Project Time, Cost and Scope Management

At times, a project manager must evaluate proposals from identified vendors and make decisions based on the project budget and schedule. It is essential to determine how the organization will determine the best response to the proposal’s individual vendors?

IRTC has asked you to evaluate the customer service add-on the vendor offered while still in negotiations for this project. The add-on will cost $25,000 and take an additional 4 weeks to install. Your manager has asked for your opinion. The project is tracking along according to schedule and budget.

What do you need to consider before saying yes or no? Prepare a memo for your manager outlining how either decision would affect the project and factors that need to be discussed and agreed to by various stakeholders involved in the project.

Assignment Guidelines:

  • In 1,250 words, address the following:
    • What do you need to consider before accepting or denying the vendor proposal? Explain.
    • How would your decision affect the overall project?
      • Consider budget, schedule, and resources.
    • What stakeholders would need to be involved in this decision-making process? Why?
    • What important factors would need to be discussed and agreed upon by the various stakeholders involved in the project? Explain.

Use correctly APA style formatted references of solid academic quality for your resources and use correctly formatted APA style in-text citations to your references to substantiate your information and positions as well as to give credit to other author’s work.

 
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Legal and Ethical Scenarios

Select two of the  scenarios provided below. Analyze the facts in the scenarios and develop  appropriate arguments/resolutions and recommendations. Support your  responses with appropriate cases, laws and other relevant examples. Do not copy the scenarios into the  paper.

Cite your sources in APA format on a separate page. 

Scenario 1—Bankruptcy

Rusty Weaver, a project manager for the  Tipton Machinery, filed a petition in bankruptcy under Chapter 7,  seeking to discharge $75,000 in credit-card debts and $45,000 in student  loans.  Weaver’s wife died and left him with two children, Paul, who  attended college, and Diana, who was thirteen years old.  According to  Weaver, Diana was an “elite” swimmer who practiced ten to fifteen hours a  week and placed between first and third at more than thirty competitive  events. Diana was homeschooled with academic achievements that were  average for her grade level.  His petition showed monthly income of  $5,325 and expenses of $5,200.  The expenses included annual homeschool  costs of $8,200 and annual swimming expenses of $5,000.  The expenses  did not include college costs for Paul, or airfare for his upcoming  summer trip to Europe, and other items.  The trustee allowed monthly  expenses of $4,227, with nothing for swimming, and asked the court to  dismiss the petition.

  • If Weaver qualified for Chapter 7, which debts would be discharged?  Which debts would not be discharged?  Why?
  • Using the median income from your state, does Weaver qualify for Chapter 7?
  • Should the court grant the trustee’s request?  Does Weaver have other options if the Chapter 7 petition is dismissed?

Explain your answers and support them with relevant scholarly sources.

Scenario II – Organizations and Liability

Vance Armstrong was the sole incorporator  of Triathlon Training Inc., a corporation designed to operate a training  center for triathletes of all ages. The business was incorporated  according to Florida law in January 2015, with Armstrong as the sole  director and shareholder. Armstrong contributed $20,000 of starting  capital, which was just enough to make minor repairs to the property he  purchased for $400,000 with a loan from the bank. The corporation had no  liability insurance. On June 15, 2015, the center opened for business.  Over the next few months, the corporation operated with a profit.

In  July, Armstrong took a two-week vacation in France and used a check  written on the company bank account to purchase his airline ticket. In  September, Armstrong decided to have the pool resurfaced. Because  business had slowed and the corporation’s bank account did not have  sufficient funds, Armstrong wrote a personal check to cover the work.  Armstrong feared he would not make enough money through the winter to  turn a profit, so he decided to work a part-time job selling fitness  equipment as an independent contractor for Bowflex. Armstrong used the  training center’s office phone to make calls, the copy machine for  copies, and the computer for searches. He made a substantial profit,  which was maintained in a third bank account not associated with  Triathlon Training or his personal account.

On April 1, 2016, a  child with a mild learning disability drowned in the pool while training  for the local children’s triathlon. The parents brought a suit for  wrongful death against Triathlon Training Inc. and against Armstrong in  his individual capacity as owner. At the time of the suit, the  corporation had less than $2,500 in its bank account. Because of these  limited funds, the child’s parents hoped to recover most of their  damages directly from Armstrong, who lived in a mansion on the beach.

  • Will the parents be successful in holding Triathlon Training Inc. liable for the child’s death?
  • What should the parents argue in order to hold Vance Armstrong  liable in his individual capacity? Will the parents prevail? Why or why  not?
  • How could Armstrong have protected himself against this type of potential liability?

Scenario III—Insider Trading

During a session with her doctor, Billy  Mooney, Maggie Mason mentioned in confidence the imminent merger of  Walgreens with Rite-Aid. Mason’s ex-husband, Gus Mason, was on the board  of directors at Walgreens. Mooney communicated the information to a  securities broker, Olive Green, who immediately made trades in  Walgreen’s securities for her own account and for her customers’  accounts.

  • Did Mooney, Maggie Mason, Gus Mason, or Olive Green engage in  illegal insider trading? Explain the potential culpability of each  party. Include possible civil or criminal penalties for each party.
  • Was the conduct of the parties ethical?

**Paper needs to be at least 3-4 pages, with reference page and 100% original, no plagiarism. 

 
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Essay

Compare and contrast the factors of an internal and external analysis (envirnomental scan) in evaluating and assessing an unsuccessful logistic strategic plan.  In the analysis, provide an example of a particular problem, situation, or incident that justifies and supports your evaluation.

Note:  First, define the key terms or concepts in the essay. That is, define internal factors. Define external factors. Define what a strategic plan is as compared to a tactical or operational plan.

Second, find a problem where this makes sense. Use one from research or from your experience. Whatever works best for you to tell the story of an unsuccessful plan.

Essay should include a thesis statement, conclusion, and references. It should be 500 words or more in APA format.

 
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Deliverable 1 – Internal Memo Describing a Business Problem

Competency

Develop research strategy skills for business analysis.

Scenario

You are a manager at a small grocery store chain. In your role it is your responsibility to oversee all aspects of the day to day functioning of your store. This includes the customer experience, sales, management of employees, inventory, etc. Over the previous six months, you have identified a slow decline in sales. The home office has taken notice as well and is applying pressure to turn things around. You have been in this position for 3 years and plan to apply for a general manager position when one becomes available. However, if you are unable to increase your sales numbers, this will not be possible.

In order to identify the cause in the decline, you will have to assess all aspects of your operation. Many factors can contribute to declining sales, such as customer service, price points, or even location. However, you are aware that a major competitor has recently began an online pick-up and delivery service to provide added convenience for their customers, and you believe this may be a contributing factor for the drop in your sales figures. You have mentioned this to the general manager and have gotten a lukewarm response. In order to stay competitive, you have decided to explore whether the lack of an online service component is affecting your in-store sales and what research strategies you will employ to make the determination.

Instructions

You have decided to formalize your concerns to management in the form of an internal memo. The memo will concisely identify the problem and include a review of the literature that analyzes pros and cons of adding an online pick-up and delivery service at your store. Taking the information, you have gleaned from the literature search, you will then identify the research strategies you will employ to determine whether adding the online services for your customers would increase sales.

In Microsoft Word create the internal memo and include the following:

  • Brief introduction that provides context for your inquiry including a persuasive argument for moving forward with your research.
  • Statement of the business problem that includes a dependent and independent variable.
  • A review of the literature that includes at least four references to published resources that includes both primary and secondary data (articles, annual reports, company websites, industry surveys)
  • An analysis of the research strategy you will use to determine whether you will move forward with adding online services (survey, focus group, observation, content analysis, case studies etc.)
  • A conclusion that explains the importance of moving forward with your research.

Grading Rubric

F

F

C

B

A

0

1

2

3

4

Did not Submit

No Pass

Competence

Proficiency

Mastery

Not Submitted

Is not formatted as a memo.

Heading is missing and the introduction, body, and conclusion are not spaced, aligned, or indented consistently or according to any recognizable format.

Memo heading is not correctly aligned and is missing one or two elements.

Memo is not formatted for readability or compliance with standard formatting conventions.

Memo contains an aligned heading with three of the following: recipient’s name, sender’s name, date, and topic.

Memo is inconsistently block or modified block formatted.

Correctly formatted Memo contains an aligned heading with recipient’s name, sender’s name, date, and topic.

Memo is block or modified block formatted.

Not Submitted

Introduction does not provide context, prepare readers for the memo, or present a clear argument.

Introduction achieves only one of the three goals or achieves two but insufficiently; significantly more detail is needed for the introduction to be complete and reader-focused.

Introduction achieves two of the three goals of providing context, preparing the reader, or making a clear argument or the memo demonstrates an attempt to achieve all three goals but is only minimally or superficially successful.

Introduction provides context for the research and prepares the reader for the rest of the memo while making a clear argument in favor of moving forward with the research.

Not Submitted

Problem statement is misstated or not presented as a relevant problem.

Variables are misidentified.

The section contains two or more grammar and/or syntax errors.

Problem statement is implied but not stated clearly. Variables are incorrectly identified.

At least one noticeable grammar error is present.

Includes a problem statement that could be clearer or more concise.

Dependent or independent variable is identified, but not both.

At least one noticeable grammar error is present.

Includes a clear and concise Problem Statement that identifies the dependent and independent variables relevant to the situation.

Section is error-free.

Not Submitted

Incomplete Literature Review presents at least three references, refers to their contents but doesn’t provide a summary, and attempts to explain their relevance to the current situation and proposed research but is lacking needed information, statistics, or examples.

Sources are all secondary. This section is not well organized and contains three or more grammatical or mechanical error.

Literature Review presents at least three references, summarizes their contents though not completely, and explains their relevance to the current situation and proposed research but minimally.

Sources are a combination of primary and secondary but combination is not balanced – too many secondary sources.

This section is mostly well organized and contains two or three grammatical or mechanical errors.

Thorough Literature Review presents at least three references, summarizes their contents, and explains their relevance to the current situation and proposed research.

Sources are a combination of primary and secondary.

This section is mostly well organized and contains one grammatical or mechanical error.

Thorough Literature Review presents at least four references, summarizes their contents, and explains their relevance to the current situation and proposed research.

Sources are a combination of primary and secondary.

This section is well organized and free of grammatical and mechanical errors.

Not Submitted

The chosen research strategy is defined briefly but is not analyzed for compelling features or for relevance to the present situation and proposed research project.

Common or inappropriate language is used and most or all sentences follow the same structure. Grammar and syntax errors interfere with meaning.

The analysis of the chosen research strategy defines a recognized research strategy and briefly explains at least two features of that strategy, while attempting to connect the strategy to the present situation and proposed research project.

Common language is used and most or all sentences follow the same structure.

The analysis of the chosen research strategy defines a recognized research strategy and explains two to three compelling features of that strategy, while connecting the strategy to the present situation and proposed research project using appropriate and accurate language and variety of sentence structures.

The analysis of the chosen research strategy defines a recognized research strategy and thoroughly explains at least three compelling features of that strategy, while clearly connecting the strategy to the present situation and proposed research project using sophisticated language and variety of sentence structures.

Not Submitted

Conclusion is not concise or presents new information; it fails to restate the purpose and main points of the memo.

Three or more grammar or syntax errors present in this section.

Conclusion is not concise but presents no new information; rather, it restates the purpose and main points of the memo.

Two or three grammar or syntax errors present in this section.

Conclusion is concise and presents no new information; rather, it restates the purpose and main points of the memo.

One or two grammar or syntax errors present in this section.

Conclusion is concise and presents no new information; rather, it restates the purpose and main points of the memo.

No grammar or syntax errors present in this section.

 
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Deliverable 7 – Project Management Report

Scenario Information

You are assuming the role of the project manager for a company called SuperPacks to provide a new backpack product with a built-in refrigeration pouch and radio module. Your customer for this project is the U.S. Army, Ground Forces and Special Operations. As the project manager for your team, you will be submitting to your manager a project management report.

Instructions

Having been recently hired by the company, you will assume the role of the assigned project manager overseeing the design, development, production, and delivery of the new product. The details below provide a summary of your company’s project: 

  • Company type (name your company): A small defense contractor located in the United States of America
  • Company size (employees): 100
  • Product: Backpack with built-in refrigerated pouch and radio module
  • Awarded quantity: 200 units – 100 assigned to Ground Forces / 100 assigned to Special Operations
  • Program Budget: Proposed award: $1,500,000
  • Customer: U.S. Army, Ground Forces and Special Operations Unit
  • Award date: Current Date
  • Completion date: Two years from current date
  • Delivery schedule: 100 units, 12months ARO (after receipt of order). 50 units every 3 months after first delivery Milestone Schedule:
  • First delivery:
  • Second delivery:
  • Last delivery:
  • First milestone payment (from the customer):
  • Second milestone payment:
  • Final milestone payment:
  • Initial program review (at the customer’s site):
  • Subsequent program reviews: 6 months after the initial review 

Expected Result from Senior Management

  • On-time delivery for the three stated product deliverables
  • Desire to complete the total program under the stated budget of $1,500,000
  • All milestones accomplished by due dates listed
  • Supplemental contract for future additional units (backpacks)

You will be submitting to your manager, using the Final Project Report Template in Microsoft Word or similar, a project management report, which will include the following:

  1. Executive summary
  2. Project background/project overview
  3. Major activities/milestones
  4. Project closure synopsis
  5. Project metrics performance 
  6. Project management issues
  7. Project closure recommendations
 
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MGMT 6367

Individual Project Final Report Instructions

Note: The project report will be submitted to Turnitin to avoid plagiarism and ensure academic integrity. The submission link will be posted under “Assignments” on the course website. Students must check out the originality report generated by Turnitin after submitting the project reports. Project reports with a similarity level of 30% or higher to existing sources will not be accepted for grading. A project report that was previously submitted and graded in another class will not be accepted for grading in this class.

The purpose of this assignment is to identify and apply IOSCM (International Operations Supply Chain Management) concepts/tools to solve problems in managing international operations. To this purpose, you should find an interesting IOSCM problem from the real business world and think about how you can apply the IOSCM concepts/tools that you learned in this course to solve the problem.

More specifically, each individual should:

  • Find a problem in managing international operations supply chain from the real business world (from your own work experience or from any business articles/cases)
  • Identify specific IOSCM concepts/tools that can be applied to the problem
  • Apply at least two operation supply chain concepts/tools to propose a solution to the problem
  • Analyze the expected results that may be obtained when the solution is implemented.

The table in the appendix below will serve as the grading rubric for this assignment.

The report should be 10-15 pages in length including the cover and appendices, with 1” margins on all sides, double-spacing, and 12 point font. The cover of the report should include title, class code and name, section number, your full name, and date of completion.

The report MUST follow the outline below:

  1. Abstract (150 words maximum)
  • Summarize the entire report, including problem statement, IOSCM concepts/tools that have been applied to the problem, and expected results of the proposed solution.
  • Background information
  • Clearly state whether the problem is from your own work or from business articles/cases. If it is from business articles/cases, provide its source (title, author, name of the journal, date published).
  • Briefly introduce the company background (e.g., name, products, business size, location, internal/external interesting facts, etc).
  • Problem Description


  • Describe the problem clearly and specifically.
  • You should focus on a single problem, although you can introduce several other issues for informational purposes.
  • The problem may involve either operational decision-making, process improvement, or supply chain strategies in managing international operations and supply chain.
  • This section must include a problem statement starting with, e.g., “This paper considers the problem of determining …”, “The main problem of the firm is how to …”, etc, either in the beginning or at the end of the section.
  • IOSCM concepts/tools that can be applied
  • Describe what specific IOSCM concepts/tools can be applied to the problem and why they are appropriate to the problem. This section should make it clear that you understand the concepts/tools you are about to use.
  • Application of IOSCM concepts/tools
  • Choose two or more IOSCM concepts/tools among the ones provided in section 4 and apply it to propose a solution to the problem.
  • This section should include your supportive evidence/calculations in details to show how you have applied the IOSCM concept/tool(s) to develop the solution.
  • Analysis of expected results
  • Analyze the expected results of the proposed solution.
  • The expected results may include cost/revenue impact and/or improvement of operational performance. You must be specific to receive full credit.
  • Discuss the pros and cons of the suggested solution.
  • Conclusion
  • Conclusion about the problem, IOSCM tools, analysis, and results.
  • Compare what’s the difference between domestic and global operation supply chain management in your case.

You are highly encouraged to find a problem from your own work if you work for a multinational company, so that you may apply to your work the concepts/tools that you learned from this course. However, if you want to find a problem from business articles/cases, you can find one from any journals/newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and so on. Or you can surf the Internet to find an interesting article/case.

The meaning of a problem in managing international operations will become clearer as you study this course. As you can see in the textbook contents and course schedule, an IOSCM problem may involve but not limited to global operations strategy, global sourcing, global supply chain management, logistics network design for global operations, risk management in global operations, information management for global operations, process design and improvement for global operations, etc.

Examples of the IOSCM concepts/tools that can be applied to your problem include but not limited to Strategic Importance and Criticality Matrix, third-party logistics, criteria for backward vertical integration versus development of local suppliers, framework for supply chain structures,

three approaches for the orientation of facility networks, operational flexibility for minimizing operating exposure, ERP/SCM systems, etc.

 
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Operations and Supply Chain

Capacity Cutdown at Chrysler

Robert Nardelli, the former CEO of Chrysler oncutting 35,000 jobs in order to save his company during the financial crisis:

I signed on as Chrysler CEO in July 2007. Theindustry was robust, but the brand had lost its identity. The first six monthswere great. We rebuilt the brand, disentangled it from Daimler, pruned theproduct line. Then came the financial crisis. The first thing we lost wasleasing; 20 percent of our business disappeared overnight. Then the fleetbusiness went away, and financing for new car purchases dried up.

It soon became clear that we were in a battle tosurvive. We cut $5 billion in costs and brought the capacity down by 1.4million units. It wasn’t enough.

The toughest decision I had to make was reducing theworkforce by 35,000 people. We desperately needed to preserve cash to keep thesupply chain intact. We could have sold assets or furloughed union employees,but because of contractual obligations neither of those options would have madeus cash-positive.

I had no choice but to cut staff. It was traumaticreleasing them into an economy where it wouldn’t be easy to find another job. Ihad to lay off 5,000 salaried people the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Iremember going into a large staff meeting and seeing that the crowd in theauditorium was half what it had been when I started as CEO. It was such ahaunting visual.

The union was on board. We all recognized that wewere one step away from cataclysm. The UAW didn’t roll over, but it recognizedthat we were in it together. If we hadn’t made layoffs, we would not havegotten the first $4billion from the government. Every supplier would have feltthe domino effect.

The 10 percent unemployment rate is misleading. Thereal figure is closer to 18 percent. Unless this country creates 150,000 newjobs every month for the next four years, we won’t get back to where we were in2007. We need specific programs built to create new jobs-real jobs, not censusjobs, not seasonal jobs.

As gut-wrenching as my decision was, it was criticalto saving the company. A lot of families made big sacrifices for Chrysler, andI will never forget that.

Question 1: In strategic capacity planning, what other capital intensive resources should Robert Nardelli cut aswell as reducing labor force?

Question 2: If you were Robert Nardelli,what would you do to maintain a stable relationship with suppliers and avoid the domino effect?

 
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Individual Project 5

Deliverable Length:  Project plan + memo (2-3 pgs) + risk matrix (1-2 pgs) + RASCI matrix (1-2 pgs)  

Part 1 Submit your MS Project schedule from Weeks 1–4, making any necessary changes based on feedback from your instructor and peers. The plan should include the following: • A project schedule made up of a 4-level WBS decomposed to the work package level with at least 9 tasks in each  • At least 4 major milestones (make sure those are checked as milestones in the MS project file. You can do that by accessing the task information screen—right click on any task)   • People and other resources assigned to each of the tasks  • Project’s overall budget  o If you entered the cost of resources in your resource sheet and assigned resource names to all of your tasks, MS Project will generate a budget for you.   • Add % work complete to all of your tasks, setting them all at 50% complete The format should be a Project file, PDF, or other format noted by your instructor.  Besides the Project plan, make any necessary changes for your RASCI matrix and risk matrix based on feedback from your instructor and peers. Submit your updated RASCI matrix and risk matrix in a Word or Excel file. 

Part 2 In your MS Project file, under the option “Reports,” choose 1 of the visual reports, and prepare a memo in Word (using memo format) to your manager that describes a summary of the project schedule. Within this memo, include the following items: • A discussion of the project’s deliverable and a listing of the work packages in the project  o You may provide a chart that shows the work packages similar to the example provided to you in Unit 1.   • A listing of the major tasks needed to complete the project’s deliverable based on the work breakdown structure  • A list of the project’s high-level milestones  • The overall project budget estimation  o You can take a screen capture of this from your MS Project file. Go to the Reports option and then Task Cost Overview  • The major project risks and risk management strategies  • A discussion of the visual report you chose, noting the importance of this report in describing the project  • The project RASCI matrix  • Any APA citations and references necessary need to be added into your References section, including your textbook Please submit your assignment.

 
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Product design

Respond to the following in 300-350 words: 

  • What are the product design philosophies behind industrial design and design for manufacture and assembly? Which one do you think is more important in customer-focused product development?
  • Provide an example of customer focused product development in your organization or an organization you have researched
  • Provide an example of a successful or unsuccessful introduction of a new product and an evaluation of its specific development process.

Respond to the following in 150-300 words: 

Core competencies can play a role in affecting the design and development of products or services.

What is a core competency? Should an organization design products and services only within its core competency?

 
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unit 4 mountain research

Research 5 types of mountains. For each type provide an image, describe physical characteristics along with how they formed and apply Plate Tectonics and to the kind of mountain. Essay needs to be a minimum of 500 words and sources cite in APA format. Save word document, upload and submit for grading.

 
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