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Cases in Project Management

SBS/ABS – MBA-Project Management

Assignment

 

 

STUDENT ID

 

UNIT TITLE

UNIT CODE

 

 

Name (in Full) ____________________________________________________________

 

GENERALINSTRUCTIONS

 

●    All assignments are to be submitted on 20^th November 2021 on www.atmsstudentportal.com with the login credentials shared earlier.

●    Assignment if submitted to any staff or kept in cc while submitting the soft copy will NOT be considered for marking.

●                If assignment is not submitted on date, will follow with penalty of 10% deduction of marks for every day.

·            Any Assignment submission extension request must come to Azra Fatima

   (Head: Examination | Academic) - afatima@atmsedu.org 5 days before the date of       submission with a valid reason and supported documentary evidence.    

●    Similarity between students work is strictly not accepted, any student found with similar work will be graded Zero and fail for the course. However, Plagiarism is an academic offence and will not be tolerated.

●    Any reevaluation request should come in one week of grade release. Any late request will not be obliged. (Form and other details shall be shared based on request)

●    Any rescheduling request should come and fulfilled within two months after the actual date of the assessment. Any late request will not be obliged.

●    Assignment once submitted to exam board is final for marking.

 

GUIDELINES FOR ASSIGNMENT

 

1.         If assignment is Question & Answer based then.

·   Introduction is needed for each question.

·   Question has to be answered based on the mark allotted for each question with references if any idea or information is taken from other source.

2.         If assignment is case based then,

·   Executive summary

·   Table of content

·   Body of assignment (questions related to case need to be answered)

·   Conclusion / Recommendation if any

·   References (in-text + citation) to be used.

 

 

 

 

Total Marks: _______ / 100

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM

 

Plagiarism is a form of cheating, by representing someone else's work as your own or using someone else's work (another student or author) without acknowledging it with a reference. This is a serious breach of the Academic Regulations and will be dealt with accordingly. Students found to have plagiarized can be excluded from the program.

 

Plagiarism occurs whenever you do any of the following things without acknowledging the original source:

 

·         Copy information from any source (including the study guide, books, newspapers, the internet)

·         Use another person's concepts or ideas

·         Summarize or paraphrase another person's work.

 

How do I avoid plagiarism?

 

To ensure you are not plagiarizing, you must acknowledge with a reference whenever you:

 

·         use another person's ideas, opinions or theory

·         include any statistics, graphs or images that have been compiled or created by another person or organization

·         Paraphrase another's written or spoken word.

 

 

What are the penalties?

 

The penalties for plagiarism are:

 

·      Deduction of marks,

·      A mark of zero for the assignment or the unit, or

·      Exclusion from the program.

 

Plagiarism is dealt with on a case-by-case basis and the penalties will reflect the seriousness of the breach.

 

Please note: claiming that you were not aware of need to reference is no excuse.

Read the case carefully and answer all the questions.

 

Williams Machine Tool Company

 

 

For 85 years, the Williams Machine Tool Company had provided quality products to its clients, becoming the third largest U.S.-based machine tool company by 1990. The company was highly profitable and had an extremely low employee turnover rate. Pay and benefits were excellent.

 

Between 1980 and 1990, the company’s profits soared to record levels. The company’s success was due to one product line of standard manufacturing machine tools. Williams spent most of its time and effort looking for ways to

improve its bread-and-butter product line rather than to develop new products. The product line was so successful that companies were willing to modify their production lines around these machine tools rather than asking Williams for major modifications to the machine tools.

 

By 1980, Williams Company was extremely complacent, expecting this phenomenal success with one product line to continue for 20 more years. The recession of the early 1990s forced management to realign its thinking. Cutbacks

in production had decreased the demand for the standard machine tools. More and more customers were asking for either major modifications to the standard machine tools or a completely new product design.

 

The marketplace was changing, and senior management recognized that a new strategic focus was necessary. However, lower-level management and the workforce, especially engineering, were strongly resisting a change. The employees, many of them with over 20 years of employment at Williams Company refused to recognize the need for this change in the belief that the glory days of yore would return at the end of the recession.

 

By 1995, the recession had been over for at least two years, yet Williams Company had no new product lines. Revenue was down, sales for the standard product (with and without modifications) were decreasing, and the employees were still resisting change. Layoffs were imminent.

 

In 1996, the company was sold to Crock Engineering. Crock had an experienced machine tool division of its own and understood the machine tool business. Williams Company was allowed to operate as a separate entity from 1995 to 1996.By 1996, red ink had appeared on the Williams Company balance sheet. Crock replaced all of the Williams senior managers with its own personnel. Crock then announced to all employees that Williams would become a specialty machine tool manufacturer and that the “good old days” would never return. Customer demand for specialty products had increased threefold in just the last 12 months alone. Crock made it clear that employees who would not support this new direction would be replaced.

 

The new senior management at Williams Company recognized that 85 years of traditional management had come to an end for a company now committed to specialty products. The company culture was about to change, spearheaded by project management, concurrent engineering, and total quality management.

 

 

Senior management’s commitment to product management was evident from the time and money spent in educating the employees. Unfortunately, the seasoned 20-year-plus veterans still would not support the new culture. Recognizing the problems, management provided continuous and visible support for project management, in addition to hiring a project management consultant to work with the people. The consultant worked with Williams from 1996 to 2001. From 1996 to 2001, the Williams Division of Crock Engineering experienced losses in 24 consecutive quarters. The quarter ending March 31, 2002, was the first profitable quarter in over six years. Much of the credit was given to the performance and maturity of the project management system. In May 2002, the Williams Division was sold. More than 80 percent of the employees lost their jobs when the company was relocated over 1,500 miles away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer the following questions. Each question carries 10 marks. (Word Limit- 2000 words)

 

Executive summary 

 

Due to their unique products and consistent customer satisfaction, Williams Machine Tool Company saw amazing development and prosperity from 1980 to 1990. Although the continued success of one product line made them complacent, they readjusted their strategy in 1990 during the rescission period.

 

 

Table of content 

 

No.	Page No.
Case 1 - Williams Machine Tool Company	Page. 3
Executive Summary	Page. 5
Question Answers	Page. 6

 

 

 

Question.1. Could project management have been used for those projects involving modifications to the standard machine tool line?

Answer: Project management is the process through which a corporation develops a task that requires the use of the organization's resources. Project management follows the plan from start to finish, recognising and reducing risks as they develop and ensuring that goals, schedules, and budgets are met. The goal of project management is to guarantee that the project is implemented correctly, following up on the objectives specified during the development stage to improve the project's chances of success. When improvements to the conventiona

 

Question.2. How should you handle experienced employees who live in the past and refuse to accept project management?

Answer: As for me, I hold meetings with new employees and share ideas with them, such as recognising and appreciating experienced employees for their work, encouraging them to participate in monitoring programmes and activities so that they can share their ideas, and encouraging them to participate in monitoring programmes and

 

 

 

 

Question.3. Who should be blamed for the failure of Williams Company to react quickly to changes in the marketplace?

Answer: After analysing this case study, it is clear that senior management decided on a new strategic focus, but new employees or lower-level management, particularly engineering, were not on board with this choice and resisted the shift. Some employees, who have worked for the company for over 20 years, refused to accept the change.

 

 

 

 

Question.4. Is project management the real reason why the company was sold and employees lost their jobs?

Answer: Yes, poor project management is the major reason why Williams Company was sold and the employees were fired.

 

Williams' failure can be ascribed in large part to poor project management, which resulted in the company being sold and all of its employees being fired by Crock Engineering. If the company had adopted changes based

 

 

 

Question.5. Should Crock Engineering have held onto the Williams Company? If so, how?

Answer: It is indefensible for Crock to keep the Williams Division after 24 quarters of deficits and only one quarter of profit. The way Crock handled operations after acquiring Williams is mind-boggling. Crock's decision to close the Williams Division after six years of dismal results indicates that he was not adequately managing the business. A

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apache Metals, Inc.

 

 

Apache Metals is an original equipment manufacturer of metalworking equipment. The majority of Apache’s business is as a supplier to the automotive, appliance, and building products industries. Each production line is custom-designed according to application, industry, and customer requirements.

 

Project managers are assigned to each purchase order only after the sales department has a signed contract. The project managers can come from anywhere within the company. Basically, anyone can be assigned as a project leader. The assigned project leaders can be responsible for as many as 10 purchase orders at one time.

 

In the past, there has not been enough emphasis on project management. At one time, Apache even assigned trainees to perform project coordination. All failed miserably. At one point, sales dropped to an all-time low, and cost overruns averaged 20 to 25 percent per production line.

 

In January 2007, the board of directors appointed a new senior management team that would drive the organization to excellence in project management. Project managers were added through recruitment efforts and a close examination

of existing personnel. Emphasis was on individuals with good people and communication skills.

 

The following steps were implemented to improve the quality and effectiveness of the project management system:

 

 

·         Outside formal training for project managers

·         Development of an apprenticeship program for future project managers

·         Modification of the current methodology to put the project manager at the focal point

·         Involvement of project managers to a greater extent with the customer

 

 

 

Executive summary 

The fact that project managers might come from any department inside the organisation is the source of the company's troubles. Because the task is technical and requires unique talents for a company to attain greatness, not everyone can operate as a project manager (Heerkens, 2007). This corporation's appointed project leaders are responsible for far too many projects at the same time, causing delays for the organisation. Because each order requires a significant amount of time to be completed efficiently, a project leader cannot handle more than 10 orders.

 

The corporation used to hire trainees to oversee the operations, which resulted in bad results. Financiers examine projects and their management to evaluate whether the company need investment. As a result, it's critical that Apache Metals' board of directors focus on project management in order to secure finance. Review of the literature and research Apache Metals appears to have been failing horribly at project management, and it was only after this failure that the corporation began to pay attention to project management. Project management entails the most effective and efficient planning, organising, and administration of resources in order to meet the company's stated goals (Lock, 2007).

 

The board of directors of a corporation is involved in selecting the finest people for the job and appointing project managers. Successful project managers should make sure that the project's resources, time, scope, and finances are all well-managed (Lock, 2007). These factors are critical in ensuring that the company receives cash for further initiatives and renewed contracts as a result of the aforementioned elements' proper management. The project's scope includes the project's objectives as well as the budget (in terms of money and time) for attaining those objectives (Rosen, 2004). Because of the abilities required for the role, not everyone in the firm can be a project leader.

 

To properly achieve the stated goals, a project manager must have the right people and communication abilities. The board of directors should conduct a thorough review of existing staff in order to hire the project management team members who are needed (Rosen, 2004).

 

Because a project is generally a brief undertaking, errors are unacceptable because they might tarnish the company's image. Project managers have a vision, and it is their goal to share that vision with the rest of the team working on the project. The organisation can help these project leaders and their team members be more effective by giving formal training. In addition to being trained, project managers must be in the forefront of the organization's concerns. Project managers have a larger role of creating and implementing the project, thus they need the assistance of the entire organisation to achieve their objectives (Rosen, 2004).

 

Junior trainees cannot function effectively as project leaders because project managers require competence and experience in the field. In order to properly execute a project, project managers must have team-building and problem-solving skills. As a result, directors should verify that they have a functioning project team in place before seeking money for new projects.

 

 

Table of content 

 

No.	Page No.
Case 1 - Apache Metals, Inc.	Page. 8
Executive Summary	Page. 8
Question Answers	Page. 9

 

 

 

 

Answer the following questions. Each question carries 10 marks. (Word Limit- 2000 words)

 

Question.1. What problems can you see in the way project managers were assigned in the past?

Answer: In the past, project management was not given enough weight.

 

Ø  Project managers may be in charge of as many as ten purchase orders at a time. Employees who have not been specifically trained in management responsibilities may be able to handle several tasks and provide good outcomes when they are under a lot of strain.

Ø  "Anyone can be assigned as a

 

 

 

Question.2. Will the new approach taken in 2007 put the company on a path to excellence in project management?

 

Answer: Yes, the new strategy will at least address the company's existing issues and, over time, lead to project management excellence.

 

Although the new strategy Apache is pursuing can assist Apache in having strong project managers, there are some key aspects to consider when establishing the new corporate methodology:

1 - Delegating cost-control

 

 

 

Question.3.What skill set would be ideal for the future project managers at Apache Metals?

Answer: At Apache Metals, the ideal skill set for project managers was to prioritise the appointment of project managers with good communication skills and, in general, decent people. Communication skills are crucial since they determine the type of relationship that occurs between employees.

 

Successful project management necessitates the presence of a successful and clever manager who can aid in the development of the company, as was the case with Apache Metals. What kind of skillset would be good for Apache's future project managers?

 

Project managers

 

 

 

 

Question.4.What overall cultural issues must be considered in striving for excellence in project management?

 

Answer: In order to succeed in the project, the cultural diversity of the persons engaged must be taken into account. Some people believe that they must be forced to work, while others believe that labour is always self-motivated. As a result, the project manager must be familiar with all of these fundamental notions that inspire

 

 

 

Question.5.What time frame would be appropriate to achieve excellence in project management? What assumptions must be made?

Answer: It would take 2-3 years for the programme to be fully enhanced and achieve greatness, in my opinion. Starting the interview and hiring process would take 1-2 months. It would typically take 2-6 months of training, followed by an apprenticeship programme that might last anywhere from 1 to 4 years, depending on the industry

 

Dear students get fully solved assignments

Send your semester & Specialization name to our mail id :

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or

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