Broken Welds
A manufacturer of mountain bicycles designed an automated system for welding bike frames. For three years, the system worked nicely, handling about 1000 frames per shift. Production was scheduled for two shifts per day. The system was designed to weld the frame and then to check the quality of each weld.
The welded frames were then transported to another plant for assembly.
Recently, a few of the frames had failed. Careful testing showed that a foreign substance in the welding rod purchased from an outside vendor possibly contributed to the failure. When checked, however, the rods conformed to the specifications given to the purchasing department and guaranteed by the vendor. The chief engineer ordered the production department’s project leader, Alison Passette, to create a project to find out precisely what was causing the failures and to find a way to solve the problem. This project was to take priority over all other projects in the department.
Alison was familiar with the chief engineer’s tendency to overreact to any glitches in the production process, so she decided to determine the effect of the proposed project on all the other projects in the department. She also discussed the problem with Ken Kelsey, one of her welding experts, who felt sure he could solve the welding problems by determining what foreign substance, if any, caused the problem. He could then set up a system to detect the presence of the substance and re-weld the affected frames. Of course, he added, they would also have to change their specifications for the welding rod to eliminate the chemical responsible for the failures.
Questions:
What information should Alison consider to determine the probable effect of the Chief Engineer’s proposed project on the other projects in the department?
Should her findings affect her decision about Kelsey’s proposed actions?
How?
Justify your answers by referring to the case study and other online (only) sources.
Springville Fire Department
The city of Springville is building a new fire station in the city. The city is expanding and is in need of a second fire station closer to the newer areas of the city to ensure shorter response times. The project manager and the project team have been selected for the project. The team is very interested in selecting the scheduling technique that will be used to follow the project through to completion.
The project manager, city manager, and chief of the fire department have set the following criteria for the process of selecting the scheduling technique: easy to use, shows durations of tasks, shows milestones, can see the flow of work, can see the sequence of events, can depict which tasks can be undertaken at the same time, and can tell how far tasks are from completion. The city manager favors the Gantt chart, the chief likes PERT, and tile project manager prefers CPM.
Question:
1. If you were the project manager, which method would you use, and why?
Justify your answers by referring to the case study and other online (only) sources.
