Project Management MGMT 1007

Assignment #3
Working with Work Breakdown Structures, Risk Assessments, Cost
Estimations, and Gantt Charts
You are the Project Manager assigned to manage a project to develop a new car for
your company. You will have to decide the following things:
a) Choose between a sports car or a family sedan,
b) Choose which type of engine to use(gas, electric or hydrogen powered)
c) Choose the body material (steel, aluminum or carbon fiber)
There is a time line of 18 months to complete the design and prepare to build your first
car and be ready for production. Your design decisions and supplier lists must be
presented to senior management within one month from today.
The plant that the car will be built in has to be refitted with new equipment to handle
the new production. The removal of the old equipment must be completed before the
new equipment can be installed. It is estimated that it will take up to 6 months to
remove the old equipment and prepare the plant for the new equipment to arrive. To
design and build the new equipment it will take 5 to 6 months if everything goes exactly
as planned. It will take 5 months to install and commission the new equipment and you
will need to have at least 3 months before production is scheduled to start to trial the
new equipment and train the operators and maintenance staff.
You will oversee the removal of the existing equipment, the new equipment being
installed into the plant as well as the training of the employees to handle the new
equipment. The plant is in the process of renegotiating the union contract with the
workers. Negotiations have been going on for some time now and there has been little
progress made. Both sides are getting frustrated and tensions are running high.
The gas engine that you could use is well tested and has been used in previous versions
of vehicles built in your plant. It is supplied by the Oily Motor Company that was built
just down the street from your plant. The reliability and quality of the engine has been
very good but it is an older technology and lacks some of the newest fuel saving
features.
The electric engine is a newer model and has only been in production for a year. Watt
an Engine, the company that builds them, is located in Michigan and has had a
number of issues with quality at the start of production. They are currently being

Schott, Raymond | MGMT-1007 F15 FANSHAWE COLLEGE

restructured after being bought out by a French firm. They have had a
number of management changes and they are in the process of installing
additional production equipment to increase output and improve quality control.
The hydrogen engine, built by Its a Gas, has just entered production in a brand new
facility located about 3 hours away from you. The engine has been trialed in a few
vehicles and has shown very good mileage results. This engine is the most expensive
option and has the least number in use of any choice. Using this engine would definitely
set your companys vehicle apart from anything else currently being offered and would
be a huge technological leap forward.
The body material choices that you have are all produced by two companies that you
have worked with in the past. Fibertech, a plant based in Northern Michigan produces
the carbon fiber panels. You have used them in the past and have been satisfied with
their quality and delivery on the last two projects that you ran. They have recently been
bought out by a large company from Germany and are currently undergoing
restructuring of all their departments. You have heard that there have been a large
number of changes to the Management team and that a modernization of the plant
including new process equipment is currently underway.
Metapan Forming is located in southern Kentucky and has been producing body
panels for automotive manufacturers for three decades. They have recently begun a
modernization of their plant and are currently one quarter of the way through it. They
have been a non-unionized plant since they began operation but recently have been
targeted by union organizing activities. Plant management believes that the union will
try to organize the plant for a vote within the next 6 to 12 months.
A new metal forming plant, Flashnthepan is aggressively marketing itself and is eager to
bid on this new contract. They are located in King City, Ontario, just two hours away
from your facility. They began operation just 9 months ago and are working to develop
their business. The plant is state of the art with the newest stamping and fabrication
equipment available. Their panels are laser welded and are capable of being formed
into shapes and angles that previously were not possible with older equipment and
processes.
Your plant is capable of supplying all the other components that you will require for the
vehicle, regardless of which type you choose.

Schott, Raymond | MGMT-1007 F15 FANSHAWE COLLEGE

For this project you will need to:

1) Create a WBS for all tasks that you can determine that need to be completed to
create and build your vehicle. You do not have to go into the detail of the
actual building of the vehicle. You can group the tasks associated with the
building into 5 or 6 tasks. Your WBS should consist of at least 20 tasks.
2) You will also have to create a detailed risk assessment for all the risks that you
feel might affect your project.
3) Create a risk matrix and show how you ranked your risks. Your matrix can be
created in Excel and then copy and paste into Word for the electronic
submission.
4) Create mitigation strategies for any risks you determine fall into the red category.
Identify the mitigation strategy that you would use for each risk.
5) Create a list of all the costs that you feel would be associated with this project.
6) Create a chart to categorize your costs into the 8 different types. This can be
created in Excel and handled the same as above.
7) Create a Gantt chart from information that will be released to you. Be sure to
include the linkages for each task and include milestone indicators from the
information provided in the assignment details.
This assignment must be submitted as a Microsoft word document and will be submitted
both electronically to the drop box and as a hard copy to my drop box (#31) in room
T3010. Due dates are posted on the class site on FOL. Please make sure that your hard
copy is time and date stamped before 4:00 on the due date as that is when the office
closes.

Schott, Raymond | MGMT-1007 F15 FANSHAWE COLLEGE