Developing an Inventory Management System for TESCO: A Project Plan

This report presents a comprehensive project plan for the implementation of an online inventory management system for TESCO, a retail company aiming to modernize its inventory processes. The project involves developing an information system to track stock, balance supply and demand, and improve overall efficiency. The report outlines the project plan, including human resource planning, work management, time and cost management, information management, and risk management. It details the project's scheduling using a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart, along with cost analysis. The report further discusses project risk management, identifying potential risks like resource unavailability and operational issues, and proposes mitigation strategies. Finally, it addresses project performance management, emphasizing the importance of checklists, monitoring, feedback, and training. The project's total cost is estimated at $35,000 with a duration of two months.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
DESCRIPTION OF A PROJECT PLAN....................................................................................................4
PROJECT PLAN.........................................................................................................................................5
SCHEDULING...........................................................................................................................................7
Project Cost.............................................................................................................................................9
MANAGEMENT OF PROJECT RISK.....................................................................................................10
PROJECT PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT.......................................................................................12
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................14
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INTRODUCTION
Management of a project is one of the toughest part attached with the change or development of
some or the other new thing. For a project manager, one of the most important aspects is to
develop a proper project plan and to ensure that all the activities should be aligned to the right
time. A report is developed which will provide a brief knowledge of all the aspects which
indulges in a project. A project will be selected which will be a new plan for a business. The
project initiated will be innovative and is related to the information system. An organisation is
selected for the project proposed so as to provide a more effective knowledge regarding all the
aspects of project management. TESCO is the company which wants to update its inventory
management system. Tesco was following the traditional way of managing the inventory and it
was noticed that in present time the work of inventory management is not been done according to
the planning. Now Tesco is planning to develop an online inventory management system which
will automatically keep the track record of the inventory and will help in managing the stock in a
proper as well as effective way.
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DESCRIPTION OF A PROJECT PLAN
The project initiated is a project of Information System which will help Tesco in managing its
stock. The project is innovative as well as effective as the software which will be introduced will
include tracking of the information of the stock available with the company (Browning, 2014).
This will help Tesco in remaining informed about what it has and what it is required to be
purchased. This inventory management system will provide a support to Tesco with the help of
which it will be able to keep the balance between demand and supply. Keeping a proper track
record with the stock that a company has will help it in fulfilling the needs and requirements of
the people available in the market (John, 2016).
Implementation of this project requires proper planning and requires that proper set of strategies
should be developed by the project management team (Larson, Elizabeth, & Richard, 2014). All
the aspects which will be required to formulate the project should be taken into consideration in a
well and advance form. Work breakdown structure should be developed in a proper way with the
effect of which a decision could be made by the project manager to align the duties and activities
according to the skills and abilities of the team members working on the project. Project planning
will also help in completing the same with quality and within the budget decided by Tesco and
the project management team.
The project of developing an information system will include the expenses of $35000 and will
include a time period of 2 months (Rozenes & Kukliansky, 2013).
With the help of work break down structure a proper frame will be provided to the project
manager with the effect of which direction will be provided to complete the same within the
required time.
Risk management plan will also be included which will help in ensuring that the chances of
occurrence of the risk aspects in near future could be minimized (Coronel, & Morris, 2016).
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PROJECT PLAN
Project plan helps in providing a direction to the project as it works as a blueprint for the projects
which are initiated by the project manager. It is necessary that a project manager should focus on
developing a proper project plan with the effect of which he could manage the things in a better
way (Cengage Lea Schwalbe, 2015). Developed project plan will help the project manager in
developing a clear understanding of all the aspects which will incur in the project. A short and
appropriate plan will be developed for the guidance of the things which will indulge in the
project reports. Hence, a project plan will include:
The first step is to ensure that a proper human resource planning should be done by the project
manager. It is required that the required human resource should be taken into consideration by
the project manager (Conger, 2009). This will help in ensuring that the project will be managed
effectively by the human resource available.
The second step that is required to be taken into consideration is work management plan in
which decision should be made of what work should be done by whom. This plan will help in
managing the work and project activities in a proper way (Jäntti & Hotti, 2015).
The third step is to manage the time and develop a time management plan which could provide a
better support. Time management plan will help in the completion of the project within the time
period decided.
The fourth step is to manage the cost. Developing a proper set of the budget will help in
managing the cost in an effective way.
The fifth step is to develop an information management plan as it will help in delivering
appropriate information related to the products and services (Mckinley, 2011).
The sixth step is to develop a risk management plan which will help in taking all the risk aspects
under consideration and will help in managing the things in a better as well as effective way.
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Seventh and the last step which is required to be taken into consideration for the information
system project of TESCO are to manage the quality of the project. It is necessary that the quality
should be taken into consideration and work should be managed accordingly.
Working on the above project plan will help in managing the same in an effective way. This
project will provide a better opportunity to grow and will help in managing the inventory stock in
a proper as well as in an effective way (Pollard, 2010).
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SCHEDULING
Work breakdown structure will be used by the project manager so as to ensure that the
scheduling of the project could be done in a proper way (Cleminson, et. al., 2007). Developing a
proper work breakdown structure will help the project manager in bifurcating the project
activities in a proper way. Division of the every single activity is being done and a date will be
provided. Information related to the start date and completion date of the project will be
provided. This work breakdown structure will help in the division of work in an equal way
among the team members working on the project (Shen, et. al., 2012). It will also provide a
better set of opportunity to manage unnecessary expenses and will help in the completion of the
project within the dates decided.
S. No. Project Activities Start Date End Date
0 TESCO Information System Project 7-02-2017 7-02-2017
1 Gathering Relevant Info 7-02-2017 7-11-2017
2 Adopting Most Appropriate Resources 7-11-2017 7-21-2017
2.1 Setting Goals 7-11-2017 7-15-2017
2.2 Project Requirement Analysis 7-15-2017 7-17-2017
2.3 Risk Management 7-17-2017 7-19-2017
2.4 Indicating Process flow 7-19-2017 7-21-2017
3 Project Plan Development 7-21-2017 7-31-2017
3.1 Time Frame Development 7-21-2017 7-23-2017
3.2 Identifying the Project Deliveries 7-23-2017 7-25-2017
3.3 Module Development 7-25-2017 7-28-2017
3.4 Division of every activity 7-28-2017 7-31-2017
3.5 Setting Priorities 7-31-2017 7-31-2017
3.5.1 Geographical Presentation 7-31-2017 8-06-2017
4 Plan Execution 8-06-2017 8-21-2017
4.1 Software Introduction 8-06-2017 8-07-2017
4.2 Development of a structure of Project 8-07-2017 8-08-2017
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4.3 Programming the Software 8-08-2017 8-09-2017
4.4 Code Running 8-09-2017 8-21-2017
5 Closing Project 8-21-2017 8-31-2017
5.1 Developing Checklist 8-21-2017 8-23-2017
5.2 Managing Changes 8-23-2017 8-25-2017
5.3 Development of Management Report 8-25-2017 8-26-2017
5.4 Software Testing 8-26-2017 8-30-2017
6 Terminating 8-30-2017 8-31-2017
(Thejendra, 2008)
Gantt Chart
A work breakdown structure was developed by the project manager and various aspects were
taken into consideration in the work breakdown structure developed by the project manager
(Reiss, 2013). It is required that this breakdown should be shown graphically so as to provide a
clear picture of the bifurcated work a Gantt chart is developed by the project manager. Gantt
chart will be developed which will show every single activity in a proper way and will help in
developing better as well as an effective set of understanding with the project developed by the
project manager (Norman, et. al., 2010).
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Project Cost
Project Requirements EXPENSES($)
Resource Selection 10000
Development of Modules 4000
Salary of IT Team 12000
Systems 5000
Infrastructure and other exp. 4000
Total 35000
(Marvaldi, & Pani, 2016)
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MANAGEMENT OF PROJECT RISK
The risk is one of the aspects which always remain attached to the new things. It is necessary that
it should be taken into consideration by the project manager so as to ensure that the strategies to
minimize the same could be developed (Desmond, 2016). It is necessary that forecasting should
be done by the project manager and predictions should be made of what are the things which will
be required to manage the risk and what are the risk factors which could incur in the project.
Keeping a track record of all the risk factors and evaluating them will help the project manager
in ensuring that the project could get completed in a proper as well as in an effective way
(Gladden, 2012). Hence, there are certain key risk factors which are taken into consideration by
the project manager and strategies are developed so as to ensure that the project could get
completed in an appropriate way.
Unavailability of the proper set of resources is one of the prime risk factors which are required to
be taken into consideration by the project manager. In the case of a proper set of resources will
not be availed then it could hinder in the project progress (Creswell, 2013). Hence, it is necessary
that a project manager should develop a list of the resources required so as to ensure that he
could manage the resources and avail them well in the advanced form.
Operational risk is another risk which could occur in the project (Bhagat, & Sura, 2011). It could
be possible that the problems could arise in the operations of the project. This will affect the
project and will lead to increase the cost of the same. In this case, it is required that a project
manager should focus on division of work. This will help in managing the operations and
delivering quality to the project.
The legal risk could also occur in the project, to manage the legal risk it is required that a project
manager should collect all the licenses and should ensure to gain all the approvals related to the
project prior to starting the same (Browning, 2014).
External hazards could also occur which is a kind of unpredictable risk as it is hard for the
project manager to predict the risk of external hazards. In this situation, it becomes necessary
that a project manager should evaluate all the natural hazards and take them into consideration.
After recording them project manager could apply all the safety and security features so as to
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ensure that in the case of any natural or external hazard will occur then a try to mitigate the same
could be made by the organisation (John, 2016).
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PROJECT PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Project performance management is an important aspect which should be taken into
consideration by the project management team so as to ensure that the project could get managed
in a proper as well as an effective way (Larson, Elizabeth, & Richard, 2014). There are certain
key aspects which are required to be focused on these aspects are:
 Developing a project checklist to cross check all the aspects
 Monitoring and controlling should be done so as to ensure that the project requirements
could get fulfilled
 Taking feedback from the project team members will also help in managing the
performance of the project.
 Training and development are other aspects which will help in enhancing the project
performance (Rozenes & Kukliansky, 2013).
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