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Woody's Project Management:
The Custom Woodworking Company is relatively a medium sized cabinet and furniture making firm whose headquarters are at Industrial Estates, BC. The founder began the company in 1954 following his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker before moving to the current location in 1959 together with his wife. Woody's currently manufactures custom furniture, typical kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and various wholesaler or retailer furniture products. Following its continual growth since its inception, the company has established a solid reputation for supplying millwork to the construction industry ("Background," 2000).
Project Management in the Construction Industry:
Project Management is a multi-faceted activity with numerous dimensions that are entirely based on the kind and class of project. However, regardless of the project type and class, every level of project management involves the same approach though it's only the branch and size of the activity that varies from project to project (Wideman, 2001). In order to guarantee the success of project management processes, there are several foundational principles of project management that provide the basis for generally acceptable practices. There are two approaches with which companies can create an absolute project management culture and attitude i.e. employing consulting services or creating a Project Management Office.
The construction industry is becoming one of the emerging industries in the field of project management as many construction firms have started to consolidate following years of sustained business improvement. Many firms in the construction industry see the necessity of changing from conventional construction management techniques by adopting new approaches. Consequently, some construction companies have established a Project Management Office similar to those in other mature industries (Gheorghiu, 2008). As compared to the natural stages of maturity development, companies that have adopted a Project Management Office model are experiencing hectic problems.
Woody's Project Management Opportunity:
The opportunity for the Custom Woodworking Company...
The proposals for the company to completely move to new and modern facilities resulted in the polarization of opinions within the firm. The company's Chief Executive Officer called for a meeting of its top officials to resolve the issue and after bitter arguments, it was resolved that the firm would remain in its existing property and location.
In addition, the top officials agreed that the firm's production capacity would be expanded to about 25% of the current floor area including the installation of air-conditioning and dust-free paint and fitting the shop with extra compressor capacity. As a result of the need for semi-automatic woodworking train, necessary software and hardware would be installed to run it. Moreover, the project would also involve the renovation of the President and Executive Vice-President's Office.
Sources of Problems in Woody's Project Management:
As the project implementation process began, there are various problems that were encountered including construction schedule conflicts in tying-in new services because of the two-week slip in delivery schedule. The other significant problems were the need for extra five feet to the new building's length because of the changes in the specifications of production chain and the evident strained relations on the site. Based on the post project appraisal, there were various sources that contributed to the numerous problems including
Un-noticed Over-Supply of Commercial Space:
When the new equipment was eventually launched, it was seriously under-utilized as the production morale faded. One of the major sources of this problem was the un-noticed over-supply of commercial space, which was the basic source of Woody's contracts. Based on the strategy principle of project management, a strategy that includes planning then implementing in a series of progressive phases must be established (Wideman, 2001). The overlooked over-supply of commercial space reveals the lack of a clear strategy…
References:
"Background." (2000). Project Management Case Study: The Custom Woodworking Company
Woody 2000 Project. Retrieved December 21, 2011, from http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/woody2000/background.htm
Gheorghiu, F. (2008, March). Starting A PMO From Scratch: A Challenge or Unbearable
Burden? Retrieved December 21, 2011, from http://www.pmforum.org/library/cases/2008/PDFs/Gheorghiu-3-08.pdf
Introduction. Retrieved December 21, 2011, from http://www.pmforum.org/library/cases/2008/PDFs/Lavell_Martinelli-1-08.pdf
Management Advisory Service, 3(1), 1-6. Retrieved from http://www.ksinc.com/articles/PMFrameworks.pdf
2011, from http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/first_principles/intro.htm
2011, from http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/first_principles/intro.htm
Project Management In The Custom Woodworking Company, hereafter known as "Woody's," there were numerous project management problems that appeared from the very beginning, and they only got worse as the product was carried out. The Woody 2000 project was not well conceived, and that was the first problem encountered. When a project is going to begin, it needs to be thoroughly planned out first (Wideman, 2001b). There was little planning that
Setting specific time tables for events, and having a clear understanding of how long each part of a project entails -- and who is responsible for overseeing that phase of the project -- is essential. Many delays could have been easily overcome, simply by ensuring that responsible staff members did not go on vacation at critical times. How the organization will benefit from making changes When the project began, the organization
When Leadbetter was made aware of these issues, he contacted only the subcontractors working on individual aspects of the project, attempting to micromanage without coordinating through the project leaders at the two major companies that had been hired to complete this project (EID and S&P) (Project Management Case Study 2000). All told, the project that had been slated to take a year to complete took over two years, ran into
Even a good plan cannot account for all subcontracting-related delays. Intuitively it might seem that a plan of such magnitude could not be completed on time, at least not with so many subcontractors. When in doubt, common sense should 'win out' when allowing for delays. The only conceivable way for a good baseline plan to have accounted for more contingencies within the project would be to work with all subcontractors
Woody 2000 The project proposed herein involves identifying optimal approaches to the expansion of the existing workspace and installation of a production train for The Custom Woodworking Company (hereinafter alternatively "Woody's" or "the company"), a custom furniture and millwork manufacturer headquartered in British Columbia. The company's longstanding reputation for high quality products has created a need for this additional workspace and more efficient manufacturing processes. Overview of Plan and Implementation The overarching objective
Woody 2000 -- Project Outline The Woody 2000 project represents an industrial facilities expansion for a growing small-to-midsize (SME) business that produces custom furniture and cabinets. This SME, The Custom Woodworking Company, has designated a seventeen million dollar project budget with the goal of adding an equivalent of twenty five percent to their existing production floor space as well as introducing some modern equipment with some level of automation. The project