5/24/20162016PROJECT PLAN-MARRIOTT BEDDING PROGRAM

Assessment 2

BG010: PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Group Assignment

Submitted to:

Wilfred Kurukulasuriya

Submitted by:

RAKESH DOMMATI

ID: i156861

SHUJATH MIRZA

ID: i156897

MANIDEEP YELLANKI

ID: i156859

HEENA DAMANIA

ID: i156431

MOHITH THAKUR

ID: i157108

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction................................................................................................................................2

Project charter............................................................................................................................3

Background.............................................................................................................................4

Vision......................................................................................................................................4

Objectives...............................................................................................................................4

Scope.......................................................................................................................................5

Key Stakeholders....................................................................................................................5

Project milestones...................................................................................................................6

Project budgeting....................................................................................................................6

Limitations, expectations and threats.....................................................................................7

Values.....................................................................................................................................9

Core Critical Path.......................................................................................................................9

Work Breakdown Structure.....................................................................................................10

Gantt chart................................................................................................................................15

Budget......................................................................................................................................17

Risk Management Plan............................................................................................................19

Conclusion...............................................................................................................................22

Recommendations....................................................................................................................23

References................................................................................................................................24

INTRODUCTION

Many organizations have tried to uplift their standard by trying their hands in providing good

bedding hospitality to the customers and the same was done by Marriott back in 2004 by

initiating the well-known bedding program. It included many aspects as well as parameters

that in turn improved the working plan of bedding process. Bedding process includes down

pillows, simple embroidery at the borders, creative way of arranging towel, duvet covers, and

light shade bed sheet, etc. for the comfort of their customers. The project aimed at providing

the listed amenities which in turn would benefit both the franchise and their customers.

Customer’s satisfaction depends on the hospitality of the hotel and the services provided to

them. If in case customer files even a single complaint then it would be counted as a negative

point towards organization’s reputation and position. Project was implemented in different

phases and tasks were appropriately divided among the various stakeholders involved in the

project. Our bedding program will provide different colors for pillow and bed which would

provide a classy, simple and decent look to the overall bedding arrangement. Project was

capable of maintaining organization’s standard and customer’s satisfaction and was

completed as scheduled and within budget i.e. $190 million. The project like any other

project faced many challenges but timely and appropriate solutions were adopted to

overcome those challenges and make this project successful. Therefore we can say that the

overall benefit of the project was to provide a new and a distinctive selling point so that they

could attract more customers through their innovative approach towards renovating

the entire bedding facilities which in turn would bring in great revenues for the franchise in

the long run. This project also helped the franchise to gain competitive advantage and

flourish in the hospitality industry ("Marriott Bedding Program-Case Study", 2012).

PROJECT CHARTER

Project charter is basically a plan provided to project manager to accomplish given objectives. It

comprises of instruction to be followed by the project manager. The basic idea of using project

charter is to maintain consistency between various tasks. In this manner project manager’s work is

reduced as everything will be processed as planned in the project charter. It also acts as safe side

for organizations because firstly project charter will be reviewed before getting into the

implementation phase. On the basis of business point of view it also proves to be advantageous to

the organization’s value and position. Project charter popularity is increased due to its strong

capability of maintaining correlation and consistency between tasks. On the whole project charter

comprises of tasks or instructions that needs to be followed in the project process by project

manager ("ASQ Service Quality Division", n.d.).

Background

The idea of Marriott hotels had provided luxurious environment to the customers. As per

their plan they had used luxurious bedding style that suits with the customer’s standard. They

actually understood the living style of the customers. They had introduced new bedding style

by considering new brand that had supported customers comfort level. There plan had

focused on improving living standards of their hotels to impress and attract customer’s

interest.

Vision

To give good quality of hotel facility and hospitality to the customers they visualized to

enhance the comfort level of their services and maintain sustainability of the environment for

promoting the Green initiative. Enhancing the comfort level incorporated new bedding style

based on the feedback provided by the customers and also by considering architect

suggestions.

Objectives

To improve bedding quality by considering previous successful methods.

To maintain same standard and rules across all the branches of the franchisee.

To maintain good status in the customer’s eyes.

To give classy look in the bedding standard.

To set their demands in budget.

Scope

Marriott bedding program was successfully implemented by making changes in 628000 beds

across their branches. Their idea was implemented in their 2400 branch locations which were

located in 68 different countries. Their main aim was to provide good and luxurious

environment to the customers. They tried to bring new look in the bedding standard. They

realized in a timely manner that they needed to take this crucial turn to improve the living

standard and to maintain good position in the market. In most of the cases innovation proved

fruitful but sometimes it takes years to overcome the loss. Their approach definitely had

provided eco friendly environment which in future will attract more and more customers

across the globe.

Key Stakeholders

Key stakeholders are highlighted in the following table:

S. no. Stakeholder Role

1. Client Orders were generated from client side.

2 Project manager Project manager was responsible for

arranging, managing, executing and

monitoring task.

3. Project team members Those members who were involved in

performing tasks and those who processed

them

(i) Full service brand oriented staff

(ii) Limited service brand oriented

staff

4. Distribution and tracking staff Distribution staff mainly carried out the

distribution of the material across various

branches of the hotel and tracking staff role

was to track the materials during the course of

the project.

Project milestones

Checking or going through stakeholder’s agreement.

Continuing after getting approval from owner side.

Getting plan tested from the owner end.

Budget related discussion with the owner.

Implementing same plan across all the Marriott branches.

Project budgeting

The overview of the project budget id highlighted in the following table:

S. no. Entity Cost in $

1. Salaries of the stalk holders 35

2. Material cost 60

3. Communication coast 5

4. Staff Training cost 10

5. Transportation cost 10

6. Tracking and Distribution 5

7. Record keeping and Documentation cost 5

8. Conducting Questionnaires and Research cost 5

9. System wide and implementation cost 20

10. Testing product at various branches of the franchisee cost 10

11. Distribution company hiring cost. 10

12. Maintaining an intranet website cost 5

13. Implementation cost of linen Reuse program 10

14. TOTAL COST 190

Limitations, expectations and threats

1. Limitations

Limitations term defines the work that acted as a hurdle in successful implementation

of the project. In this project the main limitations were as follow:-

Project team member are placed at different countries (location).

Poor coordination between project manager and client.

Lack of communication between team members.

Issue with estimating the order volumes.

Distribution Process as almost 1,850 products’ was associated with the project.

2. Expectations

Involvement of all the Marriott hotel branches.

Industries will not let us down in fulfilling demands.

Industries will provide good quality and A class bedding order.

Hotel staff will cooperate in implementing adopting new method or style

gracefully.

All the employs are do their assigned tasks will loyalty and dedication.

All the members will complete their work on time or in given time of period.

There will no need of extra resources (provided resources are enough to

complete task).

3. Threats

Project team members are not sufficient.

Project manager suffering from serious disease.

Project may not be completed on time

Project may exceed its budget.

Industries unable to process required demand.

Industry manufactures provide poor quality goods.

Client changes their order in between.

Insufficient resources at the point of completion.

Processes do not meet the client requirements.

Competing businesses may have a better strategy or may implement a similar

plan.

Values

Maintain devised standards and status.

Ensure innovation and creativity.

Emphasizes on customer satisfaction.

Adapting modification in the living standard of the hotel.

CORE CRITICAL PATH

Core critical path helps the project managers in planning over the tasks that are required to

finish the task. When any project is distributed among many complex tasks, core critical path

plays an essential role in simplifying the tasks and organizing them in an appropriate and

sequential manner. This project planning mechanism is widely used to keep a track of the

respective activities of a project. The most essential feature of devising core critical paths is

that they provide an insight into the time allocated to each task along with their sequences in

which they must be accomplished. Another advantage of the CCP’s is that they help in

supervising and handling the project resources. One feature that cannot be missed is that

these devised critical paths even help in comparing the devised plan with the actual plan

(Zachary, 2015).

The core critical path for the Marriott Bedding Project can be represented through the

following figure:

WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE

Work breakdown structures are one of the essential components of the project plan which

help in representing the hierarchical structures of all the activities involved in the project.

These are the activities that need to be accomplished for the successful implementation of the

project. Work breakdown structures also help in identifying the start date and the end date of

the project and even for its respective activities. Work breakdown structures basically focus

on deliverables so that the project stakeholders can know what is important and holds priority

in the project. The project work is subdivided into appropriate sections which in turn help is

minimizing the efforts of distributing the project oriented tasks.

The bedding program initiated by the Marriott Group also incorporated a range of activities

that needed to be in order so that all the activities could be completed on time and in a

sequence so that one task could follow other. The devising of the work breakdown structured

thus helped in identifying the various tasks, distribution of time or scheduling based on the

tasks and even helped in identifying the various dependencies that were imposed by the

various tasks. Therefore we can conclude that the Work Breakdown Structure helped in

maintaining the decorum and understanding among the various stakeholders by maintaining

and organizing the required tasks in an appropriate manner ("Work Breakdown Structure

(WBS)", 2014).

The Work Breakdown Structure for the Marriott Bedding Program is represented as follows:

GANTT CHART

Gantt chart is a kind of a bar chart that helps demonstrate the scheduling of different tasks

that are needed to complete the project. Gantt chart usually illustrates the various activities

within a project against time. Gantt chart can be consequently related to with the work

breakdown structure as the various activities that are listed in the work breakdown structure

along with its required end and start dates helps in devising the Gantt chart. The Gantt chart

consists of activities in the form of a bar which has a particular length and position which in

turn is dependent on the start date, end date or basically the duration of that particular task.

The information which the Gantt chart provides include the activities, the start and the end

time for each of the activities, how long will a particular activity last, activity overlapping

and their extent and also the start time and the end time of the entire project.

In the Marriott’s Bedding Program the project managers made use of this project

management tool to get an insight into the above mentioned information such as activities,

their duration and start and end times. Thus we can conclude that Gantt chart is important as

it helps us in planning, coordinating and also tracking the specific activities involved in the

course of a project ("Gantt Charts: Planning and Scheduling More Complex Projects", n.d.).

The Gantt chart for the Marriott Bedding Program has been illustrated below:

BUDGET

Budget can be referred to as the most important entity in any project plan as it helps in estimating

the costs at an early stage of the project so that the expenses can be arranged and distributed in a

timely and effective manner. Budget helps a project to stay within the decided costs and prevents

the project from exceeding its allocated budgets.

In case of Marriott Bedding Program the entire financing of the project depends on the devised

budget and the very budget helped us in estimating the total expenditures involved in the project

which have been recorded as somewhere equal to $190 million. Detailed and accurate budget

helps in preventing the entire project from getting haywire. The costs mentioned in the budget

should be thoroughly discussed among the key stakeholders and decided upon by based on the

experts’ opinion (WATT, n.d.). Therefore we can conclude that including the budget section

would help in justifying the financial assets available with the organization with respect to the

project to be developed.

The budget plan for the Marriott Bedding Program is demonstrated as follows:

MARRIOTT BEDDING PROGRAM BUDGET ESTIMATION

ALL COSTS IN MILLION DOLLARS ($US)

ENTITY COSTS

Salaries of the stakeholders 35 Full service brand oriented staff Limited service oriented staffMaterials Costs 60 Mattress Down Pillows Bed Sheets Duvet Covers Soft LinensCommunication Costs 5 Meetings Conference calls Conferences Pamphlets Internet Usage CostsStaff Training Costs 10 Scheduled training Additional TrainingTransportation Cost 10Tracking and distribution 5Record Keeping and Documentation Costs 5Conducting Questionnaires and research Costs 5System Wide Implementation Costs 20Testing products at various branches of the franchisee cost 10Distribution company hiring cost 10Maintaining an intranet website cost 5Implementation cost of Linen Reuse Program 10

RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN

Risk management plan is one of the essential features of any project plan as it provides the

critical information about what are the risks or rather threats that could hamper the success of the

project. The risks must be identified at an early stage and dealt with in a timely manner so that

the project can be successfully implemented. Risk management plan is highly important as it

gives an indication towards what could limit the project from achieving the required results and

even helps in reducing the overall costs which could be high and may exceed if such risks are

dealt with later on in the project (WATT, n.d.).

The risk management plan for the Marriott Bedding Program can be highlighted through the

following tables:

RISK DESCRIPTION LIKELIHOOD MITIGATION PLAN

Exceeded Budget

It may be a case that the allocated budget for the project may exceed

Low Budget should be made flexible so that the extra costs incurred during the course of the project can be easily incorporated

Project does not meets the deadline

It may be a case that the project or its respective tasks may not get completed on time

Low Enough time should be made available for each of the tasks so that there is no issue with less time available which may even lead to employees working under stress

Ineffective communication

It may be a case that the communication among the various stakeholders may not be appropriate

High Various measures should be taken to mitigate the risks related to effective communication such as video conferences, wordless videos, telephonic conversations, regular meetings, Skype conferences etc.

Data loss Critical data Medium Appropriate data backups should

related to the project may get damaged or may be lost permanently

be maintained or a cloud provider should be hired so that data can be stored and managed appropriately and can be recovered effectively in case of a disaster

Competition It may be a case that the competing businesses may implement a similar or a better strategy

High The bedding program should be such that it incorporates facilities that are highly distinctive and innovative. Also a promotional campaign should be run so that to spread awareness about the new initiative taken by the Marriott Group.

The critical risk possibilities can be concluded using the following table:

VARIABLE LOW MED-LOW

MEDIUM MED-HIGH

HIGH

Probability

EXCEEDED BUDGET

Impact

Detectability

Probability

DEADLINE ISSUE Impact

Detectability

Probability

INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Impact

Detectability

Probability

DATA LOSS Impact

Detectability

Probability

COMPETITION Impact

Detectability

CONCLUSION

The project plan for the Marriott Bedding Program successfully incorporated each element

required such as the project charter which defined the project’s scope, objectives, constraints,

stakeholders, budget etc., the Work Breakdown structure which incorporated the various

activities involved in the project along with its dependencies and estimated time required for

each one of them, the Gantt chart that further helped us in estimating the activities along with its

timelines such as start and end date, the budget plan that helped in providing the estimated costs

required to implement the project successfully and the risk management plan which helped in

identifying various risks associated with the project along with its severity level and the

corresponding mitigation plan.

Therefore the project plan has successfully been able to remove the dependencies as every task is

performed individually as per planned by project manager. The bedding program was

successfully completed within budget and on time. Bedding stuff and style has given a new

touch to the customer’s choice. Organization had a fully devised project plan so that if any

problem or error occurs they only needed to check the particular level rather than reviewing plan

from the starting. Project has appropriately taken care of comfort level and customers demand.

The facility of extra resources has helped in sorting out the problem in short period of time.

Therefore we can conclude that the bedding program helped in maintaining environmental

sustainability and also gain a reputation globally and in turn also helped in creating an

irreplaceable brand value.

RECOMMENDATIONS

As far as the project is concerned it has been flawlessly undertaken with no place for errors or

any problems. Everything from vision, scope, devising stakeholders, identifying constraints,

devising Work breakdown structure, Gantt chart to Risk management plan was in place that

helped in successful implementation of the project at hand therefore leaving no place for

recommendations. However a liable recommendation would be that continuous involvement of

the stakeholders and also the other staff employees should be considered so that ideas can be

shared more openly. Another recommendation would be that communication should be

considered beforehand and a well effective communication plan should be developed so that this

essential component does not stay out of focus. It would also be recommendable that before

implementing such projects, the strategies of the competing businesses should be researched

upon as the clashing of renovation of same services would not benefit or bring revenues as the

distinctiveness of the whole idea may get lost. Staff motivation is also one of the main

parameters to enhance the performance and interest of the employee towards their respective

work and must be considered seriously. Lastly, all the rules and the regulations or the standards

that are set should be followed or adhered to strictly and in order to do so strict guidelines should

be formulated which in turn would help in sustaining the implemented project consistently over a

period of time.

REFERENCES

Marriott Bedding Program-Case Study. (2012). Pmi.org. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from

http://www.pmi.org/Business-Solutions/~/media/PDF/Case%20Study/Marriott_Case_Study_New.ashx

ASQ Service Quality Division. Asq.org. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from http://asq.org/service/body-of-

knowledge/tools-project-charter

Zachary, S. (2015). ProjectManagement.com - Critical Path Analysis. Projectmanagement.com.

Retrieved 24 May 2016, from http://www.projectmanagement.com/wikis/233036/Critical-Path-

Analysis

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). (2014). Projectsmart.co.uk. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from

https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/work-breakdown-structure.php

Gantt Charts: Planning and Scheduling More Complex Projects. Mindtools.com. Retrieved 24

May 2016, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_03.htm

WATT, A. 12. Budget Planning | Project Management. Opentextbc.ca. Retrieved 24 May 2016,

from https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/chapter/chapter-12-budget-planning-project-

management/

WATT, A. 16. Risk Management Planning | Project Management. Opentextbc.ca. Retrieved 24

May 2016, from https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/chapter/chapter-16-risk-management-

planning-project-management/