CASE STUDY

Project PaintBot

SCOPE

You work for Rocket City Consulting LLC$.$ You are the project manager for automating the painting of rocket bodies. The rocket designers have specified a tight tolerance on the thickness and even distribution of paint on the exterior of the rocket. Your job is to construct the automated painting facility. The overall cost of the project has been estimated to be $$2,000,000$ and is scheduled to begin on $5$ Feb $2024.$ The customer requires the system to be ready for the first rocket body by Labor Day.

The scope of the project is to construct the building, install the robotic paint arm, programming the robotic arm, and certify the installed system for the customer to use. The customer, Fancy Rockets, is a leading developer of reuseable space launch vehicles.

The construction of the building is subcontracted by your company to Athens Construction. The robot assembly, installation, and certification is subcontracted to Swissbots from Geneva, Switzerland.

Table $1.$ Project PaintBot Scope

SCOPE

BUDGET

CONTRACTOR

Building

$$1,310,000$

Athens Construction

Install Robot

$$310,000$

Athens Construction

Swissbots

Program and Certify

$$380,000$

Swissbots

Total

$$2,000,000$

SCHEDULE

Based on the scope, you have broken the project into three $(3)$ milestones.

Building

The building begins with excavating the land and pouring the foundation. The next task is to assemble metal structure of the building. Inside of the structure, a paint booth with required lighting and ventilation is assembled. Finally, a concrete stand is framed and poured to hold the traversing rail system.

Table $2.$ Building Estimate

Foundation

$15$ days

$$160,000$

Structure

$60$ days

$$600,000$

Paint Booth

$12$ days

$$350,000$

Robot Stand

$10$ days

$$200,000$

Total

$97$ days

$$1,310,000$

Installation

With the building complete, the robot installation begins. The traversing rails are installed on top of the stand to allow the robot to move back and forth along the length of the rocket body. The robotic arm and sprayer is installed on top of the traversing rails.

Table $3.$ Installation Estimate

Install Traversing Rails

$14$ days

$$260,000$

Assemble Robot

$14$ days

$$50,000$

Total

$28$ days

$$310,000$

Program and Certify

The final milestone is to program and certify the machine for use by the customer. This involves programming the robot to operate in the new facility and train the robot to navigate around the rocket structure. Next, the machine will be put through a series of tests to verify the performance culminating in a certification. Finally, the customer is trained on the operation and maintenance of the robot and the facilities.

Table $4.$ Program and Certification Estimate

Program and Train Robot

$7$ days

$$100,000$

Testing and Certification

$13$ days

$$240,000$

Train Customer

$5$ days

$$40,000$

Total

$25$ days

$$380,000$

STATUS

Tuesday, June $18,2024,$ you are completing your update to the project status to account for issues that have occurred.

The first issue occurred with a cost over of $$200,000$ in the construction of the structure. The initial design did not account for a change in municipal building code requiring an advanced fire detection and suppression system.

The second issue occurred with the construction of the robot stand. A major ice storm has hit the area causing the city to shut$-$down. After the ice thawed, the concrete supplier had delays on the manufacturing capability operational. The current state of the stand build is $70\%$ complete.

Table $5.$ Project Status as of June $18,2024$

WBS

Task

Duration

Baseline Cost

$\%$ Actual Complete

$1$

Project PaintBot

$1\mathrm{.}1$

Building

$1\mathrm{.}1\mathrm{.}1$

Foundation

$15$ days

$$160,000$

$100\%$

$1\mathrm{.}1\mathrm{.}2$

Structure

$60$ days

$$600,000$

$100\%$

$1\mathrm{.}1\mathrm{.}3$

Paint Booth

$12$ days

$$350,000$

$100\%$

$1\mathrm{.}1\mathrm{.}4$

Robot Stand

$10$ days

$$200,000$

$70\%$

$1\mathrm{.}2$

Install Robot

$1\mathrm{.}2\mathrm{.}1$

Install Traversing Rails

$14$ days

$$260,000$

$1\mathrm{.}2\mathrm{.}2$

Assemble Robot

$14$ days

$$50,000$

$1\mathrm{.}3$

Program and Certify

$1\mathrm{.}3\mathrm{.}1$

Program and Train Robot

$7$ days

$$100,000$

$1\mathrm{.}3\mathrm{.}2$

Testing and Certification

$13$ days

$$240,000$

$1\mathrm{.}3\mathrm{.}3$

Train Customer

$5$ days

$$40,000$

CUSTOMER UPDATE

Fancy Rockets is not happy with the project progress. The project has not cleared the first milestone and there is a cost overrun and a delay in schedule. Fancy Rockets has called a meeting for today $($Tuesday$,$ June $18,2024)$ to understand the situation.

In the meeting, you are asked the following questions:

What did you plan to spend constructing the building for the robot?

What has actually been spent to date