1. Introduction This report discusses a situation I faced as the Project Manager for a local manufacturing company who was contracted to build a quantity of ten C44aci class locomotives for an international coal distributor. Our company is a market leader in the rail industry, offering complete asset management services to its customers through the design, build and maintenance of locomotives. At the time of contract negotiations it was insisted upon by the customer that this new fire detection system be included within the terms of the contract or risk losing the contract to a competitor; under duress it was agreed by the bid team and included within the scope of contractual deliverables. At the time of contract award the system had not …show more content…
Due to this a sub optimal design including materials to be used was selected by the supplier; which ultimately caused the project to overrun on costs and schedule because of re-work to design and the need to prototype materials.
On reflection of this decision it is now clear to me that more time should have been spent researching product availability and assessing alternative suppliers and their capacity to support such a project. In future to ensure all alternatives have been thoroughly investigated more time should be assigned for the planning stage where all possible alternatives could be identified; following this, the procedure Janis and Mann (1977) define as vigilant analysis could be used to ensure a thorough consideration of each alternative is achieved. This procedure uses a balance sheet approach to ensure a systematic evaluation of each alternative is being achieved with alternatives ranked from most desirable to least desirable.
3.2 Thinking traps and biases At the time of making the decision my behaviour was heavily influenced by my personal motivation to succeed and prove myself as a capable Project Manager. I had recently been appointed into this role and I was not only responsible for the implementation of the system but the overall incorporation of engineering, procurement and production activities along with the management of internal and external
In this assignment I will be writing a formal report that will explain a typical procurement process, I will outline a variety of methods of supplier reimbursement and contract relationships; I will also outline the pros and cons of each contract type. As well as this, I will explain a typical supplier selection process through the use of Carters 10 C’s and a typical selection process model.
Each alternative must be clearly identified. The key advantages and disadvantages of each alternative must be listed and thoroughly discussed. The compare and contrast (pro and con) assessments of each alternative must be done against the decision criteria previously listed and discussed. A matrix format may be used in order to more accurately compare each of the alternatives. If multiple decision criteria are being used, weighting of each of the criteria must be applied. It is also important to look at the short and long term results of each alternative, and to assess the best, the worst, and the most likely outcomes for each alternative. Qualitative and quantitative analysis will be required. It will also be necessary for the student to use the various supply chain management tools and techniques learned throughout the certificate program to determine those possible outcomes.
By analysing these areas it is apparent there are lessons to be learnt when undertaking enormous projects that are exposed to numerous external pressures. Whilst there were many significant negative issues that ascended from this project, it must be emphasised that over due time, Federal Square has developed itself into a cultural epicenter that feeds a thriving city.
‘’Cost performance on project s often poor, what are the possible causes of this and how can it be improved?’’
Introduction Based on the 2016 Canadian Crime Statistics it was discovered that the theory that best described Canada is the Rational Choice Theory. This theory explains that when people desire to commit a crime they have more reasons and see more positive outcomes with committing the crime and disobeying the law than not. Like most, Canadian citizens pick and choose their battles with committing crimes; they know what is legal and good, along with what is illegal and bad. The rational choice theory shows that most of the crimes being committed, were crimes that could possibly help support the committers families. Even though the cost of the crime was big, they had more reasons to commit the crime do to the larger outcomes
It is unfortunate that crime exists in our daily lives. There really is no way to stopping crime completely, no matter how many laws or punishment are present, people will continue to keep breaking rules. There are many theories of why that may be the case, for example, Caesar Lombroso and his “atavistic” theory with the Positivist School theory and how people were “born criminals”, or the Rational Choice Theory, devised by Cornish and Clarke, described that people could think rationally and how people will naturally avoid pain and seek pleasure referred to as “hedonism” (Cartwright, 2017, lecture 4). Since it is apparent that crime will continue to exist, it is not only important to understand the study of crime and the feedbacks to it,
With reference to the Vickers Industrial Supplies request for a distributorship and associated pricing discount, I have prepared a decision report to assist you in taking a decision. The report contains the analysis of the situation, the options available, my recommendation and an action plan. The recommendation has been arrived at by evaluating the options based on criteria which are aligned with the company’s objectives.
Since the early stages, the project was inundated with concerns and issues with the project scope. From the perspective of project management, the initial scope was not defined well enough. Details of the design were over looked and aspects such as the details of the air conditioning ended up increasing the original scope by $200 million. This supposedly led a prosperous project to an uncertain economic ordeal. Initial estimates of the project had been $5.5 billion and by the time of its actual completion it been delayed by a year and increased to $15
Your firm, Supreme Financial Solutions, have just won a £3 million contract from Deep Blue Seaways that will require you – the Project Manager – to execute. You are pretty certain from your experience with Deep Blue Seaways that this project is seriously underfunded by possibly as much as £1 million. You are to replace their outdated finance systems with your company’s renowned Finance Wizard product, a system that processes all financial information, and produces an infinite array of management information reports that have been proved to improve strategic decision making in
Over the summer, my boyfriend, Rob, and I had to make a considerably important decision. After going from seeing each other on campus on a daily basis to simply being hundreds of miles away from each other, Rob and I both admitted that we had begun to miss each other. We had been going back and forth during June and July on whether he should fly up and visit me in Rhode Island in August or just wait another month to see me once we were both back on campus for the fall semester. If he came and visited, I would not only be able to see him, but I would also be able to introduce him to my family.
Parks Corporation should have appointed an experienced project manager to run the Blue Spider project and Gary Anderson, who was an experienced engineer, should have been made the assistant project manager with the responsibility of managing the project’s R&D activities. Anderson was too inexperienced as a project manager and really had no clue what the true responsibilities were for managing a project except what he might have learned in his MBA program. 2. Project requirements needed to be clear and specific. In order to achieve successful project management and implementation, Anderson needed to ensure the requirements for the Blue Spider Project were clearly stated and written down in detail, so everyone involved in the project clearly understood the requirements. And, everyone needed to know what was not included in the Blue Spider Project. 3. Regular and effective communication was needed. If effective communication channels were established that let team members share their knowledge and skills Anderson could have delivered the right understanding of the project requirements to all the team members involved. All types of communication helps build a bridge between team members and stakeholders who have the responsibility to detect potential problems, clarify details, and maintain trust. 4.
Kahneman’s article is an analysis of intuitive thinking and how it guides our decision-making. Although primarily aimed at the field of psychology, it is an interdisciplinary article with applications in economic theorising. Kahneman attempts to differentiate between two systems of thought, one of intuition (system 1) and one of reasoning (system 2), and argues that many judgements and choices are made intuitively, rather than with reason (a slower and more deliberate process). Intuitive decision making, which encompasses heuristics, although generally more efficient and rapid, makes the agent potentially subject to errors due to framing effects or violations of dominance. The analysis of the studies and theoretical situations also provides criticism of the commonly held model of the rational agent within economics. The article also further conceptualises Kahneman’s theory, the Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979), which has descriptive applications of people’s choice in decision-making situations involving risk and known probability of outcomes. These situations are typically unexplained by the more normative rational agent model.
Parker’s budgeting decision is a good example of an individual acting with bounded rationality. This term was introduced by Simon in 1957 (as cited in Tolbert & Hall, 2008) to argue that normative models of decision making, which assume fully rational and objective judgement (Teale, Dispenza, Flynn & Currie, 2003), are unrealistic because human rationality is limited. Parker’s judgement may have seemed rational to him, but it was not rational for the organisation, a subtle distinction about rationality made by Storing (as cited in Tolbert & Hall, 2008). Parker’s judgement was also not rational in that he did not have all available knowledge and awareness of risk, which are the conditions of normative models (Teale et al, 2003) and the “official theory” of management (Anthony, as cited in Teale et al, 2003, p. 14). For example, Parker did not know about the variations in the terrain when he made his decision, and he also assumed that the assistant workers could work at the same physical rate that he could. Both of these limitations were factors resulting in a risk to on-time task completion.
Lack of project management clarity: the planning activity had lot of material but lacked content, clear action items and lack of consensus on the milestones. The difficulties in the project only increased with time and a more performance driven style would have kept things on track if introduced early on.
Rational choice theory, also known simply as choice theory, is the assessment of a potential offender to commit a crime. Choice theory is the belief that committing a crime is a rational decision, based on cost benefit analysis. The would-be offender will weigh the costs of committing a particular crime: fines, jail time, and imprisonment versus the benefits: money, status, heightened adrenaline. Depending on which factors out-weigh the other, a criminal will decide to commit or forgo committing a crime. This decision making process makes committing a crime a rational choice. This theory can be used to explain why an offender will decide to commit burglary, robbery, aggravated assault, or murder.