Crosby Manufacturing Corporation
Read the case Crosby Manufacturing Corporation (Page 203-206) from Kerzner, H. (2017). Project Management Case Studies (Vol. Fifth edition)Links to an external site..
Examine the project management issues in the case, including concerns about the project, timeline, uncertainties about meeting timelines, and consequences.
Overview: In no more than one page, give an overview of the case and the project management issues to be covered in more detail in subsequent sections of the paper.
Discuss, in a logical order, the following topics. (You must determine the logical order of these topics as this is part of your grade. See the grading rubric in this week’s folder.). Organize your work using the headings listed in the beginning of each bullet item:
Challenges: Judge the challenges in managing a project such as this.
Impact of variability: Identify the impact of variability on project completion time.
Alternative strategies: Argue the alternative strategies to manage the project to meet client deadlines.
Project schedule: Explain the expected time to finish the project, and develop a milestone schedule with all major milestones. Identify if and how the project can be completed in eighteen months. Identify three of the potential schedule-related risks.
Implications of diversity/culture: Analyze the implications of diversity/culture. How these implications could change if the project was being managed in an international setting.
Performance improvement and closure: Anticipate the consequences and recommend project management principles and tools including auditing tools important to improve project performance. In addition, specify the project closure techniques that can be used to properly close the project.
Write a paper addressing the Crosby Manufacturing Corporation case. Your paper should be 8-10 pages in length, not including the required title and references pages and appendices. Diagrams, charts, figures, and tables should be placed in appendices and written about in the body of the paper.
Support the paper with a minimum of three current (published in the most recent five years) scholarly sources from the CSU Global LibraryLinks to an external site.. This is in addition to any course textbooks or lecture material you decide to use. Of course, you may always exceed the minimum number of sources.
Sample Solution
The Crosby Manufacturing Corporation case presents a number of challenges in managing a project. One challenge is the need to coordinate different people who are responsible for different aspects of the project, including the design team, procurement personnel, and assembly workers (Kerzner 2017). Another challenge is that this project requires rapid completion due to customer demand. This means that any unexpected delays or problems could cause significant delays in meeting customer deadlines (Kerzner 2017). Furthermore, this case also highlights the importance of communication between all stakeholders involved in order to ensure smooth operation throughout the entire process and successful delivery of goods at their expected date (Kerzner 2017).
Variability can have a major impact on the completion time for projects such as this one. For example, if certain parts required for product assembly are not readily available when needed due to variability in supply chain operations and lead times, it can significantly delay production schedules (Ryu et al., 2016). Additionally, if there is significant variation in quality control results from suppliers or changes made during production can result in additional unplanned testing requirements or added rework processes which will add further complexity and time to complete the project (Abdulrahman et al., 2018). Variability within supplier performance may also increase risk related issues such as non-availability of materials on agreed timelines leading to potential disruption in production scheduling (Udechukwu & Obiora 2019). All these factors can lead to an increase in completion time which may then negatively affect customer deadlines.
In conclusion, effective management of projects such as this one presented by Kerrzer require coordination among multiple stakeholders with tight deadlines and high variability impacting many aspects of product development and delivery. Thus it becomes essential for managers overseeing these types of projects be aware of potential issues that arise from variability within departments so they can take preventative measures early on thus helping avoid undesirable consequences related to extended completion times.
