Faculty of Engineering & Information Sciences (EIS)

School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic & Biomedical Engineering

(MMMB)

ENGG461 Managing Engineering Projects

Assessment 1 (individual) on MS Project – 20% (Due: 2100 hrs, Monday, 8 April 2024)
[1500 words (maximum) - excluding figures, tables and graphs]
You are presented with the following problem that involves the design and launch of an engineered product by a company in
NSW, Australia.
Table 1:
Activity
Activity Description Duration Predecessors Resources
ID
1 Customer requirements 30 days - PRDT
2 Define design goals 10 days 1 DSGN[2], PRDT, QUAL ,MANU
3 Preliminary product design 20 days 2 DSGN[2], QUAL, MANU, ENGA[2], PRDT
4 Preliminary process design 15 days 3 QUAL, DSGN, ENGA, PROC
5 Develop engineering drawings 15 days 2 DSGN[2], ENGA[3], QUAL
6 Develop material specifications 10 days 5 DSGN[2], ENGA[2]
7 Find suppliers 15 days 6 DSGN, SUPL, ENGA
8 Order prototype material 5 days 7 SUPL, ENGA[2]
9 Receive prototype material 40 days 8
10 Assembly line fixtures 20 days 4 MANU, PROC, DSGN, ENGA[2]
11 Preliminary product cost 5 days 7 FINA
12 Set up assembly line 15 days 10 MANU, PROC, ENGA[2]
13 Set up test equipment 15 days 12FF ENGA[2], QUAL
14 Build prototype 10 days 9,12,13 DSGN, ENGA[3], MANU, SUPL
15 Test Prototype 40 days 14 QUAL, DSGN[2], ENGA[2]
16 Update engineering drawings 10 days 15 DSGN, ENGA[2]
17 Update process design 10 days 15 PROC, DSGN[2], ENGA[2]
18 Order production material 5 days 16 SUPL, MANU, DSGN
19 Receive production material 40 days 18
20 Develop quality system 5 days 19FF QUAL
21 Develop packing specifications 5 days 16 DSGN[2], ENGA[2], QUAL
22 Conduct production trial run 5 days 17,19,21 QUAL, MANU, PROC, DSGN, ENGA[2]
23 Conduct product validation test 40 days 22 DSGN[2], ENGA[2], MANU
24 Finalise engineering drawings 10 days 23 DSGN[2], ENGA[2]
25 Finalise process design 10 days 22 PROC, DSGN, ENGA
26 Production build 5 days 24, 25 DSGN, QUAL, PROC, ENGA[2]
27 Ship parts for customer validation 5 days 26 SUPL, PROC
Table 2:
Resource (staff) Abbreviation Availability Rate/Hour
Product Management PRDT 1 $150
Design Engineering DSGN 2 $100
Quality Engineering QUAL 1 $90
Process Engineering PROC 1 $80
Supply Chain Management SUPL 1 $80
Manufacturing MANU 1 $90
Finance FINA 1 $100
Engineering Assistant ENGA 3 $80
Project Infrastructure (Overhead Costs) OH $10
# Consider overtime penalty rate as 50%
Section A: Instructions for Completing the MS Project Tasks and Interpretation of Results:
1. Create a new file and enter the project title. Ensure the author's name and student number are entered in the appropriate field to
be displayed in all printouts and reports. Ensure all text within charts is reasonably legible.
2. Fix the start of the project to your birth date next year. Include this in your assumptions list.
3. Set the environment to a 40-hour week, 5 working days per week, and the working day starts at 8 am. Account for any non-
working times and public holidays, as applicable to NSW. Include a graphic in the report to show that you have entered all the
holidays in the project calendar.
4. Create the resources sheet with the appropriate resource type, maximum availability and pay rates, as applicable.
5. Enter the tasks, durations and dependencies.
6. Enter the resources. Produce a Gantt chart to include in your report.
7. View the Resource Graph and note any over-allocations. Generate a report for each of the resources concerned, to clearly show
over-allocations. If a particular resource is not showing any over-allocations, make sure to identify them in the report as such.
8. Investigate appropriate “levelling options” within MS Project for the following scenarios and keep a record of the options
applied in each scenario. Note the effect on project duration and cost in each scenario. Produce Gantt charts and project statistics#
for each scenario to include in your report.
I. Resource-constrained: completing the project within the shortest possible time without adding more resources (i.e.
explore levelling options within MS project)
II. Time-constrained: completing the project by the initial completion date (as in step 6) at the lowest possible cost.
a) by bringing in the minimal required amount of additional resources
b) by allowing relevant resources to work overtime
9. Produce a cost report for this project, showing the costs at activity, resource and project levels to include in the report. Only
include elements of the report that convey useful information to the reader.

Section B: Assessment Report – You are required to submit a PDF copy of your report, along with MS Project files

The report shall be a focused discussion of the issues involved, solutions proposed, and lessons learnt in completing the exercise,
and must demonstrate an understanding of the use of MS Project as well as its limitations, as you experienced. The report should
follow the format of a typical technical report (using a structure with appropriate headings and a table of contents; include the
word count on the title page). An introduction, problem definition, the solution approach followed and a discussion of the
findings along with conclusions/recommendations are suggested as sections of the report. All figures, charts and tables must also
be captioned and numbered appropriately. Clearly state all assumptions made in setting out your solution approach, as well
as in relation to the analysis and/or interpretation of the results; make sure to identify the two types of assumptions
separately.

The report MUST include:

1. Gantt chart highlighting the Critical Path, and project statistics# after resource allocations (as in step 6 above)
2. Histograms for each resource showing over-allocations (Use an appropriate time scale to show the period of over-allocation)
3. Gantt Charts for each levelling option considered under the time-constrained and resources-constrained scenarios. Clearly
show the MS Project levelling options applied in each scenario.
4. Cost Reports showing the breakdown by task and by resource, as well as the overall project.
#Project statistics should show: When is the project estimated to be completed? How many working days will it take? What is the
total cost of the project?

 A PDF copy of your report saved with your name and student ID in the file name must be submitted via the link
provided on the subject Moodle site by 2100 hrs, 8 April 2024.

 MS Project file(s), saved in the appropriate format (.mpp) with your name and student ID in the file name, must
also be submitted via the separate link provided on the subject Moodle site by 2100 hrs, 8 April 2024.
Marking Criteria:
The assessment of this report will be based on the following criteria.
Completing Part A correctly and including all attachments in the report (including presentation standard) 30%
Problem-solving (e.g. developing a workable schedule from a practical point of view) 30%
A complete statement of assumptions 10%
Insights/critical analysis in developing and presenting solutions (also refer to section A tasks) 30%
Please also refer to the detailed marking rubric for Assignment 1 available on the subject Moodle site.