Corwin Corporation: Project Management - Coursework Example

CASE STUDY: CASE – 3. Corwin Corporation Q1. Should companies risk bidding on projects based upon rough draft specifications? Explain your answer in detail. Answer. Companies, no matter big or small, should always be prudent in their decisions involving any aspect of the organization. A company is only successful if it takes decision after thoroughly analyzing the problem or opportunity and through devising effective and fairly accurate solutions. Bidding on projects using rough draft specifications and estimations is a huge risk leaning more towards failure than success. In research and development project that Corwin Corporation undertook resulted in failure and an overrun in the projected costs because the overall estimations and basically abrupt decision making. Corwin Corporation was only given 48 hours to agree and come up with an estimated break up of the 250,000 dollars that Peters Company wanted to invest in a six months research and development project. This was something that Corwin was not used to doing and did not have the personnel or the faculty to facilitate such a project. However to maintain a healthy customer relationship and for the long term benefit of the company in the form of a five year production contract, they accepted the project on the basis of a rough draft specification that resulted in not only extra costs but also in the loss of a potentially beneficial five year contract. Due to the uncertainty of the project many of Corwin’s employees felt detached and were disheartened as they were unable visualize the success of the project. So I believe that it is not feasible and in the benefit of companies to take up projects based on mere drafts and estimations. Q2. How should West have handled the situation where Pat Ray’s opinion of the test data was contrary to that of Corwin’s engineering personnel? Answer. Dan West being the project leader and responsible for all the activities, did not handle the situation with Patrick Ray, the in-house representative of Peters Company, the way it should have been handled. Dan being the boss should have made it clear to Pat that he was the man in charge and that he was the one with the authority. Dan’s submissive attitude allowed Pat to give outright and sometimes unjust opinions and gave him the position to be uncooperative and unsupportive. Dan, from the get go, should have stopped Pat and should have explained him the details of each and every test that was being and the limitations so that that he would have no room for argument, he instead let him do whatever he felt like. Dan even fire his employee when Pat disliked his work instead of showing his own authority he should have informed Mr. Royce or Mr. Reddy of Pts behavior and explain them the situation. In this situation it was very important for Dan to be a leader and be a good self monitor and take charge, he was unable to do so. Q3. Should Pat Ray have been given the freedom to visit laboratory personnel at any time? Should he have had the right to remove a functional employee from the project? Discuss your answer with rationale. Answer. With the prior knowledge that Peters was an extremely difficult client to please and with the experience of working with them on such a project previously, Pat Ray should not have been allowed to visit the laboratory personnel. Pat Ray’s attitude was clearly not favorable and he made it extremely difficult for the lab personnel to do their jobs. Due to his meddling and interference in their job West started to receive daily phone calls from the workers in the lab which would have definitely made his job difficult. One of the calls that he received also said that Pat had also altered the test condition of the latest approved test matrix not only hampering the workers but also the project. Pat also stated that Corwin was very unprofessional and at one point also demanded that one of the workers be fired and gave an ultimatum. This resulted in unhappy and disheartened employees and less productivity. Therefore it was not wise of Dan West to allow Pat Ray to visit his labs and tamer with his tests and harass his employees. Q4. What risks exist when the vice president for manufacturing (or any other “significant” individual) is not available during the go or no-go bidding decision? Answer. Senior management such as Presidents or Vice Presidents are at their positions because they have the knowledge and the experience to take mission critical decisions for their company. There are at the level of hierarchy where they make decisions that are generally less technical and are more related to the long term benefits of the organization. During bidding or a no bidding decision, the company has to decide whether to take up a project or not. If the Vice president for Manufacturing or any individual that is significant for such decisions is not present, a go-error or a drop error can be made. In the case of Corwin it was a go-error. A Research and Development project was too risky of a decision to make without the presence of the Vice president of Marketing Mr. Reddy as Corwin is a marketing driven firm and all important decisions are made by the Marketing department. Also because Corwin did not have a solid Research and Development department and did not usually take up such projects the participation of a senior representative such as Mr. Reddy would have been wise and would have been able to save Corwin from such a disastrous outcome. SOURCE: • Karl Wiegers, PhD, 21 Project Management Success Tips, (http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/21-project-management-success-tips.html) Read More