Report

Scenario

You have been working in Head Office for a large catering company named Avaral Ltd. located in Stamford near Peterborough, for about five and a half years, and you feel that you are overdue for a promotion. One evening over dinner, you asked your manager why you haven't been put forward for a project leader position, and she informed you that the higher ups have been waiting for you to prove yourself. In other words, they want to be impressed by a project proposal designed and carried out by you.

Your manager told you about an idea that she has had, and thinks that it would be a good project for you. One of the largest revenue segments comes from wedding catering, and over the last year, the company has been having problems with the 3rd party logistics company which handles delivering the pre-made food to the wedding venues. The problem has grown so large, that the company is now thinking of firing the logistics company, and providing the delivery function itself. Can you make a cohesive project plan, that either meets the catering delivery needs while still being profitable, or prove that the company must use the 3rd party logistics company in order to be profitable. Will you impress the executive team, and secure your promotion?

The following information should be considered in the making of your project plan.

Avaral Ltd provides catering to its wedding venue in Linton in Cambridge. The Linton venue has an average guest capacity of 50, and brings in £70 per head per wedding of profit. From November2023 through to October 2024, we have maximum bookings for each Saturday. One wedding isheld on Saturday morning and one in the afternoon, with the exception of year end, Dec 23 through to Jan 3rd where the venue is closed. The morning wedding ceremony starts at 10am andguests sit down for the wedding lunch at 12pm and the afternoon wedding ceremony starts at4pm and guests sit down for the wedding dinner at 6pm. The wedding cake is eaten after thewedding lunch or dinner is finished, and typically the guests will continue to enjoy the weddingparty for another hour.

All of the food, drinks, dishes and cutlery come from Avaral's catering facility located in Stamford in Peterborough. They cannot be kept at the wedding venue. Avaral owns 4 Ford Transit 350 L3 H3 Refrigerated Freezer Chiller Vans which you can use. The vans can be set either as refrigerator vans, or freezer vans, but not both at the same time. Each van comes with a driver and an unloader. They are already trained. If you need more vans, you must research and buy the same type and factor that new van into your cost plan. Your current drivers will train the new employees, at £24 per hour. One trained driver can typically train another in 3 hours, and this is the same for the unloader. You must factor the labour cost. Drivers and unloaders are normally paid £12 / hour.

Each of the 4 existing vans are fully insured and insurance does not need to be factored in your cost estimate.

The wedding menu consists of a starter which is either a prawn cocktail or a Caesar salad, served with a bread roll. For the main, guests can choose between beef stew or vegan lasagna. For dessert, the choices are a small bowl of Neapolitan ice cream, or vegan fruit sorbet. Starters and main meal items are reheated if needed but, menu starters and main meal items must arrive refrigerated not frozen. Microwaves do not need to be factored into your plan. Glasses and dishes such as plates and bowls cannot be carried in a freezer van. The desserts must arrive frozen. One refrigerated van can bring all dirty items back to the catering facility. By the end of the day, all plates, cutlery, and Avaral property must be returned to the catering facility.

Each wedding has a wedding cake. The wedding cake departs the catering facility frozen, and requires 2 hours to fully defrost. 1 hours after being defrosted, the cake begins to lose its freshness. After 1.5 hours of being fully defrosted, the cake will have lost its premium quality.

Complaints must be avoided. This is after all someone's once-in-a-life-time wedding day. You can choose when to take the cake out of the freezer van, at that point the cake will start to defrost. Once the cake is out of the van, you cannot put it back in. Don't forget to factor loading and unloading times into your plan, not only at the catering facility, but also at the wedding venue. While the wedding venues have kitchens, we cannot use them for activities other than preparing food for serving, activities of reheating food and trash disposal. The venue has serving staff who are self-directed and do not need to be factored into your project plan. Venues do not carry usable plates, glasses, cups or cutlery. The serving staff will reheat the food, and dispose of trash. There are more than necessary numbers of tables and chairs at the venues and ample parking spaces near to the wedding facilities. Neither of the wedding venues have refrigerated storage or freezer facilities. Get Homework Help Now!

Your report should include:A critical analysis of the benefits of effective project management, and a critical discussionaround the inter-relationship between time, cost and quality constraints, the recommendedmitigation or treatment of risks to alleviate impacts on time, cost, or quality, and the role of the project manager and other human resource elements of project management, drawing onappropriate references. (1,500 words approx)A project plan responding to the organization's needs outlined in the case study,demonstrating the fundamental project management principles of planning, budgeting,resourcing, and risk management, and using appropriate computer software tools to supportthe presentation of your work. (1,500 words approx. plus 5 pages maximum for tables andfigures such as the value proposition, project plan, critical path analysis, and budget). Reference List using ARU Harvard Cite them Right Referencing System.

You are limited to 3,000 words maximum for your report. You do not have to count the words in your tables, figures or references, but these should be limited to 5 pages maximum to account for any figures such as a Gantt Chart project plan, tables such as your project budget, or your risk assessment and management plan.