ENG7143 Project Managing the new Tesla Gigafactory in Texas

Title: Project Managing the new Tesla Gigafactory in Texas.

Style:

Individual Report
Online Quiz

 Rationale:

The Project Management Institute defines project management as the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. This assignment will help the students to apply these skills by investigating real world issues associated with project management. Allowing them to improve their ability to understand, analyse and synthesize complex scenarios and apply them to a case study. Within the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, and managing resources with the goal of completing specific deliverables within budget and time. The student will have an opportunity at the end of the module to monitor their project management knowledge, by an online quiz.

 Description:

Tesla Inc is an American electric car and clean energy company based in California, USA.

Tesla’s future project is to build another Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. (Please note, assumption will be made about the new upcoming Gigafactory in this case study, but only for the purpose of this assignment).

The new Gigafactory project will start in January 1, 2022 and will be completed in time for the start of the 2024 season (project duration of 2 years). If the project is delayed past the completion date, the company will start to occur a cost of $1,000,000 per day, against the initial budget set aside for the project. Elon Musk, the CEO of the company revealed the cost of the project could be as much as $1 Billion.

Phase one (infrastructure) of the project will start by sourcing the appropriate site to construct the new Gigafactory. An activity known as site selection; this will last for 30 days. Once the land is sourced in Austin, Texas after careful consideration, work will begin for land preparation which will take around 35 days to complete. The design and planning for the facilities, will start simultaneously. The design activity will last for 35 days and planning will take 55 days to complete. Next will come the built phase, the actual construction of the building. One of the longest activities of the project, lasting about 150 days. To complete the construction and to the make the building watertight, a roof must be constructed, which will add another 60 days to the project. Only once it becomes watertight, the plumbing and the electrics will be allowed to be installed simultaneously. Plumbing will take around 30 days and electrics a little longer 40 days. Finally, to complete the first stage of the project a final inspection of work will be carried out, this can take up to 10 days to inspect.   

Phase two (internal assembly and support systems) the construction and integration of the internal manufacturing assembly system. An assembly system is a robotic manufacturing process in which parts are added as the product (vehicle) moves from work area to work area, where the parts are added in sequence until the final product is produced. The integration of all the systems represents the most significant technical challenge to the project. In order of production, the first area to be fitted out will be the battery and drivetrain assembly area, a 70 days activity. Followed by seat assembly area 50 days and final vehicle assembly area 80 days. To finalise the production stage, a paint and ventilation area will be completed in 90 days. Eventually, to support the production a central supply building needs to be constructed (100 Days) and finally, a test track outside the building (80 days) to test out the final product before it leaves the Gigafactory.

Given the information provided answer the following questions:

Individual report (60%)

You are required to produce a report. As you work through your report, you need to justify the decisions you have made, and if you make any assumption also need to be noted.

1.    Title page,

2.    Executive summary

3.    Table of content

4.    Table of Figures

5.    List Tables

6.    Acronyms

7.    Tasks 1 or Theme

8.    Task 2

9.    …..

10. Concluding Remarks

11. Appendices

Tasks

1.    To ensure the success of the project, you need to identify and discuss the methods of project planning (WBS, Gantt chart ….) and project control (Progress reporting, EVM) that can be used. Purely theoretical answer using peer reviewed resources like books and journal articles. Discussions need to be academically underpinned. You could try to adapt it to the case study. – References required.

2.    Will the project be able to be completed by the January 2024 deadline? Construct a network schedule for the project.

·         How long will it take and what is the critical path for the project? You will need to undertake both forward and backward passes to be able to identify the total duration of the project and the critical path.

·         What steps might be taken to improve the timing schedule if the project were required to be completed in 100 days earlier?

Include a Gantt chart for the project plan.

Higher marks awarded if done using appropriate project planning software and correct with no errors. For example Microsoft project app, excel, ms visio etc. Please DO NOT use MS project to develop your Network Diagram. However, you may use it (MS Project) to create your Gantt Chart.

3.    Develop a proper project budget, by justifying your choices and estimates. (Using the WBS and the different cost estimation approaches discussed in class)

What are the estimated costs of the deliverables? Cost per deliverable/task needs to be provided and justified using citations/references)

What weakness exist in the estimation approach?

4.    What project management methodologies can be used for implementing this project successfully? Methodologies are not the same as tools and techniques. You need to discussed/acknowledge 2 to 3 PM methodologies before selecting the one you feel best suit this type of project based on the case study. Hybrid methodologies could also be considered. However, you will need to justify your answer here using the literature and case study as mentioned above.

Additional information:

For advice on writing style, referencing and academic skills, please make use of the Centre for Academic Success: https://icity.bcu.ac.uk/celt/centre-for-academic-success

Workload: 

You are to produce an individual report. Maximum word count of 2500 has been set as the limit. All charts, diagrams and additional useful information should be included.

Individual assessment via test consisting of true/false and multiple-choice questions

Notional hours that a typical student would be expected to take to pass this assignment have been outlined as:

A 20 Credit level 7 module is Typically, 20 credits = 200Hrs.

Therefore:

Scheduled Learning = 3Hrs x 12 weeks = 36Hrs

Guided Independent Learning =  164Hrs

Guided Independent Learning will be split between the 2 CWRKs:

25% CWRK1 = 41 Hrs over 12 weeks

60% CWRK2  = 98 Hrs over 12 weeks

15% CWRK2  = 25 Hrs over 12 weeks

Transferable skills: 

Project Management, Budgeting, Planning, Leadership, Teamwork, Problem Solving, Verbal Communication, Time Management and Analytical Skills.