Question:
Discuss about the Project Management Methodologies of Latino Engineering.
Latino Engineering is medium size company; they are around 300 employees working in the company. The enterprise is known to provide best quality design, development for the equipment they manufacture. Dominic Latino, the founder of the company is known to provide best quality product to the clients and thus the clients have high respect and regard for him. At the age of 65 years, he retires and hands the company to an investor group. Unfortunately, the investor group face various kinds of issues within a year of hand over. That is why they have planned to adopt a project methodology (Verzuh 2015). The PRINCE2 project methodology is going to solve their issues and the techniques via which Latino Engineering can enhance their business activities will be detailed in the essay (Refer to Appendix A).
Latino Engineering generally declines due to failure of the management body. They do not have the correct methodology with them. Dominic Latino was not to cater the quality engineering equipment; however, the new management body due to lack of expertise, lack of experience are struggling. The adoption of PRINCE2 project phases can prove fruitful for them. First of all, they must have a proper design plan for the engineering equipment. Latino should consider the workforce as well (Sommer, Dukovska-Popovska and Steger-Jensen 2014). They must cater the responsibility to the entire team of Latino Engineering according to their expertise. The first phase of PRINCE2 signifies the initiation of the project and the initiation of the project involves the design plan of the project and the responsibility divided among the employees according to the skill. The second phase is the direction of the project. The manager and his subordinates must communicate with each other and constantly keep in touch with each other. The tasks must be divided into subtasks and then each part must be completed within stipulated deadline, if any mishaps occur then the manager and his subordinates must come to the rescue and solve the issues as soon as possible (Nicholas and Steyn 2017). Thus the first complaint or the first risk that is the manufacturing of defect equipment can be solved.
The next complaint or the next issue that arises is poor follow up with the clients. The manager always keeps in touch with the clients. The partial submission should be delivered and it is the responsibility of the manager to take the feedback from the clients and if possible must update the equipment. Also in case of a manufacturing defect in the product they delivered, the manager should be proactive and should repair the product according to the demands of the clients (Martinelli and Milosevic 2016). Another scenario may occur, the client is not happy with the design and type in certain areas of the product, the manager should revert back within twenty-four hours and should solve the problems if possible. The managers should appoint a customer service team who will keep in touch with the clients all throughout day and night. This can ease the management system. All these alterations and modification must be recorded in the form of soft copy and in the form of hard copy as well (Krysi?ski and Miller 2016). The planning and monitoring phase of PRINCE2 illustrates the clients’ feedback and the project performance proceedings. The planning phase involves working in accordance to the deliverables sent to the clients whereas the monitoring phase involves the feedback from the clients and work accordingly.
The third issue is the long turnaround time for issue resolution. The manager should revert back within twenty-four hours with full responsibility. The manager along with his subordinates must process the project and make the rework as per clients’ demands and should submit it as fast as possible (Vardy 2015). All these rework must be documented in digital format in the form of a soft copy or in the form of hard copy. Thus the issue resolution of the clients can be solved. PRINCE2 initiating phase, planning phase and the monitoring phase can solve the third issue. The initiating phase involves the starting of the project according to the deliverables and the contracts made with the clients (Svejvig and Andersen 2015). The planning involves the fresh working or reworking of the existing equipment as per the deliverables sent to the clients and the clients’ wishes and demands.
The fourth issue is the non-responsive customer service team. The customer service must adopt the IT services and if possible should adopt the cloud technology, the IT services can help them to connect with the clients 24×7 all day and night. The customer service must be educated with the proper equipment knowledge so that they can serve the customers better. The managers, on the other hand, should keep contact with the customer service team; any critical query must be solved by the management team (Srivannaboon and Munkongsujarit 2016). The fifth issue can be solved by appointing the courier service. The courier service can be a third party or it can be Latino Engineering’s owned courier team who will take the responsibility to ship the right equipment to the right clients. The courier service should make a list and then deliver all the items according to the list and they must have acted responsibly and should deliver within time. The five major issues that have been addressed within last 12 months have been addressed in this essay and the probable solutions to defend those issues will be discussed in details.
Latino Engineering has suffered from the defective engineering equipment development. They do not have the right strategy; they do not have the right plan to satisfy the demands and the requirements of the clients of the Latino Engineering. That is why they failed to deliver the best product to the clients (Karaman and Kurt 2015). PRINCE 2 can help them to cater the best plan to initiate and direct the project forward. The pricing for the project must be considered and Latino Engineering must discuss and make deals with the clients. The project or the machinery project’s proposals must be well understood, after that analysing the proposals Latino Engineering must send deliverables if the clients are satisfied with the deliverables the Latino employees must initiate the work.
Again, they suffer from follow up with clients (Coppola, D’Ambrogio and Gianni 2016). According to PRINCE2, this problem can be mitigated as well. The whole project must be divided into subparts, then each subpart must be assessed and tested and should be cross-checked by the clients of Latino. In this way, Latino’s clients can be assured that the project is proceeding well and the project is completely fine with no issues. On the other side, Latino Engineering can be assured they are successful with the project and this can give them the maximum productivity (Seymour and Hussein 2014).
Another issue is the deadline issue, the project is not completed within the stipulated deadline, so the deadline should be set at the beginning, and the subparts must be completed properly within the stipulated time. After partial submission, if the customer is not satisfied with the product will definitely complain, previously there was no management body to listen to them and respond to them from time to time, this can be solved by appointing a customer service team within the Latino Engineering company (Alvarez-Dionisi, Turner and Mittra 2016). The customer service team must record the feedback and should forward it to the higher officials. The higher officials must consider the issues and should decide what to do with the issues. They must command the subordinates to take actions if any negative feedback comes. The subordinates then have to revert back to the higher officials and to the clients within twenty-four hours and should rework as soon as possible. The clients can be assured that their response is heard upon and the priority is being given to their demands and choices (Joslin and Müller 2015). The clients can also be assured that they will get the machinery product within the timeline. Thus the reputation of the company can get increased due to the effort of Latino Engineering.
The clients even have complained that they receive the faulty items and the items are not up to the mark. The main reason behind is the lack of communication. The partial submission should be made and the clients’ reviews must be taken into consideration after the submission of the partial project. The clients’ feedback must be taken from time to time after the partial submission of the project. The customer, if satisfied with the product, Latino Engineering must continue with the work (Turner and Hartley 2016). The customers if not satisfied, Latino Engineering must rework. Therefore, the customers will have to send acknowledgement whether the responses are positive or negative. The positive response will let the managers know that everything is fine and up to the mark, the negative response will let the employees carry on their rework. The employees must have the knowledge on how to conduct the rework and the managers should help them in need. The rework must be done according to the parameters set by the clients (Cicmil and Gaggiotti 2017). Then after completing the rework, the rework must be sent to the clients for a recheck, if that is ok, the employees must proceed with the remaining task.
The other complaint that comes from the clients’ end is that wrong item has been shipped to the clients. Latino Engineering should take help from the third party courier service, should appoint the courier service who will ship the items to the right clients at the right time. They can choose another option; they can set a courier service for themselves (Reynolds 2016). The courier service should provide with the correct product along with the correct address. This can check the mishaps regarding shipment of wrong engineering equipment.
PRINCE2 project methodology along with its seven phases has the capability to provide continuous improvement to Latino Engineering and this methodology can guarantee that it can check the problems which has incurred within the enterprise (Refer to Appendix B). Latino Engineering must adopt any project methodology for the betterment of the company, the PRINCE2 methodology can prove to be fruitful to the company as PRINCE2 is widely accepted project methodology all over the world. PRINCE2 consists of the following phases via which the Latino Engineering’s business activities can be greatly embellished and all their risks can be minimised (Dybå, Dingsøyr and Moe 2014). The phases the project methodology contains are starting up a particular project, and then directing the project in a proper way, then the initiation of the project. Later on the planning, the controlling, the monitoring and the closing associated the project must be conducted to get the desired outcome and the better outcome. The starting up the project signifies that the project must be initiated and business processes must be processed effectively (Basu 2014). In case of Latino engineering, the engineering equipment must be designed according to the demands of the oil and gas industry and according to the wish and demands of the construction industry.
Next, the second phase includes proper direction of the project, here in this phase the deadline is set to complete manufacturing of the various parts associated with the project or the machinery part (Hughes et al. 2016). After manufacturing of each part, that part must be tested and the subordinates must convey the message to their managers stating that the part is completely fine (Arnaut, Ferrari and e Souza 2016). The manufacturing of the parts must be completed within the given stipulated deadline. The project must be completed with full efficiency and must not delay. The initiating of the project involves the procedures via which the manufacturing of the machinery parts must be continued. A project Initiating Document (PID) must dictate the contract and terms of reference for the project entirely (González-Marcos et al. 2016).
The next phase includes the planning, in this planning phase every machinery part must be produced, then they must be tested properly, if it passes the test then the manager should be acknowledged that the machinery part is fine and the project can further proceed. After that comes the controlling phase, the detailed tracking of the documents is done in this phase, the everyday reports must be prepared by Latino Engineering to facilitate the engineering process as well (Eskerod and Huemann 2013). After finishing up a part of a machinery part, the report on the part must be prepared and should be sent to the higher officials, this is a sign of proof the project is going with success. In this way too it can be assured that the project is totally under control and is up to the mark as per the quality is concerned (Francis 2015). This is basically an iterative process. The monitoring phase involves the monitoring, the partial project must be submitted to the clients and they should check if everything is all right or not.
The feedback from the clients is absolutely necessary. The positive feedback determines that the work is fine and Latino Engineering can carry on their work further and can complete the work. The negative feedback determines the failure of the project and rework must be done to solve the issues brought by the clients. That means the project will have to be completed and done as per the requirements prescribed by the clients (Brones et al. 2014). The feedback must be acknowledged by the higher officials and the management as this can provide trust to the managers that the project is executing well. The negative feedback signifies that the managers must take charge and manage the same. The authorisation from the Project Board is necessary and they will have to judge and take the decision the proceedings should be made or not.
Lastly, the closing phase signifies that the project has been delivered to the clients and the clients will decide that everything is done in accordance with their wish or demands. Their positive feedback and the signoff signifies that the project has been done in time, the project or the machinery part is fine and an acknowledgement must be taken from the clients that they have received the product and they are satisfied with it (Brones et al. 2014). Thus the whole procedure signifies that the project has been executed well according to the clients’ demands and the clients’ are happy and satisfied with the product. Thus PRINCE2 must be adopted by Latino Engineering as this can assist them to run the business operations effectively.
It can be concluded from the above discourse that the PRINCE2 can bring in significant changes to Latino Engineering. The five major issues that the company has faced have been discussed in the essay. The issues that have been highlighted are the manufacturing of defective engineering parts, poor design and development of the machinery equipment that can prove fatal to the oil and gas industry and the utility industry. Latino Engineering’s lack of communication and follow-up with the clients is also one of the major issues that have been raised and the clients are not happy with their service at all. The customer service team and the courier team have also failed to deliver their best. PRINCE2 has widely used project methodology that has the capability to mitigate all the issues raised. By following proper methodology the employees can deliver the top quality products again, the customer service team can serve the clients well. The productivity will be regained as was one year before.
References
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