Chat with us, powered by LiveChat You are a project team member for JZ's wood pellet grill development project. The project will affectionately be known as the Pellet Project | Wridemy

You are a project team member for JZ’s wood pellet grill development project. The project will affectionately be known as the Pellet Project

this has to be done by the person related to the project management field as this not just writing assignment

Project Management Undergraduate Project JZ, Inc. is a leader in high-quality grill manufacturing. Recently, field representatives indicated that the demand for wood pellet grills is increasing. JZ’s president, Rhett Johnson, thinks that wood pellet grills will be the new direction of the company, since that increases the marketability of the company’s products to countries that already use wood pellets for home heating. JZ, Inc. is a small company focused on high-end products. They use a priority matrix to guide their projects, as seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Project Priority Matrix for Wood Pellet Grill Project:

Part 1 You are a project team member for JZ’s wood pellet grill development project. The project will affectionately be known as the “Pellet Project”. The information necessary to create a project schedule has been provided in Table 1 by the project manager.

Table 1. Pellet Project Schedule

The following assumptions will hold true for this project:

1. The project begins January 2, 2015 2. The holidays observed at JZ, Inc. are:

a. Martin Luther King Day (3rd Monday in January) b. Memorial Day (last Monday in May) c. July 4th d. Labor Day (1st Monday in September) e. Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday in November) f. Christmas Day (December 25th)

3. If a holiday falls on a Saturday, then Friday will be given as the day of observance. If the holiday falls on a Sunday, then Monday will be given as the day of observance.

4. The project team works eight-hour days, Monday through Friday.

Deliverables for Part 1 Construct a network for this project and prepare a memo that answers the following questions:

1. When is the project estimated to be completed? 2. How long will the project take? 3. What is the critical path for the project? 4. Which activity has the most slack? 5. How sensitive is the network? 6. Identify and justify two sensible milestones for the project.

Include the following in your deliverables:

1. A Gantt chart 2. A network diagram highlighting the critical path 3. The ES, LS, EF, LF, and slack for each activity, tabularized

Part 2 The Pellet Project team is composed of the following members:

• 4 marketing specialists • 4 design engineers • 4 development engineers • 4 industrial engineers • 4 test grillers • 2 purchasing agents

The team resource availability and cost information are provided in Table 2.

Table 2. Project Resource Information

Team member requirements per activity are conveyed in Table 3.

Table 3. Resource Assignments Task Name Resource Name (Quantity Needed)

Market Analysis Marketing Specialist (4)

Product Design Marketing Specialist (1), Design Engineer (4), Development Engineer (2), Industrial Engineer (1), Purchasing Agent (1)

Manufacturing Study Industrial Engineer (4), Development Engineer (2)

Product Design Selection Marketing Specialist (2), Design Engineer (3), Development Engineer (2), Industrial Engineer (2), Purchasing Agent (.25)

Detailed Marketing Plan Marketing Specialist (4)

Manufacturing Process Design Engineer (1), Development Engineer (2), Industrial Engineer (3)

Detailed Product Design Marketing Specialist (2), Design Engineer (4), Development Engineer (2), Industrial Engineer (2), Purchasing Agent (.25)

Build Prototypes Design Engineer (2), Development Engineer (2), Industrial Engineer (4)

Lab Test Prototypes Design Engineer (2), Development Engineer (2), Test Griller (1)

Field Tests Marketing Specialist (1), Design Engineer (2), Development Engineer (1), Industrial Engineer (1), Test Griller (3)

Finalized Product Design Marketing Specialist (2), Design Engineer (3), Development Engineer (3), Industrial Engineer (2), Purchasing Agent (.25)

Final Manufacturing Process Industrial Engineer (3), Design Engineer (1), Purchasing Agent (.25)

Order Components Purchasing Agent (1)

Order Production Equipment Purchasing Agent (1)

Install Production Equipment Design Engineer (1), Development Engineer (3), Industrial Engineer (4)

Celebration Design Engineer (4), Development Engineer (4), Industrial Engineer (4), Marketing Specialist (4), Purchasing Agent (2)

Part A Prepare a memo that addresses the following questions:

1. Which, if any, of the resources are overallocated? 2. Assume that the project is time constrained and try to resolve any overallocation problems by

leveling within slack. What happens? 3. What is the impact of leveling within slack on the sensitivity of the network?

a. Include a Gantt chart with the schedule table after leveling within slack. 4. Assume that the project is resource constrained and no additional personnel are available. How

long will the project take given the resources assigned? (Note: You must remove the leveling from the schedule table and use a resource constrained method instead. No splitting of activities is allowed.)

5. How does the new duration compare with the estimated completion date generated from Part 1? What does this tell you about the impact resources can have on a schedule?

a. Include a Gantt chart with the schedule table displaying free and total slack depicting the resource-constrained schedule.

Part B Top management is not happy with the resource-constrained schedule. Rhett Johnson, the president, has promised retailers that JZ will begin production in time for the major trade show in Tokyo on January 22, 2016, which means the project needs to be completed by January 17, 2016. He has authorized working the first available Saturday of each month to help the project be completed sooner. He realizes this shortens the project duration only 12-13 days.

After discussing options with the engineers, everyone agrees that the Detailed Product Design does not have to be 100% completed before starting the prototype build. Building the prototype can begin 30 days after the start of the Detailed Product Design. Likewise, the Final Manufacturing Process can start 15 days after the start of Finalized Product Design.

Zach Johnson, director of product development, is also willing to add personnel to the project. He is willing to make available one more Development, Design, and/or Industrial Engineer to the project as well as a Marketing Specialist. Since JZ is a small company and has limited personnel, he asks that you only use additional manpower if it helps you meet the deadline. Your objective is to develop a schedule that will satisfy the deadline with minimum additional resource usage.

Deliverables for Part 2 Prepare a memo that addresses the following questions:

1. What was the impact of introducing Start-to-Start lags to the schedule and budget? 2. Which, if any, additional personnel assignments would you choose to complete the project

before the January 17th deadline? Explain your choices and the reasons for not choosing other options.

3. How have these changes affected the sensitivity of the network and the critical path? 4. How much will the project cost, using the schedule created at the end of Part 2? What is the

most expensive activity?

Include a Gantt chart with a schedule table displaying free and total slack for the new schedule.

Part 3 Today’s date is July 8, 2015 – the milestone date for the completion of the Prototype. You are charged with preparing a status report for top management. Project progress is summarized in Table 4.

Table 4. Pellet Project Progress as of July 8, 2015.

Task Name Actual Start Actual Finish % Complete Actual Duration

Remaining Duration

1 1 Pellet Project Fri 1/9/15 N/A 46% 125.85 days 146.4 days

2 1.1 Market Analysis Fri 1/9/15 Thu 2/12/15 100% 25 days 0 days

3 1.2 Product Design Fri 2/13/15 Wed 4/1/15 100% 35 days 0 days

4 1.3 Manufacturing Study Fri 2/13/15 Fri 3/6/15 100% 16 days 0 days

5 1.4 Product Design Selection Thu 4/2/15 Fri 4/17/15 100% 13 days 0 days

6 1.5 Detailed Marketing Plan N/A N/A 0% 0 days 15 days

7 1.6 Manufacturing Process N/A N/A 0% 0 days 30 days

8 1.7 Detailed Product Design Mon 4/20/15 Wed 6/24/15 100% 49 days 0 days

9 1.8 Build Prototypes Wed 6/10/15 N/A 0% 9 days 14 days

10 1.9 Lab Test Prototypes N/A N/A 0% 0 days 10 days

11 1.10 Field Tests N/A N/A 0% 0 days 15 days

12 1.11 Finalized Product Design N/A N/A 0% 0 days 20 days

13 1.12 Final Manufacturing Process N/A N/A 0% 0 days 10 days

14 1.13 Order Components N/A N/A 0% 0 days 7 days

15 1.14 Order Production Equipment N/A N/A 0% 0 days 14 days

16 1.15 Install Production Equipment N/A N/A 0% 0 days 35 days

17 1.16 Celebration N/A N/A 0% 0 days 1 day

Deliverables for Part 3 Submit a professional status report to Rhett Johnson that addresses the following questions:

1. How is the project progressing in terms of cost and schedule? 2. What activities have gone well? What activities have not gone well? 3. How much of the project has been accomplished (PCIB)? 4. What is the estimated completion date? 5. How is the project doing in terms of priorities (see Part 1)?

Report and interpret relevant Earned Value metrics with your memo.

Include a Tracking Gantt chart as well as an Earned Value Table with your memo.

  • Part 1
    • Deliverables for Part 1
  • Part 2
    • Part A
    • Part B
    • Deliverables for Part 2
  • Part 3
    • Deliverables for Part 3

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