2024 – Individual Assignment 1 Managing a Project Instructions Cell Phone Design Process You work for Motorola in the global

Cell Phone Design Process

You work for Motorola in the global cell phone group. You have been made operations/project manager for the design of a new cell phone model. Your supervisors have already scoped the project so you have a list showing the work breakdown structure and this includes major activities. You must plan the production schedule and calculate production duration. Your boss wants the schedule on his desk tomorrow morning! You have been given the information below. It includes all of the activities required and the duration of each activity. Also, dependencies between the activities have been identified. Remember that the preceding activity must be fully completed before work on the following activity can be started. It is divided into five major production processes. Process “P” involves developing specifications for the new cell phone. Here decisions related to such things as battery life, size of the phone and features need to be determined. These details are based on how a customer uses the cell phone. These user specifications are redefined in terms that have meaning to the subcontractors that will actually make the new cell phone in Process “S” supplier specifications. These involved engineering details for how the product will perform. The individual components that make up the product are the focus of Process “D”. Process “I” brings all of the components together and a working prototype is built and tested. Finally in Process “V”, vendors are selected and contracts are negotiated.

1. Produce a network diagram that includes all of the activities. What is a network diagram and why is it important?
2. Produce a Gantt chart that includes all of the activities. What is a Gantt Chart and why is it important?
3. Calculate start and finish times for each activity. Assuming a start date of 10/1/2015, what is the finish date?
4. What is the total number of weeks for completing the process?
5. Which activities have slack? What is slack?
6. Which activities are on the critical path? Why do we use the critical path in scheduling?
7. Your boss would like you to suggest changes that could be made to production that would significant shorten it. What would you suggest?

Activities	ID	Predecessor	Duration (days)
Product Specifications (P) Overall Product Specifications	P1	–	20
Hardware Specifications	P2	P1	25
Software Specifications	P3	P1	25
Market Research	P4	P2, P3	10
Supplier Specifications (S) Hardware	S1	P2	25
Software	S2	P3	30
Market Research	S3	P4	5
Product Design (D) Circuits	D1	S1, D7	40
Battery	D2	S1	5
Display	D3	S1	10
Outer Cover	D4	S3	20
User Interface	D5	S2	20
Camera	D6	S1, S2, S3	5
Functionality	D7	D5, D6	20
Product Integration (I)  Hardware	I1	D1, D2, D3, D4, D6	15
Software	I2	D7	25
Prototype Testing	I3	I1, I2	25
Subcontracting (V)  Vendor Selection	V1	D7	50
Contract Negotiation	V2	I3, V1	10

Managing a Project Teaching Notes

This document contains the following information:

1. Instructions for completing the setup of Open Project on your computer.
2. Assignment Instructions.
3. Video Tutorial for getting started on the assignment.
4. Teaching Notes to guide you step by step through the assignment.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Downloading Open Project

For this assignment you will use free project management software called Open Project. Open Project is an identical platform compared to Microsoft Project, but it’s free and easy to install. However, once you know how to use Open Project, you will also know how to use Microsoft Project – which is a great skill set to have in the workplace.

To download Open Project, please visit http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj/ and select Download. Follow the brief prompts and OpenProj icon will then be installed on your computer.

The windows version can be found in the “Files” section of the website.  Here’s the link:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj/files/OpenProj%20Binaries/1.4/

Then download one of the following files:

1) openproj-1.4.msi

2) openproj-1.4.zip

Getting Started

To get started with this assignment, you will need to complete the “project setup” portion which consists of inputting all data into the appropriate fields. The teaching notes below describe how to complete the setup.

You may also view this video introduction to the process.

Teaching Notes

The teaching notes will walk you through step by step in answering the assignment questions. These teaching notes are designed so that you can become familiar with the inner workings of project management software and complete the assignment accurately. I believe that you will learn more using this method than completing it inaccurately and not mastering the material.

The Setup

To answer the questions posed in this case study, you will need to get the data provided input into Open Project. Follow these steps to complete the setup:

1. Click on Open Project and choose to Create Project.

2. Input the Project Name and click Ok.

3. Right click on any of the columns and click Insert Column. Choose the “WBS’ data field.

4. Right click on any of the columns and click Insert Column. Choose the “WBS Predecessor” data field.

5. Enter the “Activities” into Name. Do not enter the category names (product specification, supplier specifications, etc.). Enter only the activities.

6. Enter the “ID” into the WBS field.

7. Enter the predecessor into the “Predecessor” field. Note that you will need to use numerals such as 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. based on the defaulted id that MS Project lists in the far left column. As you enter these, note how the WBS Predecessor field is automatically filled in.

8. Enter the duration of each activity. For Open Project, only days are hours are supported so when you input the number of weeks (4 wks), this will be automatically converted to days. That is fine. You can make the manual conversion yourself to answer any assignment questions (8 hours = 1 days, 5 days = 1 week).

Now, your setup should be completed and should appear like this image below. Note that your start and end dates may be different since the date that I produced this image is my starting date.

  

Question #1

Click View, choose Network. Take a screenshot (or multiple screenshot if necessary) and put this in your final Word document. If you need assistance with screen shots, please research this on the Internet. Next to your image, type in a response to the question posed, if any.

Question #2

Click View, and choose Gantt. Take a screenshot (or multiple screenshot if necessary) and put this in your final Word document. Next to your image, type in a response to the question posed, if any.

Question #3

The start and finish times are automatically calculated based upon the default date, which is the date you are entering the tasks. Change your start date of the first task to 10/1/2015 and click enter. Notice how the rest of the project gets shifted. What is the revised Finish Date?

Question #4

Calculate the total number of days the project will take by counting day from the start date of the first activity to the finish date of the last activity. Indicate this number on your Word document.

Question #5

Right click on any column, click Insert Column, and choose “Total Slack”. Add the total slack column. This will show each activity that has slack and how much slack. In your Word document, indicate what slack means and which activities have slack.

Question #6

Insert the Critical column. You should know how to do this by now. Which activities are on the critical path? Since we know the critical path are the activities that must be completed on time for a project to be completed on time, what is the minimum time to complete the entire process? (Hint: add the length of each activity that is on the critical path)

Question #7

Look at which tasks do not have to be dependent upon each other. For example, can one group of activities be completed at the same time as opposed to being completed one at a time? If so, this will save time. Play around with the different scenarios by removing/adding predecessors and seeing how it affects the project end date. Give us your recommendation and logic behind the recommendation. There is no right or wrong answer. I want to understand what you suggest, why you suggest it, and how much time it will save on the project. There is not an absolute right or wrong answer if you can justify it.