Project Management

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

xxxxxxxx

Project Management Assignment

xxxxxx

Table of Content

1 Introduction

9.1 APPENDIX

THE SCANTEL PROJECT

Analyse the network diagram for the project and identify, giving reasons, activities or groups of activities that contribute to risks of delays and resultant potential lack of completion on time.

In the light of delays actually occurring, what strategies could you employ to bring the project in on time?

Introduction

Vixen Instruments, Originally the ‘Leicester Engineering Instrument company’, was founded in the1920s as a general instrument and gauge manufacturer for the engineering industry. Vixen Instruments is a company specializing in providing standard metrology products such as probes for co-ordinate measuring machines, flatness, surface finish measurement equipment, concentricity measurement equipment and one off very high precision lenses for specialist scientist instrument-maker. In 1985 VIL’s turnover was $120 million. However, there was a decline in sells due to competition, mainly from Japan manufacturers. In the attempt to ensure Vixen’s long-tern position in the European instrumentation industry, the company came up with The SCANTEL PROJECT.

Project Management

A project can be defined as an activity with a specific goal occupying a specific period of time. . (Ray Wild 1995 pg 353) Project is a limited activity, not only in time, but also in the use of resources. Project management, therefore is concerned with the pursuit of a specific goal, using given resources over a defined period of time. This will often require the planning and establishment of an operating system, acquisition of resources; the scheduling of activities and evaluation/review of completed activities. Project Management is all about managing these resources in order that the project is delivered

To specification
On time, and
Within budget

Project managers should appreciate the importance of good project management to business success. It is easy to see the impact of failed project management in works such as Bradford council failed project to hire a private firm to run the city's public buildings

Damaged reputation which may hamper the ability to gain further work
Dissatisfied customers
Cost over-runs that lead to loss of profit
Financial penalties paid to the customer
Low morale amongst the workforce
Damaged relationships with sub-contractors and other business partners

Planning

Good project management starts with good planning - the objectives of a project should be clear and would conform to the SMART model:

Specific
Measurable
Agreed
Realistic, and
Time-based

The three key learning points

1. Identifying risks of the project: Once the risks are identified, it is easy to manage risks properly rather than trying to put out fires during the project.

2. Indentify the critical path using network diagrams

3. Gantt charts

Activities or groups of activates that contribute to risks of delays

Projects do not always go according to plan and it is generally the case that when this happens, work takes more, rather than less time, than expected. Good project management recognises the internal and external factors that might throw a project off schedule. Monitoring progress carefully will help identify the likely impact of any delays so that action can be taken to get the project back on track.

Internal Risks

The lens (events 5-38-44) may contribute to risks of delays and result to lack of completion on because they don’t know how easy it will be to make the particular geometry and precision they need.

External Risks

Chassis & Body: the physical support chassis and outer casing are made in America. There can be potential risks due to bad weather, Ship mechanical failure, or labour strikes make project completion particularly uncertain. Also Lack of communication and trust between Callister and his colleagues with the Supplier or expertise within the company to decide how units were to ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Internal Risks

The lens (events 5-38-44) may contribute to risks of delays and result to lack of completion on because they don’t know how easy it will be to make the particular geometry and precision they need.

External Risks

Contingency planning: Strategies that could bring the projects on time

Internal Risks

Contingency planning means trying to identify possible sources of disruption to the project so that in the event of a problem. The lens (events 5-38-44) the business may have to request employee to undertake overtime and get the particular geometry and precision right. Alternatively, the Company may have to wait for another two year for the World Trade show or if things get really bad, tell the boards that deliveries will delay or recruit new employee.

External

The Chassis & Body, Designing the chassis and casing (events 37-42) potential risks due to bad weather, Ship mechanical failure action can be taken. This may be as simple as having a back-up supplier for materials in the UK.

Network Analysis

Network analysis refers to the use of network based techniques for the analysis and management projects. (Andrew Greasley pg 372 2006)

Project crashing

With any project there will be a number of times – cost trade off-off to consider. Most projects will have tasks which can be completed with an injection of additional resources, such as equipment or people. Reasons to reduce project completion time include:

reduce new product development time to market
reduce high indirect costs associated with equipment
avoid penalties for late completion
gain incentives for early completion
release recourses for other projects

The use of additional recourses to reduce project completion time is termed crashing the project. The idea is to reduce overall indirect project costs by increasing direct costs on particular task. One of the most obvious ways of decreasing task duration is to allocate additional labour to a task. This can be either an additional team member or through overtime working to enable a decision to be made on the potential benefits of crashing task. As shown in appendix 9

When you crash a project, you hope to trade off time for money. The project spends more money to (with luck) deliver in less time. And this can still make economic sense in the long run. For example, high-tech gadgets grow obsolete at an alarming pace, so getting the goods to market sooner can mean an increase in profit, which more than makes up for the crashing cost. Crashing a task can change the critical path on the project, even adding a task to the critical path that wasn't there before. Additional reductions in duration come at increasingly higher prices

The critical path

Definition

The critical path is the path through the network with the greatest total duration. (Andrew Greasley pg 375 2006) the critical path method was developed by Dupont during 1950s to manage plant construction. The PERT approach was developed by the US Navy during the development of the Polaris Submarine launched ballistic Missile System during the same decade.(Sapolsky,1972, Andrew Greasley pg 375 2006) A project can have more than one critical path, if several paths tie for the greatest duration. Activates on the path must be started and completed on time; otherwise the total project will not be completed on time. I used the PT, Pessimistic time: the maximum possible time required to accomplish a task, assuming everything goes wrong (but excluding major catastrophes). It follows that each event on the path must have the same earliest and latest time as shown in appendix 9.1 highlighted in orange. For the SCANTEL PROJECT the critical path runs through the following activities:

complete overall architecture block styling and simulation
complete costing and purchasing tender planning
Complete reintegration tests
Complete optics deign and specification, start lens manufacture
Complete lens manufacture ,start lens housing S/A
Lens S/A complete, start tests
Lens S/A tests complete
Complete camcorder integration system interface
C/C integration system interface complete
start assembly of total systems
Complete total system assembly
Complete final test and dispatch

These 12 activates must be done in sequence, and there is apparently no way to shorten these times. Note that this critical path is not dependent on the number of events, but is rather dependent on the total time for a specific sequence of events. The total length of the critical path is 103 working days. That is, the project will take a minimum of 103 working days from start to finish.

Gantt charts

Although network diagrams are ideal for showing the relationship between project tasks, they do not provide clear view of which tasks are bring undertaken over time and, particularly, how many tasks may be undertaken in parallel at any one time.( Greasley 2005 pg 377)

Gantt charts are line diagrams, with lines representing both time and activates. They can be used to estimate the amount of resources required for a project. Where activates are continuous ‘chain’ with one activity able to follow immediately after the other, these can be drawn as a continuous line on the chart.

A Gantt chart for the SCANTEL PROJECT is shown in appendix 9.2. The project can be completed just in time without any additional resources and ready for the major World Trade Show in Geneva in April 1986.

Conclusion

Projects exist in every sphere of business, markets, segment, and industry. Projects would come in a myriad types, sizes, and complexity- from small initiatives, medium-size initiatives to mega-projects. Nowadays, project management is no longer special-need management. It is rapidly becoming a standard way of doing business.

Project managers need to communicate with everyone in the company who’s responsible for implementing and reviewing projects. To work effectively, it must enable communicating about a project’s progress, goals, costs, and availability of personnel. In addition, the effective project manager should have skills and a good working knowledge of project management process, and pay attention on risk management plan, which will enhance a project success and a long-term benefit to a corporation.

Bibliography

Andrew G, 2006, Operations Management: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Jon S and Diane C, 1997, planning and Decision making, Pitman Publishing,

Ragsdale, C T. 2004, Spreadsheet Modelling and Decision Analysis: Cincinnati, OH, Thomson/South-Western College Publishing,

Ray W, 1995, Production and operation Management, London: Cassell educational ltd

Dibb S. Lyndon S 2006, Marketing Concepts and Strategies, 5th Edition, Houghton Mifflin

Websites

APPENDIX

PROJECT CRASHING

The Above table identifies the activates that can definitely be accelerated and the cost per week of accomplishing the acceleration, along with the minimum time the project can take .For example, activity 5-6, the alignment system design can be accelerated at accost of £11700 for each week gained. Since the maximum acceleration that may be accomplished is from 5 weeks to 3 weeks, the cost of the greatest acceleration possible (2weeks) is £23400. However, the project can finish early but at the end cost will raise.

9.2 APPENDIX

GANNT CHART

Project Management

Introduction