Recycled Black Berry phones - Assignment Example

?Recycled Black Berry Phones Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Project Organization and Activity Durations 3 Developing the Project Schedule 6 Estimate Costs 9 Monitor and Control Project 11 References 12 Project Organization and Activity Durations The project of recycled Blackberry phones has been decided to be undertaken keeping in view the interests of the stakeholders. The project would also facilitate to ascertain greater benefit for the organization as it would certainly enable to represent a greater focus of the company in terms of its organizational approach towards mitigating environmental challenges through recycling of phones. Responsively, a Gantt chart has been prepared in relation to this project which facilitates to determine different activities needed to be performed for successful completion of the required operations. Gantt Chart of the Activities: Activity durations can be defined as the procedure of estimating the amount of work related periods which would be required in order to accomplish respective activities within the approximated resources. With reference to the prepared Gantt Chart of the activities, it can be determined that the entire project schedule related to recycling of Blackberry phones would require six activities to be undertaken. The first activity is collection and arrangement of all report relating to the availability of manpower and resources. This activity will require approximately four weeks’ time period. In order to complete this activity, the three major estimated resources that will be required include project manager who would manage the whole project. Apart from this, the HR manager would help the project manager by providing relevant report with regard to the competent and skilled manpower resources, who would be able to take part in this project. Production manager would also be a key player and resource who would aid the project manager through rendering information about various production related activities that would be a key element of the project. Moreover, the second activity of the recycled Blackberry phones project is preparing a brief framework about the immediate tasks concerning the procurement of additional resources. For fulfilling this activity, there will be a need of around six weeks’ time and the required resources will be new technology which will help for building the framework and providing proper guidelines for the resources. With human resources manager and procurement manager’s help the project manager will be able to fulfill the activity. The third activity is to make suitable amount of improvements in relation to the available facilities in the plant in a timely basis. In order to accomplish this activity, the required duration would be three weeks and it can be possible to be undertaken after completing the above two activities. For completing this task, there is a need of obtaining valuable inputs from site manager who can aid the project manager to design the plan for the recycled Blackberry phones. Availability of updated facilities in the plant can enable the project to regulate in a smooth manner. Apart from site manager, there is requirement of deriving valuable contributions from workers along with registering a proper budgetary plan for completing the project. Another activity related to the project is setting provisions pertaining to the basic requirements concerning proper electricity backup, machinery requirements and technical assistance among others. For completing this activity, a work period of four weeks will be required and it will be started before finishing the third activity as the activity of improving the plant could be completed successfully only with the aid of technical assistance and machinery upgradation. For electricity backup, there is a need to ensure the availability of inverter and computer backup through UPS technology. Apart from these, in order to regulate this activity, the valuable inputs of an electrical engineer along with workers in terms of technical assistance would be requisite. The very next activity of recycling the Blackberry phones is ascertaining proper infrastructural support in order to mitigate any kind of disruptions within the work process. This activity needs three weeks. Without proper infrastructure, the recycling process cannot be materialized as a lot of complexities would arise in the long run. The resources associated with this activity include manpower and technology. Scientific functions will be needed for maintaining the infrastructure and developing the work process. Furthermore, the last activity is completion of the key work processes that are required for efficiently completing the initial phase of the project. This activity of the project would require a six weeks work period. For completing this activity, there is a vital need of proper leadership from the project manager and the allied management and free flow communication with employer and upper management level. Without proper direction, the technical department would be unable to maintain and complete the associated activities of the project. Coordination will be very much an important part for executing the activity of recycling Blackberry phones project (Cleland, 1999). Developing the Project Schedule Project schedule is a catalogue of a project’s activities and deliverables. It is prepared to accomplish the different project related activities within specified start as well as finish dates. In relation to the project of recycling Blackberry phones, the project schedule is very much an important part for the development of the project. With regard to this project, it has been determined that there would be primarily six activities that would play a vital role within the project schedule. In terms of proper project scheduling, the components such as analyzing the sequence of the project and time for completing the project along with the needed resources for accomplishing the project would be determined. The activity associated with collecting and arranging all reports relating to the availability of manpower and resources is a key task for the developing the project schedule. With the help of this activity, the project of recycling Blackberry phones can be started. This activity is the first step for ensuring smooth execution of the project. For arranging the manpower and resources, there would be a requirement of four weeks in the project schedule and it is the initial stage for starting the project. For completing this activity, proper data and information about competent human resources possessing technical competencies would be necessitated. This activity can face certain constraints. The major constraint for this activity might be unavailability of adequate key resource i.e. trained and skilled manpower. For addressing the different needs related to the activity, development of proper skills and knowledge of the manpower resources is of paramount importance. In this stage, the management is updated with little surplus capacity. Important resource unavailability related constraint can emerge in projects in the time of activity changes (Kloppenborg & Lavigne, 2008). Making a brief framework about the immediate tasks concerning the procurement of additional resources activity can facilitate the project manager to analyze the needs of the project. The schedule for the activity would be six weeks. This activity might also face certain constraints such as lack of logical data for analyses and lack of additional data for completing this activity (Kloppenborg & Lavigne, 2008). Making suitable amount of improvements in relation to the available facilities in the plant in a timely basis activity is beneficial for augmenting the status of the plant equipment that would be required in the project. To complete this activity, four weeks period would be needed in the schedule. This activity can be possible through the help of manpower and technical resources. The probable constraints related to this activity might entail lack of manpower resources and technical problems. Meeting the designated dates for completing the assigned tasks is also a key constraint for this activity (Kloppenborg & Lavigne, 2008). Provision pertaining to the basic requirements concerning proper electricity backup, machinery equipment and technical assistance among others activity needs four weeks of time in the project schedule. It would be a very much beneficial and important step for managing the entire project. This activity would help the organization to execute the determined product task and there is a need of electricians and IT specialist persons for handling the technical aspects of the organization. The constraints related to this activity could be fault of technical devices, and lack of knowledge about handling IT equipment (Kloppenborg & Lavigne, 2008). Ensuring proper infrastructural support so that the work processes do not get disturbed is one of the most vital activities in the schedule of the project as it would enable to develop the work process in an organized manner. This activity would require three weeks’ time. However, the most challenging part of this activity could be time duration and lack of coordination between the workers and manager (Kloppenborg & Lavigne, 2008). Completion of the major work processes required for smoothly completing the initial stage of the project activity needs six weeks’ time period. In this regard, it can be ascertained that the project schedule which would entail the fulfillment of six key activities, there would be certain key milestones as well. The entire project is scheduled to be completed within a span of 3 months and 1 week. Estimate Costs Cost estimation is referred as the procedure of formulating an approximation related to the monetary resources required to accomplish project activities. Estimation of costs includes a prediction in keeping with probable risks and cost trade-offs. The estimated cost of the recycled Blackberry phones project would be approximately US$204,000. For the first activity i.e. collecting and arranging all reports related to the availability of manpower and resources. The cost of managing the resources in terms of staff salary of the requisite manpower would be around US$75,000 for the period of around 3 months when the project would be on schedule. In this similar regard, procurement of additional resources activity would bring forward the cost requirement of US$25,000. The cost would be approximately US$30,000 for developing plant facilities and buying new technologies. On the other hand, for electricity back up and technical assistance there would be a need of around US$10, 000. High quality technical power supply equipment needs to be kept on force all the time during project, which can be achieved through this activity. Similarly, the fifth activity is proper infrastructure support wherein there would be a need of incurring a cost of around US$20,000. Along with this, the last activity is completion of the major work processes for which approximately US$37,000 would be required as cost (Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, 2000). Activities Resources Amount (Approximate in USD) manpower resources expenses 75,000 Framework of additional resources 25,000 Facilities of Plant 30,000 Electricity and machinery equipment 10,000 Proper infrastructure development 20,000 Completion of major works 40,000 Total 200,000 An Overview of Estimated Cost Determine Budget Determine budget phase in a project facilitates to aggregate the approximated costs related to individual activities in order to establish a designated cost baseline. This aspect can facilitate to monitor and control the project performance. In relation to the recycling Blackberry phones project, there would be six key activities performed. In relation to these activities, the key considerations for the budget would be activity cost, project schedule and contracts (Chandramouli, 2011). From the estimated costs of each of the activities, it is observed that the total activity cost would be around US$200,000. The project schedule with regard to the prospective constraints can amount to be around 4 months. There might also raise risks associated with unavailability quality manpower and time constraint among others. Monitor and Control Project The project manager will manage the Blackberry phones project with support from the workers, who will particularly include the technical staff. The project manager needs to ensure the management of risks, problems and issues. He also needs to continuously keep a track and monitor the different activities to determine the project performance (Assessment Careers, 2011). For project development, the development of leadership is very much an important factor. Project manager can certainly play the leadership role by ensuring that all the associated members are focused towards the project goal. A free flow of communication should be maintained which will enable to precisely monitor and review different process handled by distinct individuals who can provided their regular feedbacks. It will also enable to ascertain that the project does not go over budget and any kind of slack during the scheduled activities is avoided (The Project Box, 2012). References Assessment Careers, 2011. JISC Project Plan. Project Information. [Online] Available at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearning/Assessment/ProjPlans/IOE%20Project%20Plan.pdf Cleland, D. I., 1999. Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation. McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing. Chandramouli, S., 2011. PMP® Certification—Excel with Ease. Pearson Education India. Kloppenborg, T.J. & Lavigne, L.K., 2008. Project Scheduling Constraints – Best methods and practices. Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://ebiz.uoregon.edu/poms2008/FullPapers/008-0203.pdf [Accessed October 16, 2013]. The Project Box, LLC, 2012. 5 Key Skills Required by Project Managers. Services. [Online] Available at: http://www.theprojectbox.us/2012/08/5-key-skills-required-by-project-managers/ [Accessed October 16, 2013]. Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, 2000. A Feasibility Study of Mobile Home Recycling. Trailer. [Online] Available at: http://www.anr.state.vt.us/dec/wastediv/recycling/pubs/TRAILER.pdf [Accessed October 16, 2013]. Read More