Project Management Methodologies: A Case Study of Latino Engineering

This project management assignment analyzes the challenges faced by the Latino Engineering Corporation after a takeover, focusing on issues such as defective equipment, poor design, and customer dissatisfaction. The assignment proposes the application of project management methodologies like Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma (including DMAIC and DMADV) to identify root causes and improve processes. It details the implementation of a continuous improvement plan, including training, monitoring, and resource allocation, to enhance product quality, employee motivation, and customer satisfaction. The project also incorporates techniques like Gantt charts and critical path analysis for effective project scheduling and management, aiming to ensure the long-term sustainability of the business and eliminate manufacturing defects. The assignment emphasizes the importance of employee engagement, effective communication, and continuous monitoring to achieve project objectives.

Project Management
Methodologies

Table of Contents
introduction................................................................................................................................1
Discussion..................................................................................................................................1
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
references...................................................................................................................................7
Appendix....................................................................................................................................9

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 Activity table.................................................................................................................9
TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure 1Gantt chart..................................................................................................................10
Figure 2 Critical path method..................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Project management is the approach for achieving the specific goal of an organization
by process of project conceptualization to planning, execution, monitoring, control, and
closure. It is not an ongoing process. It is a one-time project process which also involves
resources management such as finance, technical, personnel, and logical belongings.
(Kerzner, 2013). As per the given scenario of the Latino Engineering company after take
over, facing multiple issues like defective engineering equipment, poor design, a time delay
for problem resolution, wrong packaging, and customer dissatisfaction. The first observation
shows that issues occur due to lack of project management process. As a project management
consultant to resolve the issues multiple tools and technique will be applied which increase
the company goodwill and customer satisfaction. For this purpose total quality management,
Six Sigma-like effective tools will be used. To follow the project activities in specific manner
critical path analysis and Gantt chart techniques will apply to the manager. This will help the
project to meet the expectation of all the stakeholders and revive company reputation.
(Rosemann and vom, 2015)
DISCUSSION
Identifying root cause by appropriate tools and techniques:-
According to given case study, The Latino Engineering Corporation founded by
Dominic Latino has established the good market reputation along with satisfied customer
support. After the company takes over, multiple issues generated like defecting engineering
equipment, poor development and design of the product and non-responsiveness of the
customers along with the ineffective packaging as well as delivery of the products and
services, which affects the company growth. The issues were also generated in Dominic
Latino management period but that time to resolve the issue, necessary action was taken and
essential solution for business provided by the manager.(Eriksson and
Eriksson,V2016)However, the current situation reflects that the root cause is related to
management only because at the Dominic Latino time company was in well-performed
condition and all the problems cured effectively in a scheduled manner. Therefore Total
Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma techniques will be used for identifying the root
causes of the issues. (Latino and et al, 2016)
Six Sigma analyses
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The six sigma method helps to identify consumer needs in a better way as well
eliminates the defects and waste occur in a company. So it is a highly used strategy for the
leading businesses. The major objectives of this technique are to improve the Latino
Engineering Corporation's products, service, and procedure in various fields like production,
finance, administration, and marketing. The six sigma techniques consists two methods
DMADV and DMAIC which will help in resolving the issues related to the given scenario.
The DMAIC method focuses on the current process of the company as well DMADV focus is
a new product and process design to improve the performance. (Evans and Lindsay, 2014).
According to the case study, issues are related to product quality and development process
which leads customer dissatisfaction. By the Six Sigma DMADV method, the new product
and services can be introduced which attracts the customer more and helps in building a new
image of the company in the market. On the other side by the DMAIC method, company's
ongoing process can be improved by applying different quality improvement strategy which
is required for Latino Engineering Corporation. The above illustration shows that DMAIC
method is more suitable for the current situation of the company (Anbari, 2017).
The DMAIC methodology consists of five phases for improving the process as Define,
Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.
Figure 1: Six Sigma process
 Define: The first step of methodology defines the customer quality issues and core
business values involved. According to that Latino Engineering’s customers are
2
Define
Measure
AnalyzeImprove
Control

facing defective product with poor customer support service with long time delay. It
also defines that client of the company requires improvement in the quality of service,
products, packaging, and delivery with quick response. In this context, the company
ensures to meet the expectation of customer in scheduled time. (Conger, 2015)
 Measure: The second step measures the performance of core business process by
collecting data from consumer and stakeholders of Latino Engineering. The collected
data helps in determining the defect and metrics. For example, to determine the
shortfall, multiple surveys will be conducted regarding service, product quality and
etc. The comparison of collected data measures that the situation occurs due to the
huge gap in actual performance to expect by the customer in terms of quality of
engineering equipment, delivery and response. It helps in determining the appropriate
solution for the business in long run. (Pyzdek and Keller,2014)
 Analyze: In this step by the collected data and process plan determines the root cause
of a defect that is lack of motivation and communication in employees of Latino
Engineering. If the employees are highly motivated they will provide good quality
products and service, which doesn't meet the current scenario of the company. It also
analyzes the opportunities required for the performance improvement which followed
by the next of methodology.
 Improvement: The employee morale can be boosted up by creating an innovative
solution like performance appraisal, provide incentive, monetary rewards, and
recognition of achievements in the workplace. The evaluation of performance
depends on the contribution of employees in increasing customer satisfaction and
service provided by them.
 Control: This step includes keeping the process going in an improved manner by
regularly monitoring the internal business situation. The development and
implementation of ongoing monitoring plan follow by staffing, training, and
incentives. (Prashar, 2014)
Total Quality Management:
Total Quality Management (TQM) is the customer based approach whose emphasis
on the need of the customer and establish the continuous and dynamic process for
improvement of a product. According to given scenario, in the decision-making process of
the Latino Engineering, all the employees are equally participated by providing their
incredible suggestion. On the other hand product, is manufactures as per the consumer
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requirement with the regular monitoring of packaging department as per set standard
guidelines. By the staffing and training for solving the issues, continuous improvement
program will process for the company. (Evans and Lindsay, 2014)
Proposing a plan to eliminate or reducing the root cause taking into consideration
resource requirement
To propose the improvement plan and reduce the root cause of defect needs complete
assessment of Latino Engineering Corporation’s recent situation. By the above application of
Total Quality management and six sigma techniques analysis results that root cause is lack of
employee motivation, inefficiency in management of production department and packaging
supervision. As the whole influence the product quality and service provided by the Latino
Engineering which results in customer dissatisfaction. To eliminate the root cause of the
defect related to the company performance needs a suitable plan of continuous improvement.
The implementation of the improvement plan consists of multiple stages of training and
development, monitoring, and control, resources retention etc. (Goetsch and Davis, 2014) To
increase the quality of production and packaging department, an employee needs the training
session with regular monitoring. As the below illustration estimated time for both the process
is 10 days. The activities time spam is an end of November to starting a week of December
2017. The major goal of the plan is to enhancing the product packaging and service quality,
raising the bar of customer satisfaction, zero-defect products and motivated team of
employees. To achieving these objective, different strategy of training and workshops,
communication, setting separate quality department within the organization to deal with
client issues as well check on packaging and delivery of production. To raise the employee
morale and loyalty towards the organization, multiple strategies like performance appraisal,
monetary rewards, recognition and etc also part of the improvement plan. To process the
monitoring of each stage of business in scheduled order requires proper communication
between all the levels of departments. For instance, all the activities of every department will
be reported to the head of the department and management. By the weekly meetings and
workshops, a company can assess the performance of quality of work done in scheduled
deadline. By the reporting of each activity helps in monitoring in allotted time spam and also
overcome the obstacle appears in process activities. The regular customer requirements and
feedback surveys will also play the major role in an improvement plan. The structured
monitoring process will help the project manager to set the deadline for task and employees
as per their efficiency. This will leads to identify and overcoming the barriers occurs at the
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monitoring process time. So the Latino Engineering will also follow the exact practice plan to
ensure the lifetime sustainability of the business. This will enable zero defect manufacturers
and improve employee work integrity by the customer satisfaction feedback. (Mitra, A, 2016)
Resources requirements: Resources plays the most important role in improvement and
success of the project. At the time of root cause analysis and improvement plan resources
requirements will also assessed whereby corporation can effectively create its competitive
edge in the marketplace through retention of personnel for longer time span. To process
project effectively majorly required resources are financial, human and physical. To
managing the training and development, monitoring process by surveys and other
promotional activities requires for building up the market image of Latino Engineering will
need the financial support by the resources like investors. To pursue all the activity in an
effective manner needs the physical resources like equipment machinery, training and
workshops halls, computers, laptop, office rooms and other regulatory resources will provide
by the company. To accomplish the project in an effective manner human resources like
project manager, executive teams, employees etc are essential. Therefore to process the
business in the right manner for achieving the specific goals and meet up the project
expectation, it is important to employ these resources efficiently. (Buckley and et al, 2017)
. Developing a continuous improvement plan to ensure the problems and issues are not
repeated
As the above discussion and given details determines that Latino Engineering corporation
also going through the development plan. To develop and implementation of the continuous
improvement plan for the Latino Engineering requires 56 days as illustrated in an appendix
by the activity table and Gantt chart. The project manager can easily schedule the task and
resources in specific time spam by the help of Gantt chart. By the Gantt chart activity
scheduling process defines that project improvement plan will initiate in October 2017 and
ends in December 2017. The activity table scheduling provides structured information about
assessment of business condition, issues generated and the proper cure-related issues. The
initial three activities are done by the data collection process which defines the root cause of
defects and provides the objectives of the project and solves the managerial issues. The
standard objective of the organization is customer satisfaction with zero manufacturing
defects. (Pinder, 2014).To setting the goal of the project requires the 4 days with the optimum
solution. Furthermore 25 days will consumed for design the project framework included
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application of suitable strategy and implementation of the strategy for optimum solution of
issues. For instance various strategies like training, communication process were conducted
in the production department of Latino Engineering. To completing the project, project
manager faces multiple issues which is resolve by the implementation of different strategies.
For example to motivate the employees, project manager remunerated them by performance
appraisal with monetary and non monetary reward. This will helps the organization to facing
all obstacles in positively and specific manner to resolve them. After the training the
communication techniques take place which is considered as the most powerful and essential
for project success. For this purpose, reporting, meeting on daily weekly and monthly basis
conducted to ensure the project performance and let all the stakeholders to know the potential
issues. (Martinelli and Milosevic,2016)
To reduce the time span and cost of the project the critical path analysis technique has been
applied. The critical path analysis diagram shown in appendix define that essential activities
required are 1+2+3+4+5+7+8+10+11+12+13+14+15= 46 days. This reflects that duration of
the project reduced by 10 days. So the critical path analysis may requires the additional
resources but it reducing time spam of the project process and helps in to finish the project
before deadline. This will be very beneficiary for the Latino Engineering to create its
competitive edge in the marketplace. (Larson, and Gray, 2013)
CONCLUSION
The report stated that after takeover, The Latino Engineering Corporation was facing the
multiple issues related customer dissatisfaction from product and service response,
manufacturing and packaging of products and time delay. To resolve them project
improvement plan established which conquers the different strategy and techniques such as
total quality management and six sigma tools. The tools provided the root cause of the defect
as the lack of managerial skill and low employee morale. So it was essential for the Latino
Engineering to conduct the audit skills of employees and assess the training need among
employees. The continuous improvement plan formation Engineering generates the huge cost
to supervise the every aspect of defect causing. For this purpose to reducing the time and cost
of the project critical path analysis and Gantt chart technique applied. They both were the
most suitable software to minimize the completion time spam of project. Along with it
supports the management in completing the business activities in the right manner and deliver
good quality of services to client. (Burke, 2013)
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REFERENCES
Anbari, T. F., 2017. six sigma method. Available through:
<https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/six-sigma-method-applications-pm-8515>. [Accessed
on 5th October 2017].
Buckley, M.R., Wheeler, A.R. and Halbesleben, J.R. eds., 2017. Research in personnel and
human resources management (Vol. 35). Emerald Group Publishing.
Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
Conger, S., 2015. Six Sigma and business process management. In Handbook on Business
Process Management 1 (pp. 127-146). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Dale, B., 2015. Total quality management. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Eriksson, H. and Eriksson, H., 2016. An outcome of quality management practices:
Differences among public and private, manufacturing and service, SME and large
organisations. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 33(9), pp.1394-
1405
Evans, J.R. and Lindsay, W.M., 2014. An introduction to Six Sigma and process
improvement. Cengage Learning.
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.
Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Larson, E.W. and Gray, C., 2013. Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS
Project. McGraw-Hill.
Latino, R.J., Latino, K.C. and Latino, M.A., 2016. Root cause analysis: improving
performance for bottom-line results. CRC press.
Martinelli, R.J. and Milosevic, D.Z., 2016. Project management toolbox: tools and
techniques for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons..
Mitra, A., 2016. Fundamentals of quality control and improvement. John Wiley & Sons.
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Pinder, C.C., 2014. Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.
Prashar, A., 2014. Adoption of Six Sigma DMAIC to reduce cost of poor
quality. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 63(1), pp.103-
126.
Pyzdek, T. and Keller, P.A., 2014. The six sigma handbook (p. 25). New York: McGraw-Hill
Education.
Rosemann, M. and vomBrocke, J., 2015. The six core elements of business process
management. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 105-122). Springer Berlin
Heidelberg.
APPENDIX
Table 1 Activity table
8

Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Project management 56 days Wed
10/4/17
Wed
12/20/17
analyze the current scenario 6 days Wed
10/4/17
Wed
10/11/17
identify causes of the situation 4 days Thu
10/12/17
Tue
10/17/17 2
comparing problems of before and
after the takeover 2 days Wed
10/18/17
Thu
10/19/17 3
setting the goal for a project 4 days Fri 10/20/17 Wed
10/25/17 3,4
design the project improvement
framework 7 days Thu
10/12/17 Fri 10/20/17 2
identify the required tools and
technique for improvement 4 days Thu
10/26/17
Tue
10/31/17 5,6
decide the strategy for recovering
the situation 6 days Wed
11/1/17
Wed
11/8/17 7
setting the deadline for
improvement 3 days Thu
10/26/17
Mon
10/30/17 5
implementation of the strategy 5 days Thu
11/9/17
Wed
11/15/17 9,7,8
managing the barriers 5 days Thu
11/16/17
Wed
11/22/17 10
communicating about a process 3 days Thu
11/23/17
Mon
11/27/17 10,11
monitoring the changes apply 10 days Tue
11/28/17
Mon
12/11/17 10,12
required modification apply 5 days Tue
12/12/17
Mon
12/18/17 13
execution of the project 2 days Tue
12/19/17
Wed
12/20/17 14
9