Company description

The (fictitious) company PPC currently is a 100% subsidiary of an Australian company and is a direct competitor of e.g. Courier Post, NZ Courier, Fastway Couriers.

PPC is located near Auckland International Airport and has some large NZ and international e-tailers (such as Bamazon, tIKEA, and Farehouse) as regular business customers. PPC has distribution centres (depots) for all incoming parcels (inbound logistics) in Auckland, Wellington and in Christchurch, and delivers (outbound logistics) parcels to customers in these cities. These (end) customers are private households and small businesses. For a national coverage PPC cooperates with NZ Post, who delivers parcels to customers in rural areas and in the other urban areas. Hence NZ Post acts as a distribution channel but has no direct contacts with PPCs business customers (the e-tailers). PPC currently has no larger businesses or governmental organisations as end customers. These customer segments are not considered profitable enough, and PPCs e-tailers uses the direct competitors to serve these segment.

In PPC they run all types of projects, either directly aimed at improving customer satisfaction via new services, or aimed at increasing PPCs internal efficiency, or improve the inbound logistics with e-tailers or the outbound logistics with NZ Post. PPC headquarter is in Auckland, but most people either work in the distribution centres or are on the road in the typical black PPC vans. Especially after COVID19, the market is booming. However, fulfilment for the e-tailers has quite come challenges in the NZ context. Tracking and tracing is an issue, and the reverse logistics of (household) customers wanting to return parcels back to the e-tailers can give some headaches from a sustainability and profitability perspective.

In general, competition is said to be stiff, and profitability has steadily decreased over the past years. There is talk of consolidation in the market, or at least more integration and cooperation between companies in this parcel supply chain. There is also increasing pressure from government to reduce CO2 emissions. The management team recently did a strategic analysis: the value chain, Porter 5Forces etc etc towards a SWOT analysis gave relevant insights for PPC management and also for project managers.

PPC is still discussing its strategic options, though. Being a large company from a NZ perspective, PPC has a low overhead ratio, but responsibilities are not always clear. There is some discussion whether PPC should have more specialised staff with a bachelor education, although they already have some IT specialists with a BCIS degree from AUT.

The director of Marketing & Sales (M&S) manages the M&S to NZ end customers, and also handles the strategic relations with the e-tailers. The Finance Director keeps telling M&S that PPC has an operational excellence strategy, whereas M&S wants to realise a customer intimacy strategy, especially to the e-tailers. The General Manager is very experienced in the parcel business and has been working for NZ Post for almost 4 decades before he was asked to manage PPC. The IT manager reports to the Finance Director; the HR manager to the General Manager.

The Operations Director has a masters degree in Logistics & Distribution and is a people manager. And that is good, because she has to manage her six team managers. Three for each of the three distribution centres (depots) with 50 temporary & permanent staff, and three for the three transport teams of approx. 120 temporary & permanent staff driving 100 vans. (Part of these vans are owned by the temporary staff who have been hired as contractors). The Auckland distribution centre is the largest with approx. 20 staff.

Likewise the Auckland transport team has approx. 50 staff. These contractors are managed via the team managers of Operations. Bigger vans (trucks) are used to collect the parcels either from Auckland Airport or from NZ e-tailers.

You are one out of five project managers and report to the Operations director. Staff members of PPC may act as a project member on a need-basis; consultancy firms & suppliers, and staff from the e-tailers or NZ Post often also provide project members. As a project manager you will have these four projects as described below.

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PROJECT 2: ALL THESE PROJECT METHODS?! (15 marks)

You have gained several years of project experience, first at the AUT in several projects with other students, perhaps in a final project, then as a member of the local rugby club in planning the next rugby season, and finally at PPC. Youve seen all types of successful and failed projects, either on content or on project management structure. Within PPC several project types are used, which lead to confusion with the e-tailers, with internal staff, and with suppliers and NZ post.

After the Pac-trac project review, the Operations Director asks you to investigate several project types and come with recommendations for PPC to standardise the project management method. There is a wide array of information in text books, and on the Internet, but it is difficult for PPC to select the best approach.

There is some disagreement within PPC. One of the aspects the Finance Director struggles with, for example, is that business cases and cost calculations often do not add up.

One of her famous quotes is, that if all projects were as successful as they claimed, then

I do not understand why we are not all millionaires if we add up all project savings & benefits

Marketing & Sales struggles with the inflexible approach on projects with e-tailers. And also: why start a critical project just before the Festivity season early December? The team managers in Operation also hate the disruptions on the work floor; and do not want to provide people for unnecessary projects. The General Director heard about Prince2; a new colleague is fond of agile, yet another of waterfall projects. Furthermore, you know from your study and literature (see e.g. the website of Project Management Institute, or others) that there are several good approaches.

Hence your assignment is to evaluate several (3 5) methods or approaches, and assess to what extend these would be suitable for PPC. You accept the assignment from the Operations Director.

Pr 2: Assignment Assess Project Methods

1. You do a thorough investigation based on Internet sources. (Use at least 5 good sources; reference!). You therefore will describe, compare and contrast 3 - 5 methods / approaches (3 Marks)
2. You clearly motivate and state the criteria you use in your selection. They take into account the PPC culture, organisation and strategy, and criteria based on the external PPC environment and other material you find in the literature (4 Marks)
3. You state clear conclusions and recommendations to the Ops Director. (4 Marks)
4. Select your own reporting format for this assignment. However, the main text must be approx. 300 - 500 words. (Again, use appendices were needed). Additionally, provide a well-written management summary (50 - 70 words), use appendices! The report should look business-like and help management take decisions. (4 Marks).