Final Project Assignment Report

8/9/2019 Final Project Assignment Report

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Project Report: Importing Vehicle from Japan 2010

Project Report: ImportingVehicle from Japan

Box Hill Institute Diploma of International Business

2010


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Executive Summary

As part of this project we looked at the work breakdown structure and operational project design

and analysis, which include, budget, quality, human resources, communication, risk, procurement,

systems and processes. However, due to the limited nature of this project, we would only be

discussing the relevant theories and approaches used by the current business as part of their project

and operational plan.

After completing the project report, we have found that project planning is a complex

process, involving various sub elements such as budgeting, quality analysis/control, human resource

planning, communication planning, and risk analysis/mitigation and procurement strategy.

All in all, this project report has taught us a great deal about project planning procedures

and processes, which we could carry forward into our future assignments and jobs. Through thisproject report write-up process, we have learnt about the finer points involved in human resource

and communication planning, where non-performing member of the group should be made to

contribute.


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1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3

1.1. Project Objective ..................................................................................................................... 31.2. Authorisation .......................................................................................................................... 3

1.3. Project Scope/Limitations ....................................................................................................... 3

1.4. Sources of Information ........................................................................................................... 3

1.5. Project Background ................................................................................................................. 3

2. Work Breakdown Schedule ............................................................................................................. 4

3. Operational Project Design and Analysis ........................................................................................ 5

3.1. Budget ..................................................................................................................................... 5

3.2. Quality ..................................................................................................................................... 7

3.3. Human Resources ................................................................................................................. 10

3.4. Communication ..................................................................................................................... 12

3.5. Risk Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 14

3.6. Procurement ......................................................................................................................... 17

4. Conclusion and Recommendations............................................................................................... 21

References ............................................................................................................................................ 22

Appendices ............................................................................................................................................ 23


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b. Resell value for most second hand cars in Japan are actually quite low, as car

purchase price only contributes to a small portion of the life-time ownership of cars

in the city, are dominated by parking and on-road costs.

c. Japanese car owners in the cities, usually purchase car for conspicuous consumption

rather than for personal transport purpose. Therefore, they are more inclined to

purchase brand new cars than second hand cars, even if they were cheaper, which

means second hand cars supply is greater than the local demand.

2. High demand for Japanese grey import cars

a. Many sports/performance cars released in Japan are not available in any other

countries, and these cars are highly sort after in many parts of the world, especially

in Australia.

b. Another reason why they are highly sort after, are due to the low purchase price and

upgradability of various car parts, i.e. engine upgrade.

c. Japanese grey import uses the same right hand drive system, which means these

second hand cars can be registered for road use, with little costly modification, as

compared to European or American second hand cars.


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involved in which part of the project, and the timeframe given for each discrete step within the

project milestones.


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project report, we would only look at the direct and indirect costs elements involved in the project

plan. For most large projects, a WBS should be prepared prior to any project budgeting process, as

this would minimise the guesswork involved, in estimating the cost associated with the resources (i.e.

HR and IT resources), equipments and time schedules involved in the project.

Direct Costs involved in a project similar to the one we are undertaking, would usually

involve the following elements:

1. Human Resources Cost - i.e. Wages, salaries, benefits and taxes, etc.

2. Suppliers/Permits/Insurances consumable items/supplies involved in the project, such as

special business/import permits, insurance coverage (i.e. marine insurance, cargo

insurances), computers, mobile phones, papers, etc.

3. Travel All travel related costs (i.e. hire car, plane tickets, accommodation costs, etc.).

4. Communication Cost All the phone (mobile, fixed) and internet (fixed and wireless internet)

costs used as part of the project.

5. Publications Printing and binding costs involved for publications, brochures, reports, etc

6. Consultant Fees Sometimes there are elements within projects where outside expert

advices are needed, which must be accounted for in the consultant fees.

7 C f Q li i h f j ill d li d


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3. The availability of supply contract prior to use of the material, resource or equipment

can also affect the contingency rate. As certainty of events decreases the risk

associated with the supply of goods and services, which decreases the contingency

factor percentage.

3.2. Quality

Quality management is an important part of the overall project management process, as it ensures

that all project activities are effective and efficient, with respect to the project objective and scope.

Project Quality Management (QM) forms a continuous process that starts and ends with the project,

with regular QM activity during each stage of the project. The purpose of the QM is to prevent and

avoid poor quality outputs at the completion of the project, through continuous monitoring and

application of the quality processes in all parts of the project. QM would also detect any duplicationand inefficiency (i.e. people not putting in their share of workload, etc), and remove these

bottlenecks as soon as they are found through various options. Therefore, the QM would maximise

the values for the beneficiary and produce project outputs and deliverables that would meet or

exceed their requirements and expectations.


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Suitability defines the fitness of a product or service for its use.

Completeness

is whether the service or product is complete and covers the entire

scope of services.

Consistency is whether services or products deliver the same output quality each time

and every time during its lifecycle.

In order to meet the quality characteristics, a quality plan or quality material must be used

during the project implementation phase. The quality material s ensure the project team are

delivering the project outputs, according to the quality requirements in an efficient and effective

manner (refer to table 2).

Quality Materials Description

Standards

Standards are instruction documents that detail how a par ticular aspect of the

project must be undertaken. There can be no deviation from Standards unlessa formal variation process is undertaken, and approval granted.

GuidelinesGuidelines are not compulsory. They are intended to guide a project ratherthan dictate how it must be undertaken. Variations do not require formalapproval.

Checklists Checklists are lists that can be used as a prompt when undertaking a particularactivity. They tend to be accumulated wisdom from many projects.

T lTemplates are blank documents to be used in particular stages of a project.


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Quality Events DescriptionExpert Review Review of project deliverable by a person whom is considered an expert

in a field. i.e. consultants or business people involved in this field.Peer Review Review of deliverables by work colleagues. This is usually better suited

for reviewing structure than content.Multi person Review Review carried out by independent group of people. But this is best

used when trying to gain agreement by different stakeholders, as itusually generates a lot of different viewpoints and opinions.

Walk-through Walk through is a useful technique to validate both the content and

structure of a deliverable.Formal Inspection Formal inspection is a review of a deliverable by an inspector whom isexternal to the project team. This is useful in detecting defects within aproduct or documentation

Standard Audit This type of audit is only carried out to ensure that the deliverablemeets a particular standard.

Process Review In this case a defined Business Process is reviewed to ensure allnecessary actions are being undertaken, information recorded, and

procedures followed. A "Process Review" is useful to validate theexisting processes in an organization.

Table 3. Quality Events example and description.

As part of the overall quality control, once a part of the project deliverables are rejected or

deemed unsatisfactory, then the appropriate actions must be undertaken to bring the rejected

d i i li H h ki ll k b i l f


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3.3. Human Resources

People or human resource (HR) is the core determinant of a projects success, and most projects are

HR resource strained. Therefore, the management of HR within a project lifecycle has a major

impact on the projects success or failure. Human resource management involves leading,

communicating, delegating, motivating, team building, recruiting and appraising, etc. The HR plan

usually contains information for each human resource category, such as:

The number of staff required.

Costing information and assumptions.

How long are they required.

Any special skills required over and above those that people in the category would normally

expected to have, as well as the required level of proficiency and the relative importance of

these skills.

Training requirements needed specifically for the project.

Office space and material requirements.

Plans for team-building activities.

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Skills and skill level

Previous work experience

Personal interests

Personal characteristics i.e. will this person get along with the rest of the project team.

Availability i.e. is this person available at the required time and location for a particular role.

Cost of hiring this person

Once the person is assigned to a particular job role, the performance of this person on their

job, is constantly evaluated, according to:

Client satisfaction

Quality of work output

Achievement of milestones

Productivity and efficiency

Teamwork

If the team member does not meet the requirement or target, then they will either be

reassigned or dropped from the team, in order to minimise cost/time wastage and disruption to the

f h


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3.4. Communication

Effective project communications is needed to ensure that we get the right information to the right

person at the right time and in a cost-effective manner. Communications is basically the process by

which information is exchanged. Communications can be:

Written formal

Written informal

Oral formal

Oral informal

Oral communications come with a high degree of flexibility. Oral communications includes

the medium of personal contact, group meetings, or the telephone. Written communications are

precise. They are transmitted through the medium of correspondence (minutes, letters, memos, andreports), e-mail, and the project management information system. Some people consider

nonverbal/visual communications, such as gestures and body language, as an acceptable process.

Majority of communication involved in the project, will be internal communication within

the project teams, which is expected to meet the following needs:


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10. Reading skills

In consideration of these factors, it is therefore imperative that a proper and clear message

must be conveyed to the recipients, which may be achieved using these following techniques:

Obtaining feedback, possibly in more than one form.

Establish multiple communication channels, i.e. video conferencing.

Using face to face communication if possible.

Determining how sensitive the recipient is to the communication method.

Being aware of the expression on the recipients face during face to face meeting.

Communicating at proper time, i.e. during work hours.

Reinforcing words with actions.

Using simple to understand language.

Using redundancy, say things in two different ways.

Meeting will form a crucial part of the project communication, where crucial information

giving, receiving and listening takes place. However, if the meeting is improperly carried out, it could

be a waste of time and monetary resources. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that every meeting


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Project risks of cost over-runs, schedule over-runs, or insufficient product or service

quality delivered.

Financial from business failure, interest rate fluctuations, unemployment, etc

Technical from advances in local technology

Political changes in tax regimes, public opinion, government policy, foreign influence,

trade barriers, etc.

Project risks could also be identified using the following methods:

Comparisons with similar systems or project

Relevant lessons-learned studies

Experience

Data from research studies

Specialist and expert judgements

Analysis of plans and related documents

Modelling and simulations

Sensitivity analysis of alternative


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Technical Evaluation

Provides technical foundation Identifies and describes the program risks (i.e. technology)

Analyses risks and relates them to other internal and external risks

Prioritizes risks for program impact

Quantifies associated program activities with both time duration and resources

Quantifies inputs for cost evaluation and schedule evaluation Documents technical basis and risk issues for the risk evaluation

Describing and quantifying a specific risk and the magnitude of that risk usually requires

some analysis and modelling, which can be done using the following tools/methods:

Life-cycle cost analysis Network analysis

Mote Carlo simulation

Estimating relationships

Risk scales


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3.6. Procurement

Procurement is an important administrative and financial function/process that allows a project to

obtain the best value for their limited financial resources for goods and services. A sound

standardised procurement process would allow us to achieve the operational strategic goals of a

project, by ensuring the effective and efficient use of financial resources in a competitive and

transparent manner through. Significant cost savings on resources and materials would usually be

generated, if the right procurement strategy is properly implemented, which may otherwise be lostif no standardised procurement strategy was present.

Usually, most procurement process involves a certain degree of interaction with the external

business environment, which may act as the supplier of goods and services. This outside interaction

may often be abused, if it is not carefully managed and followed through with official procedures.

Like most other project management systems (i.e. Human Resources, etc), the procurement strategy

should be assessed according professionalism, fairness, reliability, transparency and competitiveness.

The procurement strategy for goods and services is usually guided by four set core principles,

which are:


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roles, where their power could be abused in a way to benefit him or the other parties involved. It is

also essential, frequent independent reviews are carried out by team members not involved in the

project or people with higher authority.

Transparency and Openness - Transparency and openness are key principles that should govern any

procurement action. One way to ensure transparency in the procurement process is to establish a

Procurement Committee that will evaluate tenders/proposals/bids and award contract to the most

responsive bidder. A Procurement Committee can be ad-hoc or permanent, depending on the

nature of the goods or services to be procured, frequency of the procurement and the technical

competence of the staff involved. The principle of separation of duties also reinforces transparency

of the procurement process. Openness is effective when all suppliers are treated equally and receive

the same amount of information. The information related to any procurement should be readily

available for consultation and the procurement authority should be ready to provide any additionalinformation as required.

There are usually three modes of solicitation used in competitive procurement process;

Request for Quotations (RFQ) - This mode of solicitation is used for the procurement of low value


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Request for Proposals (RFP) - A request for proposals (RFP) is ideally used in a competitive or direct

procurement of non-standard goods and services independent of the amount involved. The RFP

allows the project to enter into negotiations with the suppliers.

RFPs are always used in cases of direct procurement (waiver of competition). They can also

be used in competitive procurement when only a short list of suppliers is invited to submit

proposals. In such cases the Procurement Committee must approve the short list of suppliers before

the solicitation takes place. The Procurement Committee assesses the financial and technical

proposals on the basis of value for money and awards the contrac t to the supplier whose proposal

gives the project the most value. Further discussions may be held with the selected supplier for a

refinement of the final offer.

The criteria for evaluation of the proposals, including weights for each criterion, must be

determined in writing by the Procurement Committee before the solicitation takes place. The RFP is

commonly used for the procurement of non-standard goods and services such as network

installations, renovations, PBX systems, consultant services, audit services, goods that require after

sales services not covered by a warranty, among others.


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Invitation to Bid (ITB) - As a mode of solicitation, the Invitation to Bid is used in formal competitive

procurement of goods and services whose value exceeds a defined limit in the Projects Grant

Agreement. This mode of solicitation is used when the specifications of the goods and services are

very clear and precise. Publication of the ITB is made in major newspapers.

An ITB is used for the purchase of standard goods or services such as computer equipment,

radio equipment, office equipment, etc. The ITB must go through the Procurement Committee,

which will approve the form of bid, the mode of publication, the criteria for the evaluation of the

bids, open the bids once received, and announce the winning bid on the basis of the lowest price

and most technically acceptable offer. No negotiations with suppliers are undertaken.

An ITB should contain the following information, among others:

Name and contact address of the Project procuring the good or service.

Bid invitation reference number.

List of the items required (specification and quantity).

Name of the contact person.

The delivery terms


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Procurement Documentation This lists the minimum documentation to be maintained for every

item that is procured:

Purchase Requisition Request.

Justification for waiver of competition and approval, if applicable.

List of sources solicited, if applicable.

A copy of each quote, bid or proposal.

Specified conditions for acceptance or rejection of late quotes, bids or proposals. Evaluation criteria.

Report of the Procurement Committee on the procurement process, where applicable.

Authorized/signed purchase orders or contracts.

Amendments and supporting documentation, if applicable.

Any other pertinent purchase information.

4. Conclusion and Recommendations

In this report we discussed how to ensure that a project should be properly managed through the

implementation of a project plan, which included policies and processes associated with project


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References

1. Kerzner, H, (2001). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and

Controlling, 7 th Ed, New York: John Wiley & Sons.

2. Lock, D, (1996). Project Management , 6 th Ed, New York: Wiley.

3. http://www.rms.net/project_budgeting_r_pbd.htm

4. http://www.projectinsight.net/ProductInformation/Features/BudgetAndCosting.aspx

5. http://management.about.com/cs/projectmanagement/a/PM101d.htm 6. http://www.research.psu.edu/osp/PSU/Proposal/indirect.htm

7. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_07.htm

8. http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/financial/financial_article.jsp?articleId=2204

9. http://www.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/reviewing_project_quality.pdf

10. http://faculty.ksu.edu.sa/73811/Documents/Accounting%20Projects/project%20quality%20planning.pdf

11. http://www.projectperfect.com.au/info_project_quality_planning.php

12. http://www.visitask.com/project-quality.asp

13. http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/capitalplanning/projectmanagement/documents/project-

procurement-procedures-guidelines.pdf
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Project Report: Importing Vehicle from Japan 2010

Box Hill Institute | /Appendices 23

Appendices