Project Planning & Implementation

Project Planning & Implementation

The purpose of this project will be to develop and Quality Control Reporting system (QCR) for the certification of  ISO 9000.  XYZ is a small medical products company employing about fifty people.  A year ago, the company was purchased by a larger medical manufacturing company called XYZ. Since that purchase XYZ mandated that XYZ become ISO 9000 certified.

The reason for XYZ to become ISO 9000 is for the expansion of their business products.  To become ISO 9000, a company must have in place a system, including procedures, to ensure document control and records management, standard quality procedures, reporting, discrepancy identification and rectification.  It applies to industries involved in design, development, manufacturing, installation and servicing of products or services.  If a company fails to comply with the ISO 9000 it will mean loss of business.

XYZ management has determined that to accomplish becoming ISO 9000 certified they must incorporate a Quality Control Reporting (QCR) module that will interface with the existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

According to XYZ management the QCR module needs to perform certain functions for the company to become ISO 9000 certified.

 QCR module must interface with the ERP system.  The ERP system handles customer orders, inventory, purchasing, invoicing and Tinaing.

 The QC module should provide data collection, storage, analysis and reporting.

 Quality reports should be available for the following departments: QC, accounting, marketing, shipping and management.

 The QC module must be able to identify, isolate, and eliminate quality problems immediately.

 Increasable manufacturing efficiency must be achieved.

 The system must be flexible and scalable.

A project team committee will be established to address all questions and concerns.  The project team will consist of:

 Project Manager responsibilities will be:  to assemble the project team; author the workplan, enforce budgetary guidelines and oversee all phases of the project;  reporting progress on a regular basis to upper management

 System Analyst job to assess and determine user needs, recommend software and systems applications in the analysis phase and then at implementation, organize training, assist in software installation and prepare end-user documentation.

 The IT Analyst’s responsibilities will be to evaluate the current hardware, recommend and oversee acquisition of new components, install new hardware; assist in software installation, integrate the new system with the existing company network and assemble the technical documentation.

 ERP Analyst will be provided with the application software to direct system installation and assist in modifying the system to Komet’s specific needs as well as aide in assembling technical and user documentation and system maintenance for a set period after the system is online

The Project Coordinator has chosen to utilize the deterministic approach for structuring the QCR project.  The project team is small and has worked together on a number of similar projects in the past.  The QCR installation is similar in scope and work to these previous projects and thus by comparing the time it took to complete the previous jobs the Coordinator is able to author a timeline and work breakdown schedule that is realistic and executable in its projections.

To complete a project successfully it must be broken down into its component parts and then assign personnel and resources necessary to complete each task.  The Coordinator has listed and organized the tasks, highlighting those critical to bringing the QCR system online within a reasonable amount of time.  Responsibility for completion of each is the responsibility of the team member to which is has been assigned.  Task assignments have been clearly documented in the Project Plan as well as the expected duration of each task.

The Project Coordinator is using Microsoft Project to document and manage the QCR project.  All tasks have been scheduled; team members will use MS Project to report progress on individual tasks and the Coordinator can in turn generate reports for Management using this tool.  Milestones, representing the critical path/steps have been incorporated into the task matrix.  Examples of milestones are initiation of the project, beginning with an analysis of the existing system, discovery and evaluation of options, approval of purchase of new QCR system package and delivery of the system into operation.  At completion of each milestone a report is generated for management.

The project schedule is illustrated using a Gantt cha.............