3761 db7415 -_manideep_yellanki_assesment_2_55705_10041974
TRANSCRIPT
5/24/20162016PROJECT PLAN-MARRIOTT BEDDING PROGRAM
Assessment 2
BG010: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Group Assignment
Submitted to:
Wilfred Kurukulasuriya
Submitted by:
RAKESH DOMMATI
ID: i156861
SHUJATH MIRZA
ID: i156897
MANIDEEP YELLANKI
ID: i156859
HEENA DAMANIA
ID: i156431
MOHITH THAKUR
ID: i157108
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Project charter............................................................................................................................3
Background.............................................................................................................................4
Vision......................................................................................................................................4
Objectives...............................................................................................................................4
Scope.......................................................................................................................................5
Key Stakeholders....................................................................................................................5
Project milestones...................................................................................................................6
Project budgeting....................................................................................................................6
Limitations, expectations and threats.....................................................................................7
Values.....................................................................................................................................9
Core Critical Path.......................................................................................................................9
Work Breakdown Structure.....................................................................................................10
Gantt chart................................................................................................................................15
Budget......................................................................................................................................17
Risk Management Plan............................................................................................................19
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................22
Recommendations....................................................................................................................23
References................................................................................................................................24
INTRODUCTION
Many organizations have tried to uplift their standard by trying their hands in providing good
bedding hospitality to the customers and the same was done by Marriott back in 2004 by
initiating the well-known bedding program. It included many aspects as well as parameters
that in turn improved the working plan of bedding process. Bedding process includes down
pillows, simple embroidery at the borders, creative way of arranging towel, duvet covers, and
light shade bed sheet, etc. for the comfort of their customers. The project aimed at providing
the listed amenities which in turn would benefit both the franchise and their customers.
Customer’s satisfaction depends on the hospitality of the hotel and the services provided to
them. If in case customer files even a single complaint then it would be counted as a negative
point towards organization’s reputation and position. Project was implemented in different
phases and tasks were appropriately divided among the various stakeholders involved in the
project. Our bedding program will provide different colors for pillow and bed which would
provide a classy, simple and decent look to the overall bedding arrangement. Project was
capable of maintaining organization’s standard and customer’s satisfaction and was
completed as scheduled and within budget i.e. $190 million. The project like any other
project faced many challenges but timely and appropriate solutions were adopted to
overcome those challenges and make this project successful. Therefore we can say that the
overall benefit of the project was to provide a new and a distinctive selling point so that they
could attract more customers through their innovative approach towards renovating
the entire bedding facilities which in turn would bring in great revenues for the franchise in
the long run. This project also helped the franchise to gain competitive advantage and
flourish in the hospitality industry ("Marriott Bedding Program-Case Study", 2012).
PROJECT CHARTER
Project charter is basically a plan provided to project manager to accomplish given objectives. It
comprises of instruction to be followed by the project manager. The basic idea of using project
charter is to maintain consistency between various tasks. In this manner project manager’s work is
reduced as everything will be processed as planned in the project charter. It also acts as safe side
for organizations because firstly project charter will be reviewed before getting into the
implementation phase. On the basis of business point of view it also proves to be advantageous to
the organization’s value and position. Project charter popularity is increased due to its strong
capability of maintaining correlation and consistency between tasks. On the whole project charter
comprises of tasks or instructions that needs to be followed in the project process by project
manager ("ASQ Service Quality Division", n.d.).
Background
The idea of Marriott hotels had provided luxurious environment to the customers. As per
their plan they had used luxurious bedding style that suits with the customer’s standard. They
actually understood the living style of the customers. They had introduced new bedding style
by considering new brand that had supported customers comfort level. There plan had
focused on improving living standards of their hotels to impress and attract customer’s
interest.
Vision
To give good quality of hotel facility and hospitality to the customers they visualized to
enhance the comfort level of their services and maintain sustainability of the environment for
promoting the Green initiative. Enhancing the comfort level incorporated new bedding style
based on the feedback provided by the customers and also by considering architect
suggestions.
Objectives
To improve bedding quality by considering previous successful methods.
To maintain same standard and rules across all the branches of the franchisee.
To maintain good status in the customer’s eyes.
To give classy look in the bedding standard.
To set their demands in budget.
Scope
Marriott bedding program was successfully implemented by making changes in 628000 beds
across their branches. Their idea was implemented in their 2400 branch locations which were
located in 68 different countries. Their main aim was to provide good and luxurious
environment to the customers. They tried to bring new look in the bedding standard. They
realized in a timely manner that they needed to take this crucial turn to improve the living
standard and to maintain good position in the market. In most of the cases innovation proved
fruitful but sometimes it takes years to overcome the loss. Their approach definitely had
provided eco friendly environment which in future will attract more and more customers
across the globe.
Key Stakeholders
Key stakeholders are highlighted in the following table:
S. no. Stakeholder Role
1. Client Orders were generated from client side.
2 Project manager Project manager was responsible for
arranging, managing, executing and
monitoring task.
3. Project team members Those members who were involved in
performing tasks and those who processed
them
(i) Full service brand oriented staff
(ii) Limited service brand oriented
staff
4. Distribution and tracking staff Distribution staff mainly carried out the
distribution of the material across various
branches of the hotel and tracking staff role
was to track the materials during the course of
the project.
Project milestones
Checking or going through stakeholder’s agreement.
Continuing after getting approval from owner side.
Getting plan tested from the owner end.
Budget related discussion with the owner.
Implementing same plan across all the Marriott branches.
Project budgeting
The overview of the project budget id highlighted in the following table:
S. no. Entity Cost in $
1. Salaries of the stalk holders 35
2. Material cost 60
3. Communication coast 5
4. Staff Training cost 10
5. Transportation cost 10
6. Tracking and Distribution 5
7. Record keeping and Documentation cost 5
8. Conducting Questionnaires and Research cost 5
9. System wide and implementation cost 20
10. Testing product at various branches of the franchisee cost 10
11. Distribution company hiring cost. 10
12. Maintaining an intranet website cost 5
13. Implementation cost of linen Reuse program 10
14. TOTAL COST 190
Limitations, expectations and threats
1. Limitations
Limitations term defines the work that acted as a hurdle in successful implementation
of the project. In this project the main limitations were as follow:-
Project team member are placed at different countries (location).
Poor coordination between project manager and client.
Lack of communication between team members.
Issue with estimating the order volumes.
Distribution Process as almost 1,850 products’ was associated with the project.
2. Expectations
Involvement of all the Marriott hotel branches.
Industries will not let us down in fulfilling demands.
Industries will provide good quality and A class bedding order.
Hotel staff will cooperate in implementing adopting new method or style
gracefully.
All the employs are do their assigned tasks will loyalty and dedication.
All the members will complete their work on time or in given time of period.
There will no need of extra resources (provided resources are enough to
complete task).
3. Threats
Project team members are not sufficient.
Project manager suffering from serious disease.
Project may not be completed on time
Project may exceed its budget.
Industries unable to process required demand.
Industry manufactures provide poor quality goods.
Client changes their order in between.
Insufficient resources at the point of completion.
Processes do not meet the client requirements.
Competing businesses may have a better strategy or may implement a similar
plan.
Values
Maintain devised standards and status.
Ensure innovation and creativity.
Emphasizes on customer satisfaction.
Adapting modification in the living standard of the hotel.
CORE CRITICAL PATH
Core critical path helps the project managers in planning over the tasks that are required to
finish the task. When any project is distributed among many complex tasks, core critical path
plays an essential role in simplifying the tasks and organizing them in an appropriate and
sequential manner. This project planning mechanism is widely used to keep a track of the
respective activities of a project. The most essential feature of devising core critical paths is
that they provide an insight into the time allocated to each task along with their sequences in
which they must be accomplished. Another advantage of the CCP’s is that they help in
supervising and handling the project resources. One feature that cannot be missed is that
these devised critical paths even help in comparing the devised plan with the actual plan
(Zachary, 2015).
The core critical path for the Marriott Bedding Project can be represented through the
following figure:
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
Work breakdown structures are one of the essential components of the project plan which
help in representing the hierarchical structures of all the activities involved in the project.
These are the activities that need to be accomplished for the successful implementation of the
project. Work breakdown structures also help in identifying the start date and the end date of
the project and even for its respective activities. Work breakdown structures basically focus
on deliverables so that the project stakeholders can know what is important and holds priority
in the project. The project work is subdivided into appropriate sections which in turn help is
minimizing the efforts of distributing the project oriented tasks.
The bedding program initiated by the Marriott Group also incorporated a range of activities
that needed to be in order so that all the activities could be completed on time and in a
sequence so that one task could follow other. The devising of the work breakdown structured
thus helped in identifying the various tasks, distribution of time or scheduling based on the
tasks and even helped in identifying the various dependencies that were imposed by the
various tasks. Therefore we can conclude that the Work Breakdown Structure helped in
maintaining the decorum and understanding among the various stakeholders by maintaining
and organizing the required tasks in an appropriate manner ("Work Breakdown Structure
(WBS)", 2014).
The Work Breakdown Structure for the Marriott Bedding Program is represented as follows:
GANTT CHART
Gantt chart is a kind of a bar chart that helps demonstrate the scheduling of different tasks
that are needed to complete the project. Gantt chart usually illustrates the various activities
within a project against time. Gantt chart can be consequently related to with the work
breakdown structure as the various activities that are listed in the work breakdown structure
along with its required end and start dates helps in devising the Gantt chart. The Gantt chart
consists of activities in the form of a bar which has a particular length and position which in
turn is dependent on the start date, end date or basically the duration of that particular task.
The information which the Gantt chart provides include the activities, the start and the end
time for each of the activities, how long will a particular activity last, activity overlapping
and their extent and also the start time and the end time of the entire project.
In the Marriott’s Bedding Program the project managers made use of this project
management tool to get an insight into the above mentioned information such as activities,
their duration and start and end times. Thus we can conclude that Gantt chart is important as
it helps us in planning, coordinating and also tracking the specific activities involved in the
course of a project ("Gantt Charts: Planning and Scheduling More Complex Projects", n.d.).
The Gantt chart for the Marriott Bedding Program has been illustrated below:
BUDGET
Budget can be referred to as the most important entity in any project plan as it helps in estimating
the costs at an early stage of the project so that the expenses can be arranged and distributed in a
timely and effective manner. Budget helps a project to stay within the decided costs and prevents
the project from exceeding its allocated budgets.
In case of Marriott Bedding Program the entire financing of the project depends on the devised
budget and the very budget helped us in estimating the total expenditures involved in the project
which have been recorded as somewhere equal to $190 million. Detailed and accurate budget
helps in preventing the entire project from getting haywire. The costs mentioned in the budget
should be thoroughly discussed among the key stakeholders and decided upon by based on the
experts’ opinion (WATT, n.d.). Therefore we can conclude that including the budget section
would help in justifying the financial assets available with the organization with respect to the
project to be developed.
The budget plan for the Marriott Bedding Program is demonstrated as follows:
MARRIOTT BEDDING PROGRAM BUDGET ESTIMATION
ALL COSTS IN MILLION DOLLARS ($US)
ENTITY COSTS
Salaries of the stakeholders 35 Full service brand oriented staff Limited service oriented staffMaterials Costs 60 Mattress Down Pillows Bed Sheets Duvet Covers Soft LinensCommunication Costs 5 Meetings Conference calls Conferences Pamphlets Internet Usage CostsStaff Training Costs 10 Scheduled training Additional TrainingTransportation Cost 10Tracking and distribution 5Record Keeping and Documentation Costs 5Conducting Questionnaires and research Costs 5System Wide Implementation Costs 20Testing products at various branches of the franchisee cost 10Distribution company hiring cost 10Maintaining an intranet website cost 5Implementation cost of Linen Reuse Program 10
RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN
Risk management plan is one of the essential features of any project plan as it provides the
critical information about what are the risks or rather threats that could hamper the success of the
project. The risks must be identified at an early stage and dealt with in a timely manner so that
the project can be successfully implemented. Risk management plan is highly important as it
gives an indication towards what could limit the project from achieving the required results and
even helps in reducing the overall costs which could be high and may exceed if such risks are
dealt with later on in the project (WATT, n.d.).
The risk management plan for the Marriott Bedding Program can be highlighted through the
following tables:
RISK DESCRIPTION LIKELIHOOD MITIGATION PLAN
Exceeded Budget
It may be a case that the allocated budget for the project may exceed
Low Budget should be made flexible so that the extra costs incurred during the course of the project can be easily incorporated
Project does not meets the deadline
It may be a case that the project or its respective tasks may not get completed on time
Low Enough time should be made available for each of the tasks so that there is no issue with less time available which may even lead to employees working under stress
Ineffective communication
It may be a case that the communication among the various stakeholders may not be appropriate
High Various measures should be taken to mitigate the risks related to effective communication such as video conferences, wordless videos, telephonic conversations, regular meetings, Skype conferences etc.
Data loss Critical data Medium Appropriate data backups should
related to the project may get damaged or may be lost permanently
be maintained or a cloud provider should be hired so that data can be stored and managed appropriately and can be recovered effectively in case of a disaster
Competition It may be a case that the competing businesses may implement a similar or a better strategy
High The bedding program should be such that it incorporates facilities that are highly distinctive and innovative. Also a promotional campaign should be run so that to spread awareness about the new initiative taken by the Marriott Group.
The critical risk possibilities can be concluded using the following table:
VARIABLE LOW MED-LOW
MEDIUM MED-HIGH
HIGH
Probability
EXCEEDED BUDGET
Impact
Detectability
Probability
DEADLINE ISSUE Impact
Detectability
Probability
INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Impact
Detectability
Probability
DATA LOSS Impact
Detectability
Probability
COMPETITION Impact
Detectability
CONCLUSION
The project plan for the Marriott Bedding Program successfully incorporated each element
required such as the project charter which defined the project’s scope, objectives, constraints,
stakeholders, budget etc., the Work Breakdown structure which incorporated the various
activities involved in the project along with its dependencies and estimated time required for
each one of them, the Gantt chart that further helped us in estimating the activities along with its
timelines such as start and end date, the budget plan that helped in providing the estimated costs
required to implement the project successfully and the risk management plan which helped in
identifying various risks associated with the project along with its severity level and the
corresponding mitigation plan.
Therefore the project plan has successfully been able to remove the dependencies as every task is
performed individually as per planned by project manager. The bedding program was
successfully completed within budget and on time. Bedding stuff and style has given a new
touch to the customer’s choice. Organization had a fully devised project plan so that if any
problem or error occurs they only needed to check the particular level rather than reviewing plan
from the starting. Project has appropriately taken care of comfort level and customers demand.
The facility of extra resources has helped in sorting out the problem in short period of time.
Therefore we can conclude that the bedding program helped in maintaining environmental
sustainability and also gain a reputation globally and in turn also helped in creating an
irreplaceable brand value.
RECOMMENDATIONS
As far as the project is concerned it has been flawlessly undertaken with no place for errors or
any problems. Everything from vision, scope, devising stakeholders, identifying constraints,
devising Work breakdown structure, Gantt chart to Risk management plan was in place that
helped in successful implementation of the project at hand therefore leaving no place for
recommendations. However a liable recommendation would be that continuous involvement of
the stakeholders and also the other staff employees should be considered so that ideas can be
shared more openly. Another recommendation would be that communication should be
considered beforehand and a well effective communication plan should be developed so that this
essential component does not stay out of focus. It would also be recommendable that before
implementing such projects, the strategies of the competing businesses should be researched
upon as the clashing of renovation of same services would not benefit or bring revenues as the
distinctiveness of the whole idea may get lost. Staff motivation is also one of the main
parameters to enhance the performance and interest of the employee towards their respective
work and must be considered seriously. Lastly, all the rules and the regulations or the standards
that are set should be followed or adhered to strictly and in order to do so strict guidelines should
be formulated which in turn would help in sustaining the implemented project consistently over a
period of time.
REFERENCES
Marriott Bedding Program-Case Study. (2012). Pmi.org. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from
http://www.pmi.org/Business-Solutions/~/media/PDF/Case%20Study/Marriott_Case_Study_New.ashx
ASQ Service Quality Division. Asq.org. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from http://asq.org/service/body-of-
knowledge/tools-project-charter
Zachary, S. (2015). ProjectManagement.com - Critical Path Analysis. Projectmanagement.com.
Retrieved 24 May 2016, from http://www.projectmanagement.com/wikis/233036/Critical-Path-
Analysis
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). (2014). Projectsmart.co.uk. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from
https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/work-breakdown-structure.php
Gantt Charts: Planning and Scheduling More Complex Projects. Mindtools.com. Retrieved 24
May 2016, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_03.htm
WATT, A. 12. Budget Planning | Project Management. Opentextbc.ca. Retrieved 24 May 2016,
from https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/chapter/chapter-12-budget-planning-project-
management/
WATT, A. 16. Risk Management Planning | Project Management. Opentextbc.ca. Retrieved 24
May 2016, from https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/chapter/chapter-16-risk-management-
planning-project-management/