Analysis of Project Management Challenges at Prime Automotive GmbH

This report presents a comprehensive case study of Prime Automotive GmbH, a Tier 1 automotive engineering supplier, facing significant project management challenges, particularly time overruns. The report begins with an overview of the relationship between time, cost, and quality, emphasizing their interdependence within the 'Scope Triangle'. It then delves into the steps required to enhance product quality at Prime, including customer identification, requirement analysis, specification development, quality assurance, and continuous improvement. The report also highlights the key strengths of a time management approach, emphasizing its role in boosting productivity and efficiency. Furthermore, it outlines specific measures and tactics, such as eliminating distractions and prioritizing tasks, to address time-related problems. The report includes project planning elements and budget creation and provides detailed schedules and budget comparisons in the appendices. The case study concludes by emphasizing the importance of effective project management practices for Prime Automotive GmbH to ensure timely project delivery and maintain client satisfaction.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management: A Case Study of Prime Automotive GmbH
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Table of Contents
Part A – General overview..............................................................................................................2
Relationship between Time, Cost and Quality............................................................................2
Steps to improve the quality of product provision at Prime........................................................4
Key strengths of a Time Management Approach........................................................................6
Key measures and tactics to implement new approach for reducing time problems...................7
Customer benefits from the new approach..................................................................................9
Part B – Project Planning...............................................................................................................11
Part C – Budget creation................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
Appendix Part B.1. – 5 months Schedule......................................................................................16
Appendix Part B.2. – 3 months Schedule......................................................................................17
Appendix Part C.1. – Actual Budget.............................................................................................17
Appendix Part C.2. – Reduced Budget..........................................................................................18
Appendix – Glossary.....................................................................................................................19

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Part A – General overview
Relationship between Time, Cost and Quality
In project management, the three constraints that is Time, Cost and Quality are linked
together as “Scope Triangle” or “Quality Triangle” which demonstrates the trade-offs existing in
a project. The three constraints are considered as essential elements to ensure success of a project
and there is strong interrelationship between the constraints (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). The
changes in time, cost or quality affects the project delivery as well as satisfaction of clients. In
case, there is any change in time or cost has direct impact on the quality of outcomes to be
achieved from a project.
Figure 1: Scope or Quality Triangle with triple constraints
(Source: Fleming and Koppelman 2016, pp. 49)
The triangle illustrated in the above diagram demonstrates the relationship between the
three major constraints in a project. Time is defined as the time required or available for
completion of a project, Cost is the budget for resources available or required for completion of a
project and Quality is stated as the quality of outcomes that will be achieved from the project.
The quality of deliverables from the project is an essential factor for determining whether the

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project will be accepted and successful. In normal situation, it is considered that one of the
factors from the three constraints will remain fixed while the other two may vary inversely
proportional to each other (Harrison and Lock 2017). For instance, if time is fixed then the
quality of outcomes is dependent on cost and in a similar manner, if quality is fixed then the cost
will be dependent on time available for the project. According to Nicholas and Steyn (2017), if
there is a situation that two of the factors are fixed that is Fixed cost and specific availability of
time to complete the project then there may be change in another aspect that is scope creep. It
means that the scope of the project will be changed to ensure that quality deliverables are offered
to the clients. The changes in scope may include cutting down some functionality so that
completion of the project can be ensured within available time and cost. However, this step could
be taken only after approval from the client otherwise the cost or time have to be increased so
that the project could fulfill requirements of the client. In a situation where a project has to
completed within fixed time and costs there are three available options that could be
implemented.
Additional time – The project could be delayed to add the required functionality as per
the requirements of client.
Additional cost – More people or resources could be added to the project so that it could
be completed within available time and maintaining the quality of deliverables as per client
requirement (Heagney 2016).
Cutting down quality – Some non-essential requirements or activities could be discarded
so that the completion of project could be ensured within available time and cost but it will not
guarantee quality of the project.

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Hence, from the above discussions it can be said there is a strong relationship and
interdependence among the three factors Time, Cost and Quality in project. The effect on any
one of the factors will have impact on the other two to ensure that project could be completed as
per client requirement.
Steps to improve the quality of product provision at Prime
Quality management for products in Prime should be considered as an essential process
to ensure success of the business. Quality management is defined as the process which ensures
that the required project activities are fulfilled according to requirements of the client. The
quality of deliverables to be achieved from a project will be determined with the help of a quality
management plan. Quality management is an essential element in project lifecycle to determine
whether the project is on track or not. The tests that are performed for quality checking of
products at Prime should directly relate to requirements (Kerzner 2018). The focus of quality
management should not be only on products but the organization should also focus on service
quality. Quality assurance and control should be implemented as major processes in quality
management in the organization to ensure that the products are delivered to clients with desired
quality.
The steps that could be followed to improve the quality of product provision at Prime are
discussed as below:
Identification of the customers: The customers have to be identified properly well in
advance from the contract or project charter, project team and organization (Mir and Pinnington
2014). The customer identification is an essential element to ensure that product quality could be
achieved as per requirements of the client.

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Identification of the requirements: Each customer has to be analyzed carefully by project
teams for identifying the requirements. Sometimes the requirement of customers could be
gathered and identified well from interviews. Further, a comprehensive analysis may be required
so that needs and requirements of the customers could be identified well to ensure quality
outcomes from a project.
Specifications: The next step for improving quality of product in Prime is to turn the
requirements into specifications so that it could be measured at certain degree. The specifications
could be used for guiding the project performance and determining success of a project (Lock
2017). Some specifications could be already included in the contract or even project charter
while the others have to be defined individually from the customer requirements.
Quality Assurance: Each specification should be analyzed carefully and an operational
definition have to be developed by the project team (Martinelli and Milosevic 2016). Then, the
project team should develop certain metrics which is considered as a means for measurement for
evaluating the progress towards establishing the target from the specifications.
Development of Quality Assurance plan: Next, the team should combine the activities
related to quality assurance to develop a quality assurance plan. A quality assurance plan should
include specific activities as work packages for managing the quality and ensuring product
quality in Prime.
Quality control: The next step would be to control the quality of products and defining
the planned or systematic activities will help to ensure consistent performance of a project. This
step will include measuring the performance, collection of data, analysis of results and applying
actions for quality control.

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Continuous improvement: It is considered as the last step that have to be taken for
management of project quality (Kerzner 2017). The best tool that could be utilized for this step is
plan-do-check-act cycle that is a framework for improvements in a continuous loop.
Key strengths of a Time Management Approach
Time management is defined as the procedure for organizing and planning so that time
could be divided between specific activities required for a project. Good time management refers
to working smarter rather than harder such that more work can be done in less time even when
time schedule is tight and high pressure. The absence of proper time management approach
damages project effectiveness and it may also cause stress while executing a project. Time
management is referred to the way in which time can be planned and organized for dividing time
for spending time on each activity so that benefits could be achieved through increase in
productivity or even efficiency. Proper time management refers to controlling time so that
specific task could be completed within less time by smarter work (Serra and Kunc 2015). A
time management approach includes planning, organizing and assigning time for activities that
are required for completion of a project. Time management comprises of various tools,
techniques, methods or processes that are aimed for controlling tasks within specific time. It is
necessary to complete a project within specified time on the basis of scope and cost. Time
management approach provides sufficient time for executing specific activities that have to be
executed for the project. It is considered as an excellent approach for delivery of product outputs
within specified time as well as maintaining the desired quality.
An excellent time management approach is a shift from present activities to desired
results for allowing the operations to be done more comfortable and quickly. The effective
management of time provides option for handling activities efficiently at own convenience and

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suitable time (Hornstein 2015). An effective time management approach provides various
benefits and strengths from which some are listed as below:
 Increase in productivity as well as efficiency.
 Reduction in stress and overburden of work so that required tasks could be executed
easily.
 Results into growth in operations and there will be increased opportunities for successful
project completion.
 It helps to achieve quality and efficiency in workflow within the project team.
Hence, time management is stated as the ability for planning and controlling the time
required for activities in a project. Poor time management could result into delay in project and
there may be problems related to controlling and management of activities. A time management
approach has to be implemented in Prime so that the issues with delay in delivery could be
mitigate and they could achieve the desired operational goals and objectives. It is connected to
the core of the project methodology and therefore maintaining it holistically is very important
(Todorovic et al. 2015). The primary justification of this apprehension area is to construct
procedure and harvests into the project document that assist the team manager and team to
comprehend the project in an orderly fashion. Project Time management is a critical success
factor for any project. preparing a time schedule for the project and following that time schedule
to complete the project well within planned time is project time management. Project time
management ensures no delay in project completion.
Key measures and tactics to implement new approach for reducing time problems
Time management is an essential element which is considered as the ability of organizing
and planning the time required for completion of specific activities. Good time management

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helps to increase productivity as well as effectiveness for a project. Time management is an
essential aspect of project management that requires planning, setting up of goals and
prioritization to ensure better performance. For project managers, it is essential to possess proper
skills for time management so that project could be completed successfully. Lack of time
management skills could have negative impact on delivery of project. Time is one of the three
important factors related to project that impacts directly on cost and scope of a project (Sanchez
2015). In some cases, time is considered as money as ineffective management of time may
increase stress or frustration among the project manager and team members. The key measure
that could implemented for effective time management is to work efficiently rather than working
hard. The key measures or tactics that could be implemented in Prime to reduce the time
problems are presented as below:
Avoiding distractions: The distractions occurring in any project should be eliminated
while executing so that focus could be given on the important tasks rather than wasting time. The
management of time efficiently is an essential factor for successful completion of project.
Listing of tasks and prioritization: An essential element of project management is
planning that is required for identifying the tasks required for completion of a project. The tasks
have to be prioritized as every task is not equal and does not requires same time (Conforto et al.
2014). The complex tasks should be left for later execution and easier tasks should be completed
so that there is no delay in project.
Estimation and tracking of time accurately: After prioritizing of tasks, time will be
estimated to determine how much time is required for each activity. The constraints as well as
other factors related to project should be considered during estimation of time. Further, buffer
time have to kept always as every time things may not go as per the developed project schedule.

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Creation of a schedule: After completion of planning and estimation, a project schedule
has to be developed which will include all tasks and their duration. Gantt chart is one of the
effective tool that could be used for creation of a schedule in which activities will be scheduled
and assigned with resources (Chih and Zwikael 2015). A critical path should be added for more
complex projects for visualizing tasks that are most essential for completion of project.
The above mentioned steps will help Prime to manage their time effectively while
executing projects and the delay in delivery of products could be eliminated with proper
planning. The scheduling of activities and following them properly will help the organization in
managing the timely delivery of products. The plan will include specific time assigned for each
activity so that the time issues could be resolved. The organization has decided to implement a
time management system and for that also a suitable plan and approach is required so that they
could accomplish the project successfully.
Customer benefits from the new approach
Tracking of time helps managers in measuring time so that time to be spent on specific
activities could be managed easily. The teams within a company may be working for different
projects at different times and time tracking helps to manage each activity efficiently. Tracking
of time helps to make easier estimation for next projects. Project managers analyzes the tracked
time and prior to allocating time to each activity they should make more reliable estimates. The
reviewing of actual time being spent to complete earlier projects is necessary for determining the
approximate time for execution of other projects (Badewi 2016). There are several other factors
that should be considered while assigning individuals to tasks for completion of a project. The
challenges faced by Prime could be resolved with a new time management approach so that the
delivery of products could be done effectively in a timely manner. Time tracking will help the

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organization to keep track of the invoices so that it could be provided to the clients while
delivering products. A time management approach will ensure that the customers achieve the
desired outcomes from a project within specified time. Time management approach also provide
the customers with added advantage such that they could manage their time efficiently. The time
being spent by customers to gather information about their product delivery status can be
reduced with the help of a time management approach. A time management approach will help
the customers to get the project delivery on specified time (Martinsuo and Hoverfalt 2018). The
customers will be benefitted from a new management approach in various ways out of which
some are listed as below:
Proper management of time: The customers will be able to manage their time efficiently
with help of time management approach. Further, the customers will be able to utilize their time
as per their own convenience to carry out specific activities.
Reduction in wastage of time: The additional time required for completion of the required
activities could be reduced with the help of a time management approach (Papke-Shields and
Boyer-Wright 2017). The approach will ensure that resources are being utilized efficiently for
achieving the desired outcomes from a project.
Increase in productivity and efficiency: The customers will be able to increase their
efficiency with the help of a time management approach. The customers will be able to improve
their own productivity with the help of a new approach (Portny 2017).
The management of time will also ensure that the employees of an organization are
working efficiently to provide business benefits. A time management system will help
organization to deliver the products to customers on a timely manner. The delay in delivery due

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to poor time management in Prime could be resolved with help of new approach. The new
approach will also ensure that customers associated with the organization are satisfied and their
customer base is retained. The new approach will also help to increase association of customers
with the organization.
Part B – Project Planning
Planning is considered as an essential element for almost any project and it is required to
ensure successful completion. Planning helps to determine the activities that have to be executed
to complete a project successfully. Planning is also considered as one of the major phases in
project lifecycle which is required to identify the required activities to complete a project. A plan
has been designed for the project so that the project could be executed well in time along with
the desired quality. The project will help to solve the time run-over problems in Prime
Automotive GmbH with the implementation of a new time management system. The project has
been planned so that the required activities could be executed in a sequential manner. The plan
that has been designed for the project illustrates that 05 months are required to complete
assuming it will begin on 10 January 2019. The plan has been presented as Appendix Part B.1.
illustrates the distribution of time required for each activity. The duration for the activities has
been assigned such that the project could be completed within the desired timeframe of 05
months. Further, milestones have also been presented in the plan that illustrates completion of
the major activities in the project. The plan attached as Appendix Part B.2., illustrates reduced
duration for the project that is 03 months. The project duration has been reduced to 03 months
with the help of project crashing which was achieved by assigning more resources to certain
specific activities.