Project Management Assignment

Task1   COMPETENCIES
3079.1.1 : Project Management
The graduate explains how project management concepts can help an organization achieve its goals.
INTRODUCTION
Today’s business environment requires competency in project management. In this assessment, you will explain how project management concepts can help an organization achieve its goals. You will take on the role of a market owner who goes through all five phases of project management (i.e., initiation, planning, execution, control, and closure) to launch a new catering service. As you complete the assessment, think about past projects you have initiated, planned, executed, controlled, and closed. Your experience in planning past projects can help you recognize possible risks and functions that will need to be managed in this performance assessment.
SCENARIO
Imagine you are the owner of a local organic food market in an urban area at the crossroads of four farming communities that supply fresh, organic foods. As the owner of the market, you are interested in growing the business.
 
Customers in the area have been asking local vendors for more organic and locally sourced fresh food options. You decide to create a catering service for clients within 25 miles from the downtown location in celebration of the market’s 10-year anniversary. You plan to start this catering business in 30 days to address the increasing market need for organic, fresh catering. Catering orders will be prepared at the organic food market, packaged, and driven to the customer’s location. Lunch orders will be delivered within 60 minutes of receiving the order. Special event catering orders will require one week to fulfill the order. The catering company has one van that will be used exclusively for catering services.
 
You have identified the following goals for this catering business:

•  The catering business will need to be able to sell the same quality, organic foods that are sold in-store and supplied daily.
•  The catering customers can be no farther than 25 miles from the store so that food can be delivered within an hour.
•  The owner wants the catering business to be profitable within one year.
•  The owner needs to ensure that the cost of developing the catering business does not negatively impact the in-store retail operations budget, staffing, in-store events, and farmer partnerships.

 
You plan to launch the catering business by providing a free catered lunch to the first 10 businesses that subscribe to the weekly lunch catering services. The catered lunch for each business will be for up to 30 people and will be held at a local conference center ballroom at 12:00 PM on a day of the customer’s choosing. The budget for this launch of 10 catered lunches is $7,000.
 
Two weeks before the launch, you are working with catering staff to calculate the costs of the launch to date, tasks that need to be completed, and the overall impact of catering on in-store retail operations. You learn that the costs associated with the launch of the free catered lunches have already exceeded $7,700. Additionally, a local farmer that provides the fresh lettuce for lunch salads notifies you that the lettuce will not be available in time for the catered lunch. No other local farmers have lettuce available for purchase, and the only option is to use non-organic lettuce in order to keep the menu as communicated to the 10 businesses subscribing to the weekly lunch catering services.
REQUIREMENTS
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The originality report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.
 
You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.
 

1.  Discuss how you would plan the catered lunch project by completing eachof the following project management phases:
2.  Project Initiation Phase
3.  Describe the project and the need for the project.
4.  Identify threestakeholders and discuss how the project impacts eachstakeholder.
5.  Discuss the project’s feasibility based on triple constraint.
6.  Defining and Planning Phase
7.  Describe a project plan that includes a timetable with threemilestones.
8.  Write a SMART goal for the project.
9.  Describe how twopotential risks of the project could be managed.
10.  Launch or Execution Phase
11.  Discuss a way to manage being over budget by 10%.
12.  Discuss a way to manage a scheduling conflict that could affect the timeline of the project.
13.  Performance and Control Phase
14.  Discuss how scheduling conflicts and budget constraints could affect the scope of the project.
15.  Project Close Phase
16.  Discuss twoways to change how the project was planned, considering the timeline and budget conflicts that were encountered.

1.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

1.  Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.

 
Task 2 cOMPETENCIES
3079.1.2 : Logistics and Operations Management
The graduate explains how logistics are important to the operations of a successful organization.
3079.1.3 : Change Management
The graduate applies change management models to help an organization achieve its goals.
INTRODUCTION
Today’s business environment requires competency in logistics, operations, and change management. In this assessment, you will take on the role of an operations manager who has to manage product distribution to consumers when faced with challenges. You will choose a change management model to help you address a bottleneck or barrier in your distribution process. As you complete the assessment, use your experience as a seller or consumer to identify best practices for getting products to customers.
ASSUMPTIONS
You are the operations manager for a musical instrument manufacturing business in Mount Vernon, Washington. The company has been designing and hand finishing solid wood mandolins for over 30 years. Mandolins are fragile, stringed instruments that vary in size based on the retailer’s request, but the most popular size is just over 27 inches (0.6858 meters) in length and 10 inches (0.254 meters) in width. The average cost for a mandolin at the company is $2500. The company has earned a strong reputation because it only uses high-quality, solid wood materials, and it prides itself on designing and hand finishing over 250 mandolins per week. When a mandolin is ready to be shipped to the retailer, great care needs to be taken to ensure that the product is not damaged or broken. The manufacturer delivers to retailers in the United States and Europe and generally receives orders between April and October.
 
In mid-October, when you still have 1,000 orders to fill to meet retailer demands for the holiday season, your company begins receiving low-quality, raw materials from a preferred supplier that you have used for 20 years. The wood breaks when the mandolin is being manufactured, which results in a high number of defects, reduced manufacturing capacity, increased wait time between manufacture and hand finishing, and missed delivery date commitments. Retailers are very upset that they are not receiving full orders, and your company still has no commitment from the supplier on the next high-quality shipment of solid wood materials. Retailers have expressed their concerns about the company’s ability to recover from this issue in time to deliver mandolins before the holiday season begins.
REQUIREMENTS
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The originality report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.
 
You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.
 

1.  Discuss options and considerations for transporting your product to the retail facilities by doing the following:
2.  Discuss twooptions for packaging your product and why you chose them
3.  Discuss twopossible risks to consider when storing your product and how you will mitigate those risks.
4.  Describe twooptions for transporting your product from the manufacturer to retail facilities in both the US and Europe.
5.  Discuss an advantage and a disadvantage for eachof your chosen modes of transportation.
6.  Discuss a cost and time consideration for eachof your chosen modes of transportation.
7.  Discuss twobenefits of using a transportation management system for your product.

1.  Discuss how you would address a barrier or bottleneck in transporting your product to the retail facilities by doing the following:
2.  Describe how a barrier or bottleneck from the scenario can affect transporting your product.
3.  Choose eitherthe Lewin or ADKAR change management model and discuss how you would apply eachstep of your chosen model to address the bottleneck or barrier.
4. Discuss how you will address an ethical consideration for the barrier or bottleneck.

1.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.

1. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.