Analysis of the ATS Project: Operational and Project Management Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Airport Transformation System (ATS) project, addressing critical aspects of operational and project management. It begins by evaluating the initial budget constraints of £12 million and the project manager's concerns about the feasibility of completing the project for less than £16 million, detailing the cost breakdown and justifying the initial budget estimate of £18.6 million. The report then delves into resource management challenges, specifically using a resource histogram to identify resourcing problems and proposing a rescheduled plan to eliminate the need for additional engineers due to financial limitations. The analysis includes determining the revised start and Go-Live dates based on the rescheduled plan. Finally, the report analyzes the progress achieved on stage tasks, highlighting problems that have arisen, such as delays in building services, and determines an approximate expected completion date for the entire project, considering the interdependencies of tasks and potential financial impacts of delays, emphasizing the need to adhere to the six-month deadline to avoid significant losses.

Operational and Project
Management

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................2
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
Evaluate that, why the ATS project manager believed that it was not possible to carry out the
project for less than £ 16 million.................................................................................................2
Analyse all the available information and determine whether or not the project can be carried
out within the £12 million budget................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
Analyse the planning problem using a resource histogram to identify any resourcing problems
.....................................................................................................................................................3
Reschedule the plan to eliminate the need for any additional engineers.....................................5
Use the rescheduled plan to determine the start date of the Testing week and the planned Go-
Live date......................................................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Analyse the progress achieved on stage task and highlight any problems that are now arising. 6
Determine an approximate expected completion date for the entire project and explain their
analysis and state any assumptions very clearly..........................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Operations management in an organisation systematically deals with daily basis as well as
strategic market concerns (Bjorvatn and Wald, 2018). Project management is concerned with
planning, coordinating, encouraging and managing resources for the achievement of particular
objectives. Project management is essential in ensuring what's been delivered, it is right and
delivers real value towards the marketing opportunity or not. Each client should have strategic
objectives and the projects they do for clients achieve those objectives. This report is based on
the three consultancy task which is different from others. Each of them based on separate
scenario and provides answers accordingly to justify their statements.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Evaluate that, why the ATS project manager believed that it was not possible to carry out the
project for less than £ 16 million
According to given case scenario, total duration of the project Airport Transformation
System (ATS) is 43 weeks and airport authority decided the budget of £12 million and make sure
that project will exceed from this budgeted amount (Carvalho and et.al., 2019).
Project duration = 43 weeks
Estimated Budget:
Particulars Amount
Fixed cost £ 2,000,000
Project team (£ 200000 * 43) £ 8,600,000
TBM & Equipment (£ 300000 * 20) £ 6,000,000
TBM Crew (£ 100000 * 20) £ 2,000,000
Total Budget £ 18,600,000
After estimating the budget of ATS project, it has been evaluated that total cost of the
ATS project was £ 18.6 million. It is not possible for the project manager to complete this project
in less than £ 16 million when its total cost is £ 18.6 million. After several revision of budget,
airport authority is unable to calculate accurate cost of ATS project. Currently TBM Crew work
only five days in week or if crew members work on weekend or night shifts than airport
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authority has to bear 25% more cost. TBM equipment and TBM crew are the most expensive
sources, so project manager can cut their cost from it, if it is possible to do.
Analyse all the available information and determine whether or not the project can be carried out
within the £12 million budget
At a project meeting with airport authority board, three months before the launch of
ATS project, project manager delivered a report on the status of the proposal and the estimated
costs (Famiyeh and et.al., 2018). Project manager is summarised by concluding that it was
Unlikely to deliver project in less than £ 16 million. After evaluating above point, it is clearly
stated that project cannot be carried out within £ 12 million. Actual cost of ATS project is £ 18.6
million and airport authority said that, they delivered within £ 12 million.
It is totally impossible to deliver Airport Transformation System (ATS) project in £ 12
million. In order to achieve the 400 million per week, project manager need to revised planned
duration for the period of TASK 6 from 20 weeks to 8 weeks but it will cause the huge cost of
TBM Crew, but project manager said that it will not cost too high but only £ 325,000 per week
that is £ 2.6 million. Original estimation of TBM Crew was £ 20,000 per shift and five days in a
week which occur cost of £ 100,000 per week for 20 weeks that is £ 2 million. It is also not
suitable for this project because original estimated cost is £ 2 million and revised cost of TBM
crew is £ 2.6 million.
By evaluating every aspect, it has been observed that there is no way to complete ATS
project within £ 12 million. In order to complete this project, airline authority need to increase
their budget and make sure that, this time cost estimation will be accurate so project manager
able to achieve business goals & objectives.
TASK 2
Analyse the planning problem using a resource histogram to identify any resourcing problems
While planning for the particular project, various problems identified and it will be related
with some resources. Akesson was planning to hire additional engineers in order to perform task
because it required more specialised people to complete this project (Kerzner, 2018). But the
young man get call from head office and they said that, they loss a very big project from china,
they are lacking in finance which result in shortage of money. Basically, airport authority does
not have money to spend on hiring extra staff for this project. At the end, there are only five
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SverigeTech engineers who have to complete this task with full efficiency or overtime. Below
mentioned resource histogram provides better understanding:
S. No Task Weeks
1 Air Control Module 9
2 Ground Control Module 3
3 Flight Clearance Module 4
4 Terminal Control Modules 4
5 Integration 3
6 Testing 1
7 Go – Live 0
Figure 1 Resource histogram
From the above resource histogram, it has been analysed that in order to complete air
control module task, project manager required 9 weeks, ground control module required 3 weeks
to finish their work, flight clearance module required 4 weeks and similarly time required by the
terminal control (Laprise, Lufkin and Rey, 2018). In addition, integration task need 3 weeks,
testing required 1 week and Go-Live will be on 14th week from the starting of entire project.
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Reschedule the plan to eliminate the need for any additional engineers
Due to lack of financial resources, airport authority unable to hire additional engineers so
existing 5 engineers have to complete all tasks. With the help of rescheduling plan, project
manager able to eliminate the need of additional resources like engineers. It is mentioned below:
S. No Task Engineers required
1 Air Control Module 2
2 Ground Control Module 1
3 Flight Clearance Module 1
4 Terminal Control Modules 1
5 Integration 3
6 Testing 2
7 Go – Live 0
For the completion of this project, airport authority only has five SverigeTech engineers
and from this, 2 engineers complete air control module, 1 engineer work on ground control work
and similarly 1 engineer each required to complete flight clearance and terminal control module
(Lock, 2020). After completing four stages of project, these engineers again start working on
remaining tasks such 3 on integration stage and 2 on testing stage. In order to eliminate
additional engineers, remaining staff need to work on weekends or overnight to complete every
task on given time period to achieve project goals & objectives.
This is the only way, where airport authority can complete their terminal refurbishment
work on time because they has to resume their services in early July, so they can afford to delay
in this project.
Use the rescheduled plan to determine the start date of the Testing week and the planned Go-
Live date
Reschedule plan:
Task We
ek
1
We
ek
2
We
ek
3
We
ek
4
We
ek
5
We
ek
6
We
ek
7
We
ek
8
We
ek
9
We
ek
10
We
ek
11
We
ek
12
We
ek
13
We
ek
14
Air Control Module
5

Ground Control Module
Flight Clearance Module
Terminal Control Modules
Integration
Testing
Go – Live
From the above rescheduling of project plan, it has been interpreted that Air Control
Module task required 9 weeks and begin from 1th of May and finished on 11th June. Second task
started on 5Th of May to 25Th of May. Next task is about flight clearance module which started in
2rd week on date of 11th May and completed work on 7Th of June. Terminal control module
started their work on 18th of May and finished on 14th of June. Integration work initiated after
completing air control module work and take 3 weeks to complete. It started from 12th June and
finished at 2th of July (Roscoe, Cousins and Handfield, 2019). Testing work start on 3Th of July
and should be computed within a week that is 9th of July. In the last, project engineers are
planned to Go-Live on 10th of July. Before this date, planning for Go-Live is impossible and
project engineers should ensure that all the task should be computed within given time period for
the success of terminal refurnished project.
TASK 3
Analyse the progress achieved on stage task and highlight any problems that are now arising
On the date of 1st March, airport management team conduct a meeting for the analysis of
project progress. Actual progress of Terminal Four refurbishment project is classified into 6
tasks. Check in facility task performing well and completed around 70% of their work, baggage
handling services is 40% completed, building services completed around 15% and circulation
area is 60% completed. On the date of 1st March, concessions units and Terminal Support
services has yet to start.
Stage Task
A Check-in-facility
B Baggage handling service
C Building service
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D Circulation area
E Concessions units
F Terminal support services
There are several problems arises when analysing the progress of project (Rowe, 2020).
Project manager need to evaluate such problems and identify the appropriate solutions for it
which helps in achieving desired goals. Some of them are as follow:
 Building services that is Task C; it should be completed on time that is end of May, if this
task does not finished on time then estimated time of this project exceeded because task F
is depended on it. Because Task F could not be started before Task C, so project
managers and engineers has to make sure about it, otherwise it delay the project.
 All the tasks are independent except task F, but project manager has to ensure that the
entire task should be completed on time and last two stages such as E & F which started
from in the beginning of May or June respectively. Make sure that, this task will not
exceed in any situation which cause the project failure.
 If project completion time exceeded, airport authority has to face huge loss because they
are already facing loss from six month due to close of terminal four and it required urgent
improvement. Airport also ensure that, in July all the flights will resume according to
their schedule, so it is very important to finish refurbishment work within given six
months.
On the basis of above table, it has been analysed that task A that is check in facility which
is 5% behind the plan according to the progress analysis and because of this, it is marked with
red colour. On 1st of March, circulation is 60% completed which means this task is performed
very well and in one month duration it completed 60% work. In addition, task E & F both are not
yet started because concession units started after fully completing baggage handling services and
terminal services started when building services fully completed (Ufua, Papadopoulos and
Midgley, 2018). This table mentioned in the airport management team meeting which clearly
shows that which task is almost done and which one still not started.
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Determine an approximate expected completion date for the entire project and explain their
analysis and state any assumptions very clearly
On the basis of progress analysis it has been observed that, if each task completed in their
given time frame than entire terminal four refurbishment project completed at the end of June
month. It has been assumed that, project will be started from 2nd of January, 2020 and complete
all the activities on 29th of June, 2020. Below mention timeframe table provide better
understanding:
Stage Task Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
A Check-in-facility
B Baggage handling service
C Building service
D Circulation area
E Concessions units
F Terminal support services
For the completion of Terminal Four refurbishment project, there are total six task
identified and entire project should. Overall project should be started from 2nd of Jan, 2020 and
completed on 29th of June, 2020. Task A (Check in facility) started from 2nd of Jan and should
be finished on 31st of March. This task includes several activities such as Check-in Counter,
Frontage Check-in Counter Area, Airline Ticket Offices and Departure Lounge Area. Task B
(Baggage handling service) started from 1st of Feb to 30th of April and includes several activities
such as Baggage Claim Frontage, Baggage Claim Area, Delayed Baggage Storage and Outbound
Baggage Screening. These functions should be completed within 3 months without any delay.
Task C (Building services) also begins from 1st of Feb and should be finished before 31st of May
and includes different types of activities such as Mechanical Services, Electrical Services,
Plumbing Services and Heating and AC Services. Task C is very important because after
successful completion of this stage, Task F will started and any delay In Task C can cause Task
F which resulted as delayed in project completion.
Task D (Circulation area) stage started from 15th of Feb and finished on 31st of March
2020. This stage includes several activities such as Flooring, Public Seating and Meet/Greet
Lobby. Project manager should ensure that all the activities finished on time or before time but
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cannot exceed the time duration (Zwikael, Chih and Meredith, 2018). In addition, Task E
(Concession unit), which includes these activities like Rental Cars, Passenger Concessions,
Retail units and Restaurant or Bar. All these activities need to complete from the period of 2nd of
May to 29th of June. After that, remaining last stage that is TASK F which started after
completing Task C. Engenders of airport need to ensure that TASK C should be finished before
the beginning of June. Task F started from 1st of June to 30th of June. Work cannot be exceeding
in July month because airport authority has to resume terminal four in early July. Task F include
several activities such as Passenger Security Screening, Private Search Rooms, Toilets and
Showers and Staff facilities.
All the activities need to finished in the given time period because airport authority
unable to bear delay. If in any case, refurbishment project unable to complete their project in
give time, so they have to increase workforces or work for seven day along with over shift to
complete this project on deadline or before deadline.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it has been observed that operational and project management
plays crucial role in an organization. With the help of it, project managers are able to classify
their operational activities and perform their task in an effective manner to achieve desired goals
& objectives. In order to achieve project goals, project managers should done several things such
as estimating budget, make schedule for completing each task, allocate several resources like
human, physical etc. All the activities need to be work in a systematic manner to minimise the
chances of project failure. In an organization, project manager has to make several decisions
regarding project resources and time duration to complete task.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Bjorvatn, T. and Wald, A., 2018. Project complexity and team-level absorptive capacity as
drivers of project management performance. International Journal of Project
Management, 36(6), pp.876-888.
Carvalho, A. M. and et.al., 2019. Operational excellence, organisational culture and agility: the
missing link?. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 30(13-14), pp.1495-
1514.
Famiyeh, S. and et.al., 2018. Green supply chain management initiatives and operational
competitive performance. Benchmarking: An International Journal.
Kerzner, H., 2018. Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence. John Wiley
& Sons.
Laprise, M., Lufkin, S. and Rey, E., 2018. An operational monitoring tool facilitating the
transformation of urban brownfields into sustainable neighborhoods. Building and
Environment, 142, pp.221-233.
Lock, D., 2020. Project management. Routledge.
Roscoe, S., Cousins, P. D. and Handfield, R., 2019. The microfoundations of an operational
capability in digital manufacturing. Journal of Operations Management, 65(8), pp.774-
793.
Rowe, S. F., 2020. Project management for small projects. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Ufua, D. E., Papadopoulos, T. and Midgley, G., 2018. Systemic lean intervention: Enhancing
lean with community operational research. European Journal of Operational
Research, 268(3), pp.1134-1148.
Zwikael, O., Chih, Y. Y. and Meredith, J. R., 2018. Project benefit management: Setting
effective target benefits. International Journal of Project Management, 36(4), pp.650-
658.
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