Woody 2000 Project

I. Project Concept and Strategy

a. Was the Woody 2000 project well conceived? Give reasons for your opinion.

The Woody 2000 project was not well conceived. The expansion project was based on a mini-boom in industrial expansion and the possibility of an expansion at the nearby airport. The was no evaluation or analysis of whether or not the boom in expansions would continue for any extended period of time or no review of whether or not the possible airport expansion would ever take place. The initial thought was that Woody's could expand and upgrade to increase output of their product and improve their current manufacturing facility. They would have been better served to have done some type of research to see if the expansion was even necessary or if improvements could have been made to the current facility and achieve the same outcome.

b. What were Woody's real objectives that could and should have been articulated?

The real objectives were to increase production efficiency and be able to meet the current increase in demand. This was translated into moving to a new more modern facility in the beginning and later it was decided to expand the current facility. They were looking to increase efficiencies and the best place to have begun was by looking at possible ways they could have increased and improved their current production by making improvements to current processes and possible equipment upgrades, without moving or expanding.

If they couldn't do that by improvements then they would need to look at what would be the next step for them and have someone from the outside to review whether or not it would be in their best interest to move to a new facility or expand at their current one. If someone from the outside reviewed it and made the recommendation it wouldn't be based upon personal feelings of those at the company, like those who didn't want to move to a new facility based upon the fact they would have to drive 15 miles further.

c. What strategies were there for achieving these objectives? What would you recommend?

There were really no strategies for achieving any of the objectives. They set an arbitrary timeline and budget without getting any bids or considering any overruns, problems or any approval process for changes.

Once they had decided on how big of an improvement they were undertaking they needed to go through a bidding process to get the best people for the job and that could meet the necessary timeline and the budget constraints. Appoint a project manager who will have a process in line on how to deal with approvals, chain of command, budget overruns, timeline problems and making sure that the project is meeting their goals.