The Franklin Equipment Ltd Case Study

Table of Contents

Executive Summary        2

Introduction        4

Project Team        4

Problems and their causes        5

1.        The inability of FEL’s selection criteria of team members to select the best team for the project.        5

2.        Charles Gatenby’s lack of qualities as a successful project manager.        5

3.        Elaine Bruder’s demotivation.        5

4.        The feud between Bill Rankins and Rob Perry.        5

Specific prioritised steps   (Solutions)        6

1.        FEL Selection Criteria Problem        6

2.        Charles Gatenby’s problem        7

3.        Elaine Bruder’s problem        7

4.        Rankins and Perry’s feud        7

Conclusion        9

Bibliography        10

Executive Summary

Franklin Equipment Ltd (FEL) is a Canadian company that deals with designing and fabricating large custom built machines for the construction industry. It is expanding its operations to overseas countries and has landed a project to design and fabricate a rock-crushing plant for a client in the Middle East. The project is named Abu Dhabi. FEL is facing a number of challenges with its team managers.

The Project manager Charles Gantby is excited about the project but he is ignoring problems that can hinder its success. The cost accounting manager Elaine Bruder is disinterested in the project and the Design Engineer Bill Rankins and The Operations Manager Rob Perry have a feud that threatens to derail the whole project. The only manager who seems to be 100% focused on the project is Sam Stonebreaker the human resource manager.

The company has also hired a project consultant Carl Jobe to work on the project. Jobe is faced with the dilemma of helping the project team work together effectively in order to make Project Abu Dhabi a success.

Introduction

Franklin Equipment Ltd has landed an overseas project in the middle-east known as project Abu Dhabi which Goal is to Design and fabricate a rock crushing plant for a Middle East construction company.

. The project team that has been selected for this project is as follows

Project Team

• Project Manager: Charles Gatenby

• Responsible for entire project

• Design Engineer: Bill Rankins

• Designs plant and oversees its fabrication

• Operations Manager: Rob Perry

• Responsible for fabrication and on-site assembly

• Cost Accountant: Elaine Bruder

• Responsible for all project financial and cost reporting matters

• Human Resource Manager: Sam Stonebreaker

• Responsible for  Training host nationals in plant operations

Franklin Equipment Ltd has also hired Carl Jobe as a project consultant in order to review the details of the project.

Problems and their causes

1. The inability of FEL’s selection criteria of team members to select the best team for the project.

This is caused by the fact that FEL assigns team managers based on their availability and expertise to be on a certain project. They fail to consider other essential aspects that make up a good functioning team. This has resulted in a team that is most likely to fail in achieving its goal.

1. Charles Gatenby’s lack of qualities as a successful project manager.

He is showing enthusiasm for the project but he has allowed the feud between Rankins and Perry to undermine the project goals by allowing it to have the potential of halting the project two months after commencement. This will make his team less efficient and the project vulnerable to sabotage. This shows that his lack of project management qualities is too great to ignore.

1. Elaine Bruder’s demotivation.

She is demotivated and seems to be disinterested in being a member of the team. If she fails to perform her duties well this will jeopardize the project goals and lead to the project being unsuccessful. Her problem is probably due to the fact that she has worked with most of the team members before and probably knows something about the members which will make the project unsuccessful.

1. The feud between Bill Rankins and Rob Perry.

Rankins and Perry have worked together on projects previously and have failed to get along. They despise each other and do not want to work together anymore. The animosity between them is probably the biggest threat to the successful completion of Project Abu Dhabi. Their problem has left Carl Jobe with a dilemma as it threatens to derail the whole project. The animosity between them is so deep that they will do anything just to see the other fail and in that process take the project down with them. It seems that ever since they started working together on projects it has been one problem after another.