Project Management 2 Assignment Sample

Subject Name : Project Management 3

Case Study: MegaTech Inc.

Table of Contents

Overview of Case.

Statement of problem..

Alternative Solution.

Overview of Case

Fundamentally this case deals with MegaTech Inc. considering Project Management as the lead factor to the downside of the company faces because of the tough fighting for the taking market share from its competitors. This is started after the arrival of the North American Free Trade Agreement and other international trade agreements.

MegaTech Inc. is an automotive company that expertise in designing and manufacturing automotive components. Though it has a small number of customer base, slowly by increasing annual sales MegaTech is able to capture a fair amount of market share. But as competition from its competitors around the world goes up MegaTech Inc has started to deals with intense commercial challenges. To deals with this the key management of the MegaTech Inc opts to make it a project-based company. Because of this decision now they have to change the structure of the whole company along with the style of operations.

As a project-based organization, MegaTech would concentrate on making new products depending on the demand of the expanding global market. This could also mean that the company would be concentrating more on innovating products with improved quality and more attribute depending on the demand of the consumers along with demand of the market. Thus, MegaTech, Inc. would be taking on Project Management as a major response to the threat of decreasing market share in the automotive industry (Carvalho and Rabechini Junior, 2015).

However, the main challenge of this type of business faces that the companies employing project management, such as MegaTech, has to deals with transition problem related to new time, costs and resources limitation. Employees had to face a tough time for adapt to these changes.

But the key management of MegaTech Inc is already know about these problems and they are sure that executing project management would aid the company to sustain its position over competitors in its worldwide competitive industry. Even so, as disclose in the case, the key management is surely know that there is no guarantee that project management would give them a definite success in the industry but it does give them an idea of how to correctly fight with the problems they are facing in the industry, mainly in their operations.

Statement of Problem

A particular change in a company can lead to two things: beneficial impact or adverse impact. While the first one can bestow a company with a number of benefits that everyone can use in a while the other one can give some disadvantages that can pull them down. If the employees of the organization are not prepared to face the changes applied to a company that can lead to an utmost problem because they already adapted to the old system and it will take some time to adapt them with the new system.

Formerly MegaTech Inc keeps up with the continual annual sales of 300 million dollars by doing only small changes of their product. With the arrival of the North American Free Trade Agreement, ending of most roadblocks to trade between the US, Canada, and Mexico, the company opt to become a project-based organization. These changes from previous and long-term operations to project management impact on many things within the company. One of it is that staffs are having problems assign time systematically and using their funds potently. Another one was the beliefs of the managers doesn’t meet straight away. The overall problem spot by the company is allocating new funds and given the deadline by the project management bring them to unsatisfactory results. The company was unsure about whether they take a correct step or not by bringing project management in the company (Hornstein, 2015).

Alternative Solution

To address the problem that MegaTech Inc. has been dealing with, the group has brought with two different solutions that can address its problems:

1. With an innovation of revamp and of success, MegaTech Inc. should continue as project-based organization by fighting with the challenges creates by the project management approach.

The changes to project management, for the main purpose of improvement and customer satisfaction, the road for MegaTech, Inc doesn’t a smooth one. Even so, it has to become a project-based organization recently, the company has not simply given tough competition to its competitors but it has also kept up its industry leadership. Present days success rate of the company might not have met the expectations of the management, but this has an optimistic mark due to a development of small sort of success. The speed of the company’s progress is may be slow; success is not at hand instantly but is actually gained at a gradual rate. But the company can take advantage of its present status by taking every undertaking, it is important to have a target of achieving efficiency and effectiveness.

MegaTech Inc. has desired to maintain its internal operating effectiveness. Hence, all project teams have been given limited cost and precise deadline for new product introductions. Even so, being effective does not necessarily mean sacrificing its being effective. Project Management needs to be elastic. By saying elastic, mean that project management approach should be in the interest of becoming effective and of maximizing effectiveness with a bonus of lessen risks. To be elastic, projects must be in compliance with a standard. “Each project can be represented as a standard set of problems to be solved” (Eskerod et al. 2015).

Below is a list of two of the project management problems currently addressing by MegaTech Inc. and the related options for solving them:

STANDARD PROBLEM	STANDARD OPTION
Due to insane cost, required budget must be applied	“Design and build to a known limit. Perform detailed concept development for costing purposes. Create project phases that match available project.” (Ramazani and Jergeas, 2015)
Due to precise deadline, needed time of completion must be evaluated	“Design and build to a known time frame. Perform detailed development of a module and estimate for all modules. Outsource professional services, if necessary, to match time frame. Hire more or less casual or short-term staff, if necessary, to match time frame. Re-order priorities for existing resources.” (Badewi, 2016)

2. MegaTech Inc. must change back to make use of the operations management approach instead of project management approach.

Recommended Solution

As a proposed solution, the group selects Alternative #1: With a vision of improvement and success, MegaTech Inc. ought to carry on become a project-based organization by dealing well with the challenges posed by the project management approach.

This alternative has already been explained in the previous part of the case study. Specifically, employees were having a very difficult time in adjusting to new costs and resource constraints, and the result was not as impressive as expected. However, as mentioned, adjustments can also be made and results developments have occurred (de Carvalho et al. 2015).

Going back to Table 1 of the previous section, the applicability of this solution can be got. In addition, there is no benefit to not choosing to continue with project management and going back with the previous activities. If the company does not adapt to the new barriers and return to the previous situation, it will not be able to cope easily with today's very dynamic market and also internal skills were always promoted before the introduction of project management. In this case, it may not take long before the workers to agree to new limits of project management, the applications described earlier may be pushed through and return or "large dividends" – as the case suggests - increase significantly over time, especially if the customers are constantly contented with the new product innovations (Hornstein, 2015).

In this case, MegaTech is supposed to be new at the project management. Other than that, as a brief review, the concerned company entered into project management to better address the new dynamic and competitive market that new international competitors brought about. Besides, the group found that project management gave the organization a competitive advantage in the following points, are as below:

Faster response to market demands and trends: The project management, basically is just like operation management apart from that the latter has a deadline. This is temporary. In this way, teams work quickly to develop existing products and release new products as the market demands it (Badewi, 2016).
Special consideration to costs and guidelines drives teams to remain efficient while striving for market advantage: Competitive advantage is not just about gaining more people to purchase one's product than the competitors. The company can likewise gain more output than its competitors and can also gain a competitive advantage by earning more revenue through constant or low inputs. Besides, this efficiency achieved through the restraints determined by the project management. Along with that, it looks like the company is gaining market advantage through limited-cost projects compared to the large-cost ones carried out and provided by competitors. Moreover, reserved funds rather than being used to work on new ones or to prepare for future market trends, rather than being used to continuously produce current products, can be used to work on new products or to produce for market trend in the future (Todorović et al. 2015).
Varied practices and ideas for updating products from different people in new teams: In MegaTech, the company forms a special project team for each product line to create “innovative changes in operations”. In relation to one of the major aspects of project management, the project teams are basically made up of different groups and skill. Besides, this is just after the duration of the project when they return to their original “place”. Also, MegaTech can achieve competitive advantage by gathering different ideas and thoughts from people of different sources and combining them to fully develop a particular product - something that normal operations do not normally do. By partnering with great research teams, it can create extensively improved products through the contribution of people from varied skills that are important to the consumers and product (Joslin and Müller, 2015).

Several elements of the marketplace where MegaTech operates led the business to believe that the project management will improve its performance, are as below:

Enriched product knowledge of customers that lead to more dynamic demands for innovation: This second component of the market is also associated with the first element. As there are new competitors in the market, not only do customers now have more alternatives to select from another than MegaTech - they also gain knowledge about new trends in product diverse from what they were used within MegaTech and can become more inclined to try for these demands or trends something relating to these trends. For example, Japan offers something in its automotive components that is unique to its own country and unexpectedly customers follow this new trend. If MegaTech has nothing to do to counter it with or something bigger than that, it will lose its customers in the fast pace of competition (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016).
Sudden presence of more new international competitors: In this case, because of the alleged change in the international trade agreement, MegaTech must handle more and new competitors. In other words, the first component in the market that led MegaTech to choose to project management is the presence of more new competitors. Besides, international competitors have a higher chance of delivering something unique and interesting than what they have in their own country. As MegaTech previously based on a stable market where it had steady sales growth, recently, the presence of new competitors has made little - not excluded - room for stability (Kerzner, 2017).

Conclusion

Before going into this case, when someone encounters the term “project management”, one can always associate it strictly with operations management. For example, when one thinks of creating a new structure for project management, one can easily combine it with the production of new outputs and tedious inputs – especially a matter of operation. Through the case, one can now find a direct connection between project management and another area of business management that is marketing. In this manner, operation and marketing are related for this is in operation in which demands in marketing are met through the tangible solutions - in simple terms, through production. However, this case may see a direct connection between project management - a subdivision of operations management and marketing. If the company is to take a new step in its existence, it is significant to take note of two things:

To become flexible by being capable of adapting to certain changes in business activities
To always consider the achievement of efficiency as well as effectiveness and realizing the risk reduction

Before implementing the change, it is important to make sure that the stakeholders influenced by it are prepared to accept new things.

References

Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and project success in different project governance contexts. International journal of project management, 33(6), pp.1377-1392.

Todorović, M.L., Petrović, D.Č., Mihić, M.M., Obradović, V.L. and Bushuyev, S.D., 2015. Project success analysis framework: A knowledge-based approach in project management. International Journal of Project Management, 33(4), pp.772-783.

Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-298.

Badewi, A., 2016. The impact of project management (PM) and benefits management (BM) practices on project success: Towards developing a project benefits governance framework. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), pp.761-778.

de Carvalho, M.M., Patah, L.A. and de Souza Bido, D., 2015. Project management and its effects on project success: Cross-country and cross-industry comparisons. International Journal of Project Management, 33(7), pp.1509-1522.

Ramazani, J. and Jergeas, G., 2015. Project managers and the journey from good to great: The benefits of investment in project management training and education. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), pp.41-52.

Eskerod, P., Huemann, M. and Savage, G., 2015. Project stakeholder management—Past and present. Project Management Journal, 46(6), pp.6-14.

Carvalho, M.M.D. and Rabechini Junior, R., 2015. Impact of risk management on project performance: the importance of soft skills. International Journal of Production Research, 53(2), pp.321-340.

Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.

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