Project Management and Lean Principles Assignment

The assignment provided is a study guide on project management and lean principles. It includes references to academic articles and books, as well as online resources. The content covers a range of topics related to project management, including the five principles of lean, work breakdown structures, earned value project management, and greening project management practices. The study guide also touches on the future of operations management and provides a conceptual framework for tackling knowable unknowns in project management.

Operation and Project
Management

Table of Contents
Operation and Project Management.................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Conduct a review and critique of the implementation of operations management principles
.....................................................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P2 Prepare a continuous improvement plan based on the review and critique...........................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P3 Stages of PLC with business case, project plan and work breakdown structure...................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................9
P 4 Review and critique the effectiveness of the PLC................................................................9
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Operation management is the planning and execution of process which are defined to
accomplish a task and manufacturing, demand forecasting, production planning, inventory
control, quality management and supply chain collaboration. Whereas project management is a
process of covering all the activities through a task from the beginning to end that includes
planning, executing controlling, and closing a work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet
specific success criteria within a predetermine time. This report is about a company named as,
Hotpoint Electric Heating Company which is generally called Hotpoint. The firm was founded
almost 107 years ago in the year 1911 in the United States by Earl Richardson the main products
of company are fridges, freezers, gas and electric cookers, washing machine and electric friars.
The company has decided to enter in large screen television market with 58 inches screen and
also a range of stadium screens. This report covers operational and project management research
including six sigma methodology, continuous improvement plan, product life cycle and so on
(Antonioand and Ramos, 2012).
TASK 1
P1 Conduct a review and critique of the implementation of operations management principles
Operation management is the process of production management which involves
planning, organising, supervising and many more. Although, it also make necessary steps which
help in improving several things for generating higher profitability. The same is previously
known as production management adjustment in day to day activity results in achieving goals
and objective of business. When operation management is implemented in production
department of enterprise then it will directly results in on time production with minimum
wastage of resources. If there is time to time goods are producing it will satisfy customers needs
and wants on specific time period (Beringer, Jonas and Kock, 2013). There are some principles
of operational management which should be followed by the Hotpoint to introduce a large a
screen TV in order to attain the aim and the principles given below -
1. Reality – Reality means there is no universal solution of a business problem because
there may be various solutions of the events there is no one definite solution of a
problem. It means neither the theory of constraints nor the lean principle nor total quality
management nor any other technique can solve a problems. In developing a TV many
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problems can occur but it is not possible that every time only one solution work on
different kind of problems (Blomquist and et. al., 2010).
2. Organization – All factors of production must be organized in a coherent way because if
one process is change the other one will get change. To gain the profit anyone can
through out a maximum products but there is no surety of profit, one should wait for right
time to expose the products. If profits can be predict and maintain to be consistent then
the activity which can lead the profit must be predictable and consistent with each other.
While developing a TV every stage should be organized in a well defined manner so that
there will less chance of mistakes.
3. Fundamentals – The firm must be strict with its foundation values because the if the
foundation is strong only then the company can go on long way. If Hotpoint will strict
with its rules then it can reach to its objective.
4. Accountability - Accountability is important because managers determines the goals
through maintaining metrics, standards to evaluate them, assigning responsibility,
comparison between actual and expected outcomes and correct actions according to that.
The manager of Hotpoint should manages the accounts to measure the performance.
5. Variance – Variance can be managed and controlled while reducing the system's goals
and in contrast variance can be encouraged when system's goal to increase options.
6. Causality – If there is not a permanent solutions has to be made then the issues can arise
several times. Hotpoint can find out the causes from this state then they can find the
solutions and fix the problems so that they will not attack repeatedly(Brauers and
Zavadskas, 2010).
7. Managed passion – To take a company on perch passion is required because passionate
employees and business person are the foundation of company's growth.
8. Humility – An individual does not aware about everything so its better to learn from
others and taking help in difficult tasks so that the company should not pay the price for
attempts.
9. Success – Success matters to customer satisfaction and when customer choices are
changed the success aspects also get changed. Understanding customer importance is
essential for a business in order to gain profit.
10. Change – Making changes in old manufacturing solution is good to be change because if
the changes are needed then the old one must be inadequate.
Six –Sigma methodology
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Six sigma is a quality program that improves your customer's experience, lowers business
costs and builds better leaders. It seeks to improve business process by removing the cause of
errors which are the main reason of defects in products and service. Hotpoint Company should
appoint the system management which systematically identifies errors and also provides the
methods to eliminate them. There are specific system management for the six sigma, it needed
to achieve the designation in certain kind of system handling, it includes the position with Green
Belt, Black Belt, Master Black Belt and Champion(Fernández and Rodríguez, 2010).
Six sigma has a methodology that is used to recognize the errors and find out the
solutions. There are two methodologies in six sigma and that are given below-
DMAIC: This method is used for amending existing business process and the letters in it stands
for:
 D – define the problem and project aim.
 M – Measure in the various aspects of the current process in detail.
 A – Analyse data to, among other things and searching for the defects in process deeply.
 I – Improve the process
 C – Control on how the process is going to be done in future.
DMADV : DMADV is used to create new process and new products or services. The letters
indicates to -
 Defining the project goals
 measure the critical element of the process and the product capabilities
 Analyse the data and develop various designs for the process and pick the best one
among them
 design and test details of the process
 verify the design by running simulations and pilot program and then handle over the
process to the client.
Significance of Six –Sigma methodology
 Six – sigma is important because it scores much higher over other quality
improvement (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016).
 It stressed on the use to statistical tolls and techniques to improve quality and
reduce the defects.
 One of the major importance of six – sigma methodology is that to handle
competition by enabling business firm to increase quality products that ultimately
raise the customer loyalty.
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Hotpoint would get help by using six sigma methodologies and lean principles to manage the
quality and reduce the waste as well (Gunase, karanand and Ngai, 2012).
Lean principles
Lean principles refer to creating more value for customers with fewer resources.
A lean organization such as Hotpoint understands customer value and concentrated on its
key processes to continuous incremental process. The main objective is to provide perfect
value to the customer through a perfect value creation process with minimized waste.
There are five lean principles which are followed by the Hotpoint to introduce a new range
of product that are given below-
1. Value – It comprises seven kind of values like transportation, inventory, motion,
defects, overproduction, over-processing, and waiting.
2. Value stream – After the value determination the step is to mapping the value
stream and process that are involved in delivering a product or service. It includes
value stream mapping, tackle pure waste and making a process efficient .
3. Flow – It used to create a continue process without any interruption.
4. Pull – Pull refers as to produce the products only when it is required by the
customer so that there is no overproduction or overstocking problem occurs.
5. Perfection – Perfection leads to eliminate waste from every stage and make a flow
of process smooth (Lenfle and Loch, 2010).
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Source : The Five Principles of Lean, 2017
TASK 2
P2 Prepare a continuous improvement plan based on the review and critique
Continuous improvement plan is an current effort to improve products, services or
processes. These efforts can be define as incremental with the time or breakthrough
improvement at once. It can be analysed through delivery process that are constantly evaluated
and improved with their effectiveness, efficiency and flexibility (Pemsel and Wiewiora, 2013).
Continuous improvement plan (CIP) can be consider as a meta process for most of the
management systems such as business process management, quality management, project
management, and program management. It focused on never changing process that is going to
be increase forever to accomplish the firm's goal and objective with efficiency\ and effectiveness.
CIP can also be refer as subset of continual improvement with more concentration on linear,
incremental improvement within an existing an existing process (Mir and Pinnington, 2014).
CIP is a four step quality model that includes plan – do – check – act (PDCA) cycle
which is also known as Deming or Shewhart cycle:
 Plan : It identifies opportunities and plan for change.
 Do : Do implements a change on small scale.
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Illustration 1: The Five Principles of Lean

 Check : It uses data to analyse the outcomes of the change an determine whether it made
a difference or not.
 Act : Act came in action after the changes was successful, implement it on a wider scale
and continuously assessing the result. If the change is working proplerly then it go to start
again (Ramasesh and Browning, 2014).
On the basis of operational management of principle Hotpoint firm wanted to know the reviews
and critique about the new launching product through the continuous improvement plan.
Improvement Current position Target Time frame
Quality The production of 58
inches TV is under
planning of
manufacturing because
the quality product
must be provided to
the customers. The
design and frame of
should be focused on
customer requirement,
hence the company
should take the strict
decision in each stage
of development which
can give a qualitative
product.
The main aim of the
firm is to capture the
market within six
months with the some
extensive feature of
TV. Initially the firm
would supply the large
screen TV and after
that the Stadium
screen for the up
coming sports events,
that will increase the
company profit. The
TV set up will also
give a proper
installation and quality
of service that can
attain the customer
expectations.
The TV systems will
be soon available in
the market within 8
moths after completing
the testing phase like
error detection and re
– checking the
modules (Robichaud
and Anantatmula,
2010).
Packaging Packaging is most
important for TV
because people usually
makes a one time
investment on TV, so
it should be packed
Packaging target is to
maintain the safety of
the product and also
eye catching that can
give surprise to the
buyers.
After deciding the
packaging criteria the
packaging team needs
almost 3 months to can
meet the packaging
needs.
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well so that it cannot
get hurt like there
should be no scratches.
Any kind of incident
can reduce its cost and
even the cost spend on
it can go to waste. So
packaging should be
attractive and full
proof (Söderlund,
2011).
Designing The TV design should
be alluring to the
customers because
people are looking for
new techniques in TV
so that should meet
their requirements.
There are so many TV
are in the market so
the product must be
unique and advanced
in technology which
can make an strong
image in the market.
Design is desired by
the customer, it is
crucial to know what
kind of design
customers exactly
wants. To know the
desires a research can
be conduct so the firm
can meet customer
needs (Subramanian
and Ramanathan,
2012).
As designing is the
crucial state after the
manufacturing theni
tcan take 5 months to
develop an effective
design that can grab
the customer attention.
This plan can be develop effectively in a specific manner that can be a beneficial for Hotpoint,
the profitability can be measure as -
 Increase productivity
 enhance the quality
 Reduce the cost
 Trim delivery time duration
 Give moral support to the workers
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 Decrease employees ratio
TASK 3
P3 Stages of PLC with business case, project plan and work breakdown structure
The project life cycle defines the life of a project from beginning to end, it comprises all
the procedures which lead the final outcomes means it research to closing process everything. It
covers entire process of the project. Every project has a start point, a middle duration of the
project which includes the activities and move ahead towards the further process that is
completion, and at the last phase it has an ending. The ending phase a project can either be
successful or unsuccessful. There are four phases in each PLC, similar to that Hotpoint TV
production will also flow with these four stages such as initiation, planning, implementation, and
closure (Turner, 2016).
Initial phase : During the first phase the main focus is on the objectives and needs that
are essential to the identify. The needs can be business problems or opportunities that are going
to grab like introducing a large screen TV is an opportunity for Hotpoint. An appropriate
response to the need will be documented in a business case with recommended solutions after
this state the feasibility study will be investigated in order to address the objectives and a final
recommended solutions will be determine.
After the determining the recommended solutions the a project manager is to be
appointed and then a project team will be shaped to participate in a project.
Planning phase : In the second phase, all the possible solutions are find out that are
required to meet the objectives. The team identifies the al the work to be done and what are the
resources would be needed in completion of a task. The strategies are to be planned according to
the work to complete all stages efficiently. It recognizes all the activities, tasks, dependencies
and time frame that is required to be accomplish a task. It covers the budget planning including
labour cost, equipment costs, and material costs because the finance needs to be monitored. The
planning phase also includes a risk management for uncertain occurrence of events that can take
time in executing a task or can reduce the impact of the product.
The foremost risk is to communicate with the stakeholders who are investing in the
project they should know all the factors and information about the project. After all these
identification one is required to quality plan, assurance and control measures, target. The
Hotpoint will appoint a project manager who leads to entire planning which maintains
communication among the dependent states, and other resources (Antonio and Ramos, 2012).
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Implementation phase : Implementation is the third phase, in this plan put in motion in
order to perform a project activities. It is crucial to maintain control and communicate as needed
during the implementation. In this step project manager is spends most of the time in carrying
out the task effectively, to see the progress through regular meeting that can enhance the
correctiveness of the project. The progress is measured continuous to made appropriate
adjustments. In this state all the planned activities will be take shape to manufacturing a TV and
other processes (Beringer, Jonas and Kock, 2013).
Closing phase : At the last state the Hotpoint will delivers the TV to the intended user,
and the final phase includes the handling over the project documentation, terminating suppliers
contract, releasing project resources and communicating about the project closure to all
stakeholders.
These all phases will be considered by the Hotpoint while product development.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
A work breakdown structure is essential in project management and
system engineering. It breaks a project in small modules so that a team's
work can be managed in separate sections.
Source : How to Improve Productivity With a Work Breakdown Structure
Gantt chart
A Gantt chart is prepares to give a timeline in a project management that tells how the
project will run within specific time. In developing a TV what are labour timing in each task
will be covered in Gantt chart (Blomquist and et. al., 2010).
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Illustration 2: How to Improve Productivity With a Work Breakdown Structure

TASK 4
P 4 Review and critique the effectiveness of the PLC
Product life cycle is very necessary in every business cause it gives a structural approach
to deliver a customer satisfaction. TV is a new product of Hotpoint which will goes through the
entire process of PLC. It determines each and every stage which will goes to complete task
through identify the requirements of product and activities like labour cost, quality, equipments,
machinery, and risk factors and how they can be managed (Brauers and Zavadskas, 2010).
PLC is very beneficial for Hotpoint when it is launching large screen TV cause it can
effectively measured and manage al the assignment which are included in a project with all the
necessary facts and statistical data. Though, it has some specific benefits such as -
 By risk management it minimizes the chances of errors and losses so that the complexity
is also reduced.
 Each jobs are defined in separate portions so that the workers can perform well and each
activity is has a different team that can easily manage the work (Fernández and
Rodríguez, 2010).
 The communication between the teams give a direction to the team and working progress.
 It analyse the thoughts and opinions and other factors which can be a hurdle in launching
a product.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be stated that operation and project management is essential
approach that can help to manage the organizational activities more efficiently and in controlled
manner. The above report is about a operation and project management in which a firm named
Hotpoint is launching a TV, through introducing a TV it entering in to a new marketplace. Thus,
the report covers all the aspects of project management it covers operations management
principles, six sigma, lean principles, continuous improvement plan, product life cycle, work
breakdown structure, Gantt chart and effectiveness of PLC.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Antonio Martins, V. and Ramos Martins, M., 2012. Outsourcing operations in project
management offices: The reality of Brazilian companies. Project management journal.
43(2). pp.68-83.
Beringer, C., Jonas, D. and Kock, A., 2013. Behavior of internal stakeholders in project portfolio
management and its impact on success. International Journal of Project Management.
31(6). pp.830-846.
Blomquist, T. and et. al., 2010. Project‐as‐practice: In search of project management research
that matters. Project Management Journal. 41(1). pp.5-16.
Brauers, W. K. M. and Zavadskas, E. K., 2010. Project management by MULTIMOORA as an
instrument for transition economies. Technological and Economic Development of
Economy. 16(1). pp.5-24.
Fernández-Sánchez, G. and Rodríguez-López, F., 2010. A methodology to identify sustainability
indicators in construction project management—Application to infrastructure projects in
Spain. Ecological Indicators. 10(6). pp.1193-1201.
Fleming, Q. W. and Koppelman, J. M., 2016, December. Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Gunasekaran, A. and Ngai, E. W., 2012. The future of operations management: an outlook and
analysis. International Journal of Production Economics. 135(2). pp.687-701.
Lenfle, S. and Loch, C., 2010. Lost roots: how project management came to emphasize control
over flexibility and novelty. California Management Review. 53(1). pp.32-55.
Mir, F. A. and Pinnington, A. H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking
project management performance and project success. International journal of project
management. 32(2). pp.202-217.
Pemsel, S. and Wiewiora, A., 2013. Project management office a knowledge broker in project-
based organisations. International Journal of Project Management. 31(1). pp.31-42.
Ramasesh, R. V. and Browning, T. R., 2014. A conceptual framework for tackling knowable
unknown unknowns in project management. Journal of Operations Management. 32(4).
pp.190-204.
Robichaud, L. B. and Anantatmula, V. S., 2010. Greening project management practices for
sustainable construction. Journal of Management in Engineering. 27(1). pp.48-57.
Söderlund, J., 2011. Pluralism in project management: navigating the crossroads of
specialization and fragmentation. International Journal of Management Reviews. 13(2).
pp.153-176.
Subramanian, N. and Ramanathan, R., 2012. A review of applications of Analytic Hierarchy
Process in operations management. International Journal of Production Economics.
138(2). pp.215-241.
Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
Online
The Five Principles of Lean, 2017. [Online]. Available through: <https://theleanway.net/The-
Five-Principles-of-Lean> of Lean
How to Improve Productivity With a Work Breakdown Structure, 2016. [Online ]. Available
through: <https://blog.ganttpro.com/en/how-to-create-a-work-breakdown-structure-wbs-with-
project-planning-templates/>
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