Business project management
Project scope
The company, Speed Motors Corporation, is a company that specializes in the manufacturer of medium sized motorcycle cruisers. The company only makes fuel efficient cruisers with single cylinder engines. It has achieved success in producing and marketing motorcycle with the best quality products that suit the needs of the middle-class. The motorcycles have an engine capacity ranging from 500 cubic centimeters to 1000 cubic centimeters. The one cylinder engines are compact and simple. They deliver optimal power within a given cover. However, these engines have their limitations which make them become less desirable to motorbike lovers. They have a large rotating mass, which prevents it from accelerating and changing speed within a short period of time. The single cylinder motorcycles are also prone to vibrations.
However, the company intends to manufacture multiple cylinder motor cycles with high engine power of more than 1000 cubic centimeters. The multiple cylinder engines can range from two cylinders to eight cylinders. For the start, the new project will only focus on twin and triple cylinders. As the manufacture and sales of these two multiple cylinder motorcycle becomes successful, the company will expand its production capacity to include four cylinder engines and above. The multiple cylinder engines have a relatively higher number of benefits than the single cylinder engines. Even though they are not considered fuel efficient, they do not consume a lot of fuel. Cooling of the engines has been made easier since they have a radiator similar to the ones on cars that use liquid to cool the engines. They can also take advantage of the blowing air to reduce heat produced by the engine.
Project management plan
Overview
The project that is being conducted is about manufacturing multiple cylinder engine motorcycles.
Project objective
In essence, the main objective of the project is to manufacture motorcycle cruisers with engines categorized by the number of cylinders rather than by size.
Schedules and milestone:
The project is expected to begin from January 2014 with the manufacturing of two cylinders and three cylinders engines. The first bunch of these multiple cylinder engine motorcycles will be up for sale in April 2014, immediately after manufacturing. The production process will continue based on the outcome of sales and the demand of the products. Marketing effort for these products will begin in December 2013 to allow customers to make orders even before the manufacturing begins. The marketing effort will include television advertising, billboards advertising, brand imaging among other marketing strategies. The sales team will also be required to make contacts with potential clients in order to convince them to make purchase orders.
Project Cost
The cost of building one motorcycle of 2 cylinder engine is estimated at a $960 dollars. This cost includes the labor charges that our engineers will be paid and the cost of acquiring raw materials. By the end of the first production period, the company expects to have manufactured 200 units of two cylinder engine motorcycle and another 200 units of three cylinder engine motorcycles. This totals the budget to 384000 US dollars within the first six months of rolling out the project.
Project Quality and Control
The company is renowned for making the best quality single cylinder engines. This standard of performance is expected to be maintained as it ventures into the production of multiple cylinder engines. In order to ensure quality of the products, quality control engineers with experience and expertise in motorcycle manufacturing will be employed. Their main work will be overseeing the steps of the process of production from the beginning to the final step to ensure that each meets a certain level of quality. These engineers will also be responsible for the selection of best techniques for every step in the production process. The use of quality and control engineers is aimed at ensuring that the products do not have defects when they are complete. This will in turn save on cost and reduce cases of customer complaints. Therefore, the quality control engineer will be working with every employee in every step of production.
Analysis of staff
The project will require new staff members to join the team. However, in order to save on cost, the company will rely on existing employees who are well experienced and skilled in the manufacturing of motorcycles. Among the new staff members will include the quality control engineers who will work closely with other employees and engineers at every step of the production process. The need for the quality and control engineers is created by the demand for quality products. If our products are of the highest quality, then this will translate to increased revenue, internal efficiency, good customer service, and high profit.
The entire team will have members belonging to different groups. There will be team managers of small sub teams, marketers, sales people, engineers, technicians, advisers, and quality control.
Team building strategies for handling new staff team
Team building is important for the effective implementation of the project because it encourages cohesion among the project team members. None of the staff members in the project will be expected to work in isolation but rather as a team so as to realize the objectives. The following strategies shall be used to build unity and cohesion in the project team.
- Team members selection
Selection of team members will consider workers who get along well. The chemistry of the staff members will be analyzed and workers who seem to get along based on their personalities will be paired or put in one sub team.
- Objective identification
The project team cannot function well without understanding the objectives of the project. They need to what is required of them in line with the overall objective of the project. Once they understand this, they will be at a better position to work towards the realization of the project objective.
- Keeping communication open
Communication is an important aspect of a cohesive team especially a team with new members who have never worked together. As the project manager, it is my duty to ensure that atmosphere allows people to communicate. Communication platforms such as email list can be used to for easy access of information. Communication will also involve feedback and since the groups will be autonomous, there is need for feedback on team functioning.
- Trust promotion
Trust has to form a support base for the team. If they are ever going to work together, they have to trust each other. The team leaders and project manager must expect the very best from the team members. The leaders can also encourage relationships that go beyond the work place.
The role of the project manager
The project manager is basically the person overseeing the entire project. The individual is charged with the role of planning, executing, and ending a project. It is a role that has become relevant in many production and design industries.
The first characteristic of a project manager relevant to this project is the ability to come up with the objectives of the projects and ensure that these objectives are met at the end of the project. The objectives guide the entire projects and force the team to work as a unit. The objectives have to be clear and attainable if they are ever to be met. The project manager is also served with the responsibility of building the requirements of the project. This is part of planning that ensures strategic actions in every segment of the project are done.
The other critical characteristic of a project manager is to manage the constraints of a project. This project is likely to be constrained by factors such as quality, scope, time, and cost. The factors can potentially prevent the execution of the project as planned. Sometimes, it may not be possible to achieve a short term goal as planned making the project to be behind schedule. The project manager therefore has to restructure the schedule afresh as part of managing the constraint of time. Similarly, resources such as finances can cause a project to be behind schedule; but proper management of resources ensures the project proceeds as planned. The project manager can set up a leadership team which he or she can use to select the entire team which will accomplish the objectives of the project.
Finally, risks are inevitable in any circumstance. This project will definitely have risk involved. A project manager has to understand the potential risks that are likely to affect the project and develop a plan for risk mitigation and control.
Importance of identifying critical parts of a project
Critical path of a project entails the tasks that determine the date of project completion. This implies that if one of the tasks is behind schedule by a day, then the entire project will be behind schedule by a day. It is therefore important to identify the critical path on a project to ensure that whole project proceeds as planned.
Work breakdown structure
Major elements of WBS and cost strategies
- Training programs for team members :designing the training programs
- Developing a budget plan: allocating resources to each project task
- Developing a product design and structure: developing product production steps, selecting teams at each of the steps, allocating resources for each of the steps
- Team building strategies and activities: developing a communication platform for all team members
- Developing a human resource plan: developing tasks and roles for each of the team members required in the project
- Developing a sales and marketing strategy
Figure 1: WBS
Figure 2: Gantt chart
References
Ireland, L. R. (2006). Project Management (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Kerzner, H. (2009). Project management. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, (2 ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
