Institute of Management and Technology

IT 2316: Project Management

and Professionalism

Assignment

Name: Nguyen Xuan Phong Lecturer name: Mr. Raj

Student ID: 07091041

Date of submission: 24th May 2009

IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Table of content

Content Page number

Table of content 2
Introduction 3
Project structure 4
Project tasks 7
Project Management 18
Scheduling Technique 22
Risk management 23
Conclusion 24

Page 2
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Introduction

1) What is my project?

Even in the fast-paced, money-driven world of the 21st century, toys, undeniably,
are still an inseparable part of childhood. From the classical Barbie dolls and Lego
blocks, to remote-controlled cars and computer-programmed robots, toys dominate the
world of the young. The demand is ever-increasing, and customers are constantly looking
for creativity and originality, and of course the toys’ affordability.
This project examines the needs of the market, its demands and expectations, and
aims to meet these expectations by putting forward innovative ideas that emphasizes
novelty while keeping the product cost reasonable and affordable by the general public.
This project would further explore the effect of toys on the over-all development
of a child, seeking to develop toys that are beneficial to the proper growth of a child and
will aid his/her character development, impacting his/her future decisions and career.
Thus, I decide to choose a “Toy Manufacture” project for my assignment. It is a
challenging business project with high ROI (Return on Investment), demanding creativity
and entrepreneurship, and is realistic and impacts our day-to-day lives.

2) Why do I choose this project?

IT project is also interesting and creative. But my aim is to become a business
man so I choose a business project as my project. Business project is not simple as the
way I construct my project, but it is almost basic like this. My ambition is to become a
business man and thus I decide to choose a business project as for this assignment. This
project covers the fundamental structure of a business project, and summarizes the
complex business functions into its basic forms and practices.

Since young, you definitely would wish to own at least one toy. A toy means a lot
to a child. It is not only something to play with, but it is just like a friend he can hold
close to his heart. Furthermore, toys contribute to the intellectual development of a child,
as well as bringing happiness to their childhood. They also play an important part in
ensuring the proper development of a child, be it mentally, emotionally, socially,
physically or psychologically.

When I was a child, my mother used to buy me small robots or cars. I can vividly
remember how doubtlessly happy I was at that time. Toys were me source of
encouragement and motivation. They propelled me to strive for better heights when I was

Page 3
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

in kindergarten, primary and even in secondary school. I tried my all best to be a good
little boy and study hard for the reward of a toy when I finally achieved good results. I
can feel how blissful it was to own a toy, and just how influential a toy may to a young,
innocent mind.

Unfortunately, not all the children in the world have a chance to experience the
exhilaration of having a toy, mainly due to financial inadequacy. This is the reason why I
decide to invest in toy manufacturing, to produce different toys of affordable prices for
export to countries where children have yet to experience the joy toys bring your lives.

3) How does the project work?

This is the situation how I create my project. I start with a company name “LEMO”
with the logo:

History:

The Lemo Company began in the workshop in Singapore, start making wooden
toys in 2007. It expanded to producing plastic toys recently, Lemo began producing the
now famous in toy cars, calling them "Cars that children can ride". These cars were based
largely on the design of a designer Nguyen Xuan Phong in 2008. Lemo modified the
design of the design after examining a sample given to it by a British supplier of an
injection-moulding machine that Lemo had purchased. The first Lemo sample,
manufactured from a factory in Singapore, were developed in the spirit of traditional
wooden cars that could be heavy and rough; but these plastic material could be cheaper
and nicer.

The Lemo Company's motto is "Devotion for children", this motto was created by
Nguyen Xuan Phong to encourage his employees never to skimp on quality, a value he
believed in strongly. The motto is still used within the company today.

The use of plastic for toy manufacture was not highly regarded by retailers and
consumers of the time. Many of the Lemo Company's shipments were returned, after
poor sales; it was thought that plastic toys could never replace wooden ones.

Page 4
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Project structure

1) Production:

Here is some photo-shot about the upcoming model of a toy car that the project
outcome to produce:

For children, this car is so interesting and colorful to catch their attention
so that it can be easily purchased by their parents. In general, boys do like cars
much more than girls do, thus, the front of this car together with two big lights
and designs on its dome make it turn to be strong and fierce which is very suitable
to boys’ character. The car contains two eyes in front that be able to make it more
lively and attractive to play with. All over the cover of the car, there are words,
colorful pictures. The wheels look strong and it is designed for sport car which
words are places on the edge of them. This car is supposed to be designed as one
character of cars in the cartoon movie. Hence to almost little audiences as boys,
they might be caught attention from the first sight they see this car.

Page 5
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

2) Structure of the project:

The project contains 16 tasks, each task has one function and been divided in WBS
(Work Break down Structure). The following chart is showing the WBS:

Project

Market Research Rent factory Bank loan

Analyze survey Model Making Import Production Line Hire

worker

Produce sample Testing data Improve feature Market-ing Adver-tise PR

Here is the table of the project:

Task Name Duration(Days) Start Finish Dependencies

1 Market research 10 13/05/09 26/05/09
2 Analyze survey 15 27/05/09 16/06/09 1
3 Model making 10 06/17/09 30/06/09 2
4 Rent Factory 3 13/05/09 15/05/09
5 Bank Loan 5 13/05/09 19/05/09
6 Import production line 5 20/05/09 26/05/09 4,5
7 Hire worker 15 27/05/09 16/06/09 6
8 Training worker 10 17/06/09 30/06/09 7
9 Produce sample 20 01/07/09 28/07/09 8,3
10 Testing data 5 29/07/09 04/08/09 9
11 Improve feature 20 05/08/09 01/09/09 10
12 Plan Marketing 5 02/09/09 08/09/09 11
13 Advertise 20 02/09/09 29/09/09 11
14 PR 10 02/09/09 15/09/09 11
15 Manufacture 30 30/09/09 10/11/09 12,13,14
16 Deliver production 5 11/11/09 17/11/09 15

Page 6
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Project Tasks

1) Market research:

 Duration: 10 days
 Start: Wed 13/05/2009
 Finish: Tue 25/05/2009
 Dependencies: None
 Mission:
Market research is a continuing exercise to collect and analyze
environmental, consumer, competitor and industry information to make the
project decisions less risky.
The main mission is surveying the potential customers, children and parents,
to know what they want, how they want and some information. According to the
survey, we can know the taste of the customers and the trend of the market. Here
are some questions in the survey:

Q: What kinds of toy do you like the most?

A: a) Robot
b) Cars
c) Dolls
d) Others: ……………

Q: You want your toys have what kind of characteristics?

A: a) Look nice
b) Useful
c) Smart
d) Others: ……………

After collecting survey from the customers, we can continue to the next task,
Analyze survey, to know the taste of the market.

Page 7
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

2) Analyze survey:

 Duration: 15 days
 Start: Wed 27/05/2009
 Finish: Tue 16/06/2009
 Dependencies: 1
 Mission:
Analyze survey is one of important tasks because it helps the project less
risky and more judicious. Analyzing is the tasking of dividing and doing the
statistic with the number to find out what the trend of market is.
According to the result of analyzing survey, we can decide which model we
will product and how should we design it. The following chart shows the result of
1000 surveys in Singapore:

What kinds of toy do you want?

Cars Robots Dolls Others
10% 9%

59%
23%

That leads the decision to choose manufacture toy cars is my project.

Page 8
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

3) Model making:

 Duration: 10 days
 Start: Wed 17/06/2009
 Finish: Tue 30/06/2009
 Dependencies: 1
 Mission:
Model making is to sketch and draw the production on the paper. The
mission is completed by the professional designer. After choosing the
most suitable model, the project will produce a sample.

Page 9
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

4) Rent Factory:

 Duration: 3 days
 Start: Wed 13/05/2009
 Finish: Fri 15/05/2009
 Dependencies: None
 Mission:
It is costly to build a new factory. It also wastes much time. The alternative
way is to rent a factory. We need to find a factory to manufacture. Almost factories are in
suburb. It is cheaper and friendlier with the environment.

Page
10
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

5) Bank loan:

 Duration: 5 days
 Start: Wed 13/05/2009
 Finish: Tue 19/05/2009
 Dependencies: None
 Mission:
This task is part of budget plan and control. It is one way of attract
investment and money. When my project has enough of money, it can run
smoothly.

6) Import Production line:

 Duration: 5 days
 Start: Wed 20/05/2009
 Finish: Tue 26/05/2009
 Dependencies: 4,5
 Mission:
After renting factory and having enough money, we can start importing
production line to produce toys. The main mission is buying machine and making
a completed production line from beginning to finish. The production line can be
automatic or semi-automatic.

7) Hire worker:

 Duration: 15 days
 Start: Wed 27/05/2009
 Finish: Tue 16/06/2009
 Dependencies: 6
 Mission:
To start producing toys, my project needs worker to work in the factory. So,
the task is to employee. With the size of the factory, we can hire from 100 to 200
workers.

Page
11
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

8) Training worker:

 Duration: 10 days
 Start: Wed 17/06/2009
 Finish: Tue 30/06/2009
 Dependencies: 7
 Mission:
To operate the production line, the employees have to know how to
run the machines and control them. To make them understand, a course of
training worker would be held to guarantee the quality of production and
the success of project.
After that, we can produce production to test and evaluate.

9) Produce sample:

 Duration: 20 days
 Start: Wed 01/07/2009
 Finish: Tue 28/07/2009
 Dependencies: 3,8
 Mission:
Before manufacture with a huge amount, we need to test and evaluate
production. Thus, we first produce some samples to test and evaluate. The duration is
about 20 days to make a complete production.

10) Testing data:

 Duration: 15 days
 Start: Wed 29/07/2009
 Finish: Tue 04/08/2009
 Dependencies: 9
 Mission:
This is the time for evaluating the sample production. We will record the
stats for each feature of the toys. Then we will test for the real usage. Also, we
can make the survey for the customer to evaluate as well. After all, we can know
what is the weak point and strong point to improve.

Page
12
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

11) Improve feature:

 Duration: 20 days
 Start: Wed 27/05/2009
 Finish: Tue 16/06/2009
 Dependencies: 10
 Mission:
Before manufacturing with a huge quantity, this is the last time the product
can be improved the features and remade the weak points. After all, we have the perfect
toys model for producing. This will takes 20 days to improve and revise the production.

12) Plan Marketing:

 Duration: 20 days
 Start: Wed 27/05/2009
 Finish: Tue 16/06/2009
 Dependencies: 11
 Mission:
Now we can be ready to produce the best toy cars to the market. What we
have to do now is planning marketing it for the distributors and the customers.
Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and
communities discover that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be
satisfied by the products and services of others. Marketing is influenced by many of
the social sciences, particularly psychology, sociology,
and economics. Anthropology and neuroscience are also small but growing influences.
Market research underpins these activities through advertising, it is also related to many
of the creative arts. The marketing literature is also infamous for re-inventing itself and
its vocabulary according to the times and the culture.

Page
13
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

13) Advertise:

 Duration: 20 days
 Start: Wed 27/05/2009
 Finish: Tue 16/06/2009
 Dependencies: 11
 Mission:

This is a part of marketing. We can advertise our production by advertising on TV,

poster, on newspaper and other media. Advertising is a form of communication that
typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of
a particular brand of product or service. 

Poster Advertisement

Page
14
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

14) PR:

 Duration: 20 days
 Start: Wed 27/05/2009
 Finish: Tue 16/06/2009
 Dependencies: 11
 Mission:
PR (Public Relations) is also known as a strategy of marketing. Public
relations help an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.

Doing PR is one of difficult tasks for marketing the production to public.

Page
15
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

15) Manufacture:

 Duration: 30 days
 Start: Wed 30/09/2009
 Finish: Tue 10/11/2009
 Dependencies: 12,13,14
 Mission:
This is the main task of business. We can produce a big quantity according
to the contract and bring the production to the market.

A completed production…

…can be produced.

Page
16
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

16) Deliver product:

 Duration: 5 days
 Start: Wed 11/11/2009
 Finish: Tue 17/11/2009
 Dependencies: 15
 Mission:
To deliver productions to the distributor, this is the last task to complete
the project. We keeping finding the contract and improve our business.
We will gain profit by manufacture with a big amount.

Page
17
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Project Management

1) MS Project 2007 overview:

Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007 gives you robust project management
tools with the right blend of usability, power, and flexibility, so you can manage projects
more efficiently and effectively. You can stay informed and control project work,
schedules, and finances, keep project teams aligned, and be more productive through
integration with familiar Microsoft Office system programs, powerful reporting, guided
planning, and flexible tools.

  Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 includes all the capabilities in Office
Project Standard 2007. In addition, Office Project Professional 2007 provides
collaborative enterprise project management capabilities when used with Microsoft
Office Project Server 2007.

(From http://office.microsoft.com )

2) Gantt Chart tables:

Gantt chart Table Part 1

Page
18
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Page
19
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Gantt chart Table Part 2

Gantt chart Table Summary

3) Network Diagram:

Page
20
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Page
21
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Network Diagram

Page
22
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Scheduling Technique
1) Time duration:

 Start day: Wednesday 13/05/2009

 Finish day: Tuesday 17/11/2009
 Duration: 135 days ( 3 months 4 days )

2) Scope of the project:

The project is a simple business project. However, the benefits it brings are huge.
Children are the most potential customer which makes the business more
interesting and high profit. The ROI is about 35% which is quite high for a small
business. It also brings jobs for a town where the factory placed in.

Page
23
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Risk Management

Risk Respond plan

Cannot rent factory Change to another factory
Don’t have enough money More bank loan and investment attraction.
Machinery breakdown Buy warranty for the machine/ repair immediately.
Don’t have enough worker Hire more workers.
Deliver production late Compensate the contract
Employee stealing Fire employee
Employee leaving Pay more for employee
Not enough customers Improve Advertising and PR
Too many customers Increase Price
Factory fire Buy Fire Insurance
Law suit Hire a lawyer.
Competition Improve quality / decrease price.
Recession Decrease quantity of manufacture
Environment pollution Pay environment protection tax.
Senior staff travelling cause project delays Have alternative staff / temporary staff
Epidemic disease Warn the worker/Cooperate with Department of
Health
Thief Improve security.
Material damaged Replace material.
Production damaged Replace production.
Lost power supply Extra power supply / reserved power supply

Page
24
IT 2316: Project Management and Professionalism
Prepared by Nguyen Xuan Phong

Conclusion

Even in the fast-paced, money-driven world of the 21st century, toys, undeniably,
are still an inseparable part of childhood. From the classical Barbie dolls and Lego
blocks, to remote-controlled cars and computer-programmed robots, toys dominate the
world of the young. The demand is ever-increasing, and customers are constantly looking
for creativity and originality, and of course the toys’ affordability.

The project is a simple business project. However, the benefits it brings are huge.
Children are the most potential customer which makes the business more interesting and
high profit. The ROI is about 35% which is quite high for a small business. It also brings
jobs for a town where the factory placed in.

Page
25