Risk & Value in Projects and Organisations

THE BRIEF/INSTRUCTIONS

Learning Outcomes Assessed:

LO1 Demonstrate an understanding of and the ability to identify and quantify risk and value at both the strategic and project levels

LO2 Develop and apply systems and tools to the management of risk and value

LO3 Develop and justify contingency and disaster recovery plans

Assignment Scenario

Choose an industry and a specific product. You are a project manager in Stanbor Ltd. which manufactures the specific, named product you have chosen. The main business of your company is the manufacture of the named product which is distributed throughout the UK and Europe.

Your company’s factory is situated inside the Industrial Park of Shaby town in the UK and is close to three housing estates and a small village, which in total have a population of about 3000 people (See map below). River Sleez passes directly alongside your factory’s site boundary. The river is a successful habitat for several kinds of fish and supports a thriving local small-scale fishing industry.

Your company is struggling to meet the very huge increase in the demand for its products from other European countries. As a result, some of the company’s shareholders have proposed the expansion of the factory and production facilities to take advantage of the growing demand and increase its market share. This expansion will involve considerable new factory building works and the installation of new state of the art factory equipment as well as the upgrading of existing equipment and IT systems. Most of the equipment and IT systems will be imported from other European countries. It is envisaged that, as a result of the flooding and explosion incidents in recent times in your factory which adversely affected the local population, a significant section of the community might object to any extension of your factory facilities and expansion of your production activities.

Other shareholders have made different proposals including building another factory in Eastern Europe to meet the current demand.

You are required to carry out the following tasks:

1. Assuming the board of directors of your company has approved the proposed extension and expansion project after considering all the proposals, identify and profile the possible risks which can affect the project and prepare a quantitative assessment of the project risks using an appropriate risk register. (30 marks)

2. Five years after the completion of the expansion project, your company’s post-expansion rise in market share has started to fall with a negative effect on both revenue and profits.

Using your company’s business-specific value chain, provide a detailed value chain analysis of your company’s business with a view to reversing the fall in revenue and profits. (30 marks)

3. Prepare a disaster recovery plan for some possible hazards to your company’s operations. The plan must include 2 environmental hazards and 2 technological hazards. The format of your report should include a profile of the hazards as well as the contingency plan and the disaster response for each hazard (30 marks)

The maximum word count for this assignment is 2000 words
Marking Criteria

This assessment is one of two assignments for the module and carries 50% of the weighting for the module. To pass this module, a student must achieve a minimum aggregate mark of 50% in the two assignment.