Woody's Project Management Case Study: Term Paper

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When Leadbetter was made aware of these issues, he contacted only the subcontractors working on individual aspects of the project, attempting to micromanage without coordinating through the project leaders at the two major companies that had been hired to complete this project (EID and S&P) (Project Management Case Study 2000). All told, the project that had been slated to take a year to complete took over two years, ran into major cost overruns, did not provide the amount of increased production capacity for all areas of Woody's manufacturing operations as had been hoped and promised, and left a bad taste in many individual's mouths both at Woody's and at many of the other companies that had been hired to take part in the project (Project Management Case Study 2000).

Results

The results of this project, as one could imagine, were only slightly short of disastrous. Continued delays in production meant that the company was unable to provide work as it gad previously, and the company even failed to produce certain products that it had already been contracted to provide (Project Management Case Study 2000). This led to the loss of many of Woody's major contractor and wholesaler long-term contracts, which in turn eliminated any need for the increased production that the project provided (Project Management Case Study 2000). Cost overruns went into the millions, and morale at all levels of the company took a significant hit from the failure of the project, as well (Project Management Case Study 2000). An unrelated decrease in construction activity in the region served by Woody's also cut into the company's potential business and potential for profitability quite considerably, amplifying many of the negative effects that were present, and even an outside consultant brought in to make sense of things couldn't really get detailed information on the project and its failures (Project Management Case Study 2000).

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Discussion and Conclusion

The most significant problem facing Woody's during the planning and implementation phases of the project was a failure to communicate properly and effectively -- is at all, to be quite frank -- between the various project leaders, department heads, and the contractors and subcontractors involved in the project. Had production staff been involved in the initial planning phases, more cost effective means of achieving the needed or desired increase in operational capacity could have been developed; the likelihood that the project would actually have lead to the desired changes would also have been greatly improved by the planning department's involvement. Furthermore, had Leadbetter -- or better yet, a more experienced and appropriate project manager -- facilitated grater communication between the principles at EID & S&P and the other subcontractors involved, many of the issues encountered during construction would have easily been avoided and the project could have run more smoothly and on budget.

There was also a general lack of planning involved in this project from the outset. Though some consideration was given to cash flow issues, the numbers developed were complete guesses and had nothing to do with reality. Allowing the VP of finance to move ahead with hiring the major contractors without consultation or planning was also a poor decision, as this project was not primarily a finance issue. In any future expansion attempts Woody's management would be wise to involve all affected department heads and executives in every phase of the project's planning and implementation to ensure consistence, reliability, and a clear chain of responsibility for the project as a whole.

Reference

Project Management Case Study. (2000).….....

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