MBA Project Management: Gadget Toy Company Project Evaluation

This project management assignment focuses on the Gadget Toy Company case study, analyzing Kumar's proposal to launch a new toy. It involves creating a network diagram, determining float times for each activity, and evaluating options to meet the September 15th deadline. The analysis identifies the critical path, assesses potential solutions like expediting tool construction and adjusting marketing timelines, and recommends strategies such as team division and close monitoring to improve project efficiency. The report emphasizes the use of project planning tools and comprehensive task identification for effective project management. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments to aid students in their studies.

Project Management

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.................................................................................................................................................4
1. Prepare the network diagram for the above project. How long will it take to complete the project? 4
2. Establish the ‘float’ or ‘slack’ times for each activity...........................................................................5
3. Based on the information in the case study, evaluate the options Kumar can do to meet the
September 15th deadline. What is your recommendation?..................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Project management is the art of organizing procedures, tools, teammates, and talents in
order to produce tasks that fulfill objectives and criteria. Sources of innovation don't just appear
out of nowhere. In reality, most businesses have a 70% initiative rate of failure, which means
that initiatives do not fulfill their initial objectives. Project planning improves the likelihood of
accomplishment. It equips the team to finish tasks by uniting them under clear goals, improving
complete visibility, simplifying interaction, and defining the boundaries of the work. Gadget Toy
Maker (Gadget) has just presented the new product evaluation committee with a funding
proposition. He suggested that Gadget launch a new child's toy centered on a famous disney
character itself through the store supply chain. Gadget could reap the benefits as to what Kumar
believed would be significant business desire if he could get the device out before December. He
anticipated that now the sales may exceed $200,000 if all goes well. Kumar could not be assured
that the business will have the same degree of economic acceptability the next year due to
unstable of the marketplace for such types of discussions.

MAIN BODY
1. Prepare the network diagram for the above project. How long will it take to complete the
project?

2. Establish the ‘float’ or ‘slack’ times for each activity.
ES = Maximum (EF all intermediate predecessor)
EF = ES + duration
ES = Minimum (LS of all intermediate predecessor)
LS = LF = Duration
Slack = LS – ES or LF – EF
Critical path = 1 – 2 – 4 – 6 – 7 – 11 – 12 – 13 = 46 Weeks
Activity Duration EST EFT TF
A 1 1
0 3
B 2 1
3 12
C 3 8
3 8
D 4 12
7 16
E 5 1
8 16
F 6 1
16 22
G 7 1
22 28
H 8 1
28 32
I 9 2
32 40

J 10 12
42 48
K 11 2
50 52
L 12 3
56 49
M 13 1
50 62
Activity Earliest
start
Latest start Earliest
finish
Latest
finish
Slack Critical
activity
A 0 0 1 1 0 Yes
B 1 1 4 4 0 Yes
C 1 3 9 11 2
D 4 4 14 14 0 Yes
E 9 11 12 14 2
F 14 14 16 16 0 Yes
G 16 16 19 19 0 Yes
H 1 11 2 12 10
I 2 14 4 16 12
J 2 12 12 22 10
K 14 16 17 19 2
L 19 19 22 22 0 Yes
M 22 22 23 23 0 Yes
3. Based on the information in the case study, evaluate the options Kumar can do to meet the
September 15th deadline. What is your recommendation?
Kumar believed he could start working on some tasks right once, including finalizing the
product development and making a purchase for the machinery, depending on his timetable.

Several of the actions, nevertheless, had to be completed in order. For instance, he couldn't start
training the employees till the vehicle's tools and equipment were finished. Conversely, he
couldn't order the raw materials till the development work and the advertising campaign were
both finished, because the marketing strategy would affect color choices.
Kumar looked for ways to shorten the project's timeline since he was worried well about
deliverables. Kumar realized that he could minimize product promotion following speaking with
Sheila, the brand manager. Sheila estimated that ever week of missing marketing would result in
a 1% drop in sales. Kumar, on the other hand, would not be able to escape with little then six
weeks of promotion for a new device of this type, according to her. Kumar had spoken with
Steven, the equipment company's project manager. Steven volunteered to work 2 weekend to
expedite the tool construction for a total of $10,000. Assuming Kumar approved the additional
fee, Steven believed he could reduce their delivery window by 2 weeks.
As per the analysis it is saying that Mr. Kumar is not able to meet with project deadline
on 15 September. Thus, it is recommended that Kumar divided people into different teams and
work for longer time to achieve their target in fix time. Along with it is suggested that direct ll
the team member all the time and monitor their activity at personal basis. It helps to complete
project in particular time period.
Use a project planning tool: It's always shocking to discover how some companies still use
outdated deadline management methods. Email, calendars, and sticky notes taped to desks and
desktop computers are a distant memory, and they're definitely not the most effective methods to
take on things and stay productive in today's world.
Identify all relevant tasks: The project manager must list all of the work packages,
responsibilities, and procedures that will be invested in the development. This is straightforward
to do for recurring or basic projects with tasks that are easy or obvious to the management since
they have been completed before. Identifying all of the essential work elements for extremely
complex enterprises might be more challenging. In this situation, the project manager must
estimate the needs based on best-case and one of the worst situations so that hazardous
substances may be mitigated using alternatives.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Marnewick, C. and Marnewick, A. L., 2019. The demands of industry 4.0 on project
teams. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. 67(3). pp.941-949.
Saleem, N., 2019, May. Empirical analysis of critical success factors for project management in
global software development. In 2019 ACM/IEEE 14th International Conference on
Global Software Engineering (ICGSE) (pp. 68-71). IEEE.
Singh, R. and Jankovitz, L., 2018. Effective project management techniques to prepare
information professionals for the future workforce. In Project management in the library
workplace. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Turner, J. R. and Lecoeuvre, L., 2017. Marketing by, for and of the project: project marketing by
three types of organizations. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.
Uzoka, F. M. and et. al., 2018. Critical IT Project Management Competencies: Aligning
Instructional Outcomes with Industry Expectations. International Journal of
Information Technology Project Management (IJITPM). 9(4). pp.1-16.
Varajão, J. E., 2018. A new process for success management–bringing order to a typically ad-
hoc area. The Journal of Modern Project Management, 5(3).