http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/MP_Misc/atomic_timeline_2.htm
Redundant, parallel R&D
• All promising solutions were pursued
simultaneously
– Prevented unexpected problems from
affecting critical path
– When the best solution became apparent,
other solutions were frozen
– Example: implosion vs. gun technique to use
for detonation
Aggressive Timelines
• Any timeline is better than no timeline
– No one knew exactly how long R&D
would take, but through building a
timeline the critical path could be
assessed
– Refining Plutonium and Uranium was on
the critical path
• Other components were prepared during refining
process
References
•
•
•
•
•
•
http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/MP_Misc/atomic_timeline_2.htm
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050300a.htm?rd=1
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/experience/the.bomb/history.science/
http://www.me.utexas.edu/~uer/manhattan/index.html
http://www.brook.edu/dybdocroot/FP/PROJECTS/NUCWCOST/MANHATTN.HTM
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/lggroves.htm