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The initial monthly cash flow charts set aside one million for contingencies: one million in each of the first and last months, with an intervening ten months at $1.4 million (Wideman, 1993, Planning). The project should have been carefully guarded against so-called 'scope creep' or an expansion of the project which was not strictly approved of, according to the initially-set limit and budget. If more money or additional expansion was required over the project's duration, a formal meeting should have been immediately called for in the initial project directives to determine why and how the costs could be curtailed. Communication channels and pre-ordained regular project meetings should have been established between EID and Woody's. The project's leadership hierarchy should have been defined.
Deadline completion was a must, given that the project was designed to respond to an available external opportunity. EID was paid an hourly rate. The problem with paying a company at an hourly rate is that there is an incentive for the organization to include more billable hours, and to make the project longer in duration, versus a fixed, lump initially agreed-upon sum where the incentive is for the contractor to finish the project quickly. There should have been specifications written into the contract that the project must end at a given point in time and/or there would be reductions in the final fee allotted for the project if things went over-time or over-budget. Additionally, there is a great deal of cross-pollination of different duties and requirements, which can result in a confusion of responsibility. For example, neither Moneysworth nor Leadbetter were aware of or had created review and approval procedures for the specifications and shop drawings submitted directly by either S&P or by Eddie Forgot of Piecemeal Corporation, even though they were supposed to be overseeing EID. EID was supposed to be overseeing S&P but neither company was certain of its specific duties in the project. A better structure to adopt would be to have different company officials in charge the oversight of specific aspects of the organizational overhaul and given specific outside personnel to supervise both the EID and S&P corporations. In retrospect, it was unwise to have contracted EID and allowed EID to subcontract S&P, given that timeliness is such an essential aspect of fulfilling the obligations demanded by the overhaul and subcontracting can result in additional delays
Develop a work breakdown structure
The overall breakdown of duties is as follows on project Woody's 2000 are as follows
References
Wideman, Max. (1993). Woody 2000. Expert Project Management.
Retrieved September 27. 2010 at http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/woody2000/intro.htm
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
Woody's Case Woody's The background of this case is relatively straightforward, despite the complexities of the described project's ultimate failure. The younger generation of the company's leadership wanted to see Woody's, a manufacturing concern, enlarged so it could take a greater market share and respond to increases in demand. While these goals might have been laudable in a general sense, the project suffered from a great deal of lack of foresight and
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
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
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
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