Reference no: EM133271811

Professional Engineering Management

Your Tutor Marked Assessment comprises one major engineering project, based upon which you have several tasks to complete. You should read this assessment document in full before starting your assignment work.

Engineering Project Scenario
The Sharon Construction Corporation has been awarded a contract for the construction of a 20,000-seat stadium. The construction must start on 24 February 2020 and be completed within one year. A delay penalty clause of £15,000 per week (or part thereof) after 23 February 2021 is written into the contract.

Jim Brown, the president of the company, called a planning meeting. In the meeting he expressed great satisfaction at obtaining the contract and revealed that the company could net £300,000 on the project. He was confident that the project could be completed on time with an allowance made for the usual delays anticipated in such a large project.

Charli Green, the director of personnel, agreed that in a normal year only slight delays might develop due to a shortage of labour. However, she reminded the president that for such a large project, the company would have to use unionised employees and that the construction industry labour agreements were due to expire on 30 November. Experience indicates that a strike is possible.

Jim Brown agreed that a strike would cause a problem. Unfortunately, there was no way to change the contract. He inquired about the prospective length of the strike. Charli figured that such a strike would last eight weeks.

Jim was not pleased with this prospect. However, before he had a chance to discuss contingency plans, he was interrupted by Jack White, the vice-president for engineering. Jack commented that a colder December and January than had been assumed was now being predicted. This factor had not been taken into consideration during earlier estimates since previous forecasts indicated milder weather. Concrete pouring in December or January would require special heating that costs £500 per week.

This additional information did not please Jim at all. The chances of a delay were mounting.
The technical details of the project are given below.
Sharon Construction Company Technical Details for Stadium
The stadium is an enclosed structure with a seating capacity of 20,000. The project begins with clearing the site, an activity that lasts eight weeks. Once the site is clear, the work can start simultaneously on the structure itself and on the playing field.
The work in the field involves subsurface drainage which lasts eight weeks, followed by filling for the playing field and track. Only with the completion of the filling (fourteen weeks) can the installation of the artificial playing turf take place, an activity that takes twelve weeks.

The work on the structure itself starts with excavation followed by pouring of concrete footings. Each of these activities takes four weeks. Next comes the pouring of supports for seat galleries (twelve weeks), followed by erecting pre-cast galleries (thirteen weeks). The seats can then be poured (four weeks) and are ready for painting. However, the painting (three weeks) cannot begin until the dressing rooms are completed (four weeks). The dressing rooms can be completed only after the roof is erected (eight weeks). The roof must be erected on a steel structure which takes four weeks to install. This activity can start only after the concrete footings are poured.

Once the roof is erected, work can start simultaneously on the lights (five weeks) and on the scoreboard and other facilities (four weeks).
Labour teams are charged at £1,000 per team per working day and each project task requires one labour team.

Sharon Construction Company Assignment Tasks

Question 1. Based on the foregoing information, and using Microsoft Project:
i. Create the Sharon Construction Company project and include the project Entry Table, Cost Table and Gantt chart in your assignment document. Verify that the project duration is 48 weeks.
ii. Verify that the stadium project should yield a profit of approximately 36%.
iii. Identify which project tasks would be affected if the eight-week strike takes place.

Question 2. Based on the foregoing information, and using Microsoft Excel (or similar spreadsheet), (NOT Microsoft Project):
i. Perform an Earned Value Analysis on the basis that the eight-week strike takes place.
ii. For your assignment, include the EVA table, including PV, EV, AC, SV, CV, SPI, CPI, EAC, ECD.
iii. Also, include in your assignment one chart showing PV, AC, and EAC vs. ECD.

Question 3. Based upon your analysis of this Sharon Construction Company project, prepare a brief stakeholder report (max. 1500 words) commenting particularly on the following:
i. Governance of the project, particularly considering the workforce.
ii. Project risk assessment, excluding risks already identified, and the EVA.