PROJECT MANAGEMENT CASESTUDY:

Marriott BeddingProgram

Marriott International UsesProject Management to Upgrade Bedding Worldwide

Headquartered in Washington, DC,Marriott International, Inc. is one of the leading hospitalitycompanies in the world with more than 2,400 properties in 68countries and territories. As a management company, Marriott isresponsible for daily operations in both company-operated andfranchised properties. Marriott has an extensive portfolio ofbrandsincluding full-service hotels and resorts, limited-servicehotels like Fairfield Inn by Marriott and corporate housing such asMarriott ExecuStay. In 2004, Marriott International set out toupgrade their bedding across all Marriott brands by providing newsheeted duvet covers, soft linens, down pillows and pillow-topmattresses for their customers.

Background

The Marriott BeddingProgram set out to develop and implement a bedding package for over628,000 beds across 10 Marriott lodging brands in two years, givingMarriott a new look and more comfortable amenities. The US$190million global renovation required seamless coordination ofresources from interior design, operations, finance, ownerrelations and public relations.

In addition totransforming the Marriott brand, the finished product gave thecompany an important advantage and unique selling point overcompetitors. As bedding choices became a focal point of lodgingindustry competition, it was imperative for Marriott to conform toa tight project timeline with strong compliance across the Marriottsystem in order to reap the rewards of competitive advantage.

The new bedding waspart of a comprehensive initiative to transform the look andfeel of all Marriott brands to create a more comfortable hotelexperience for all guests Thus the project team, composed ofProject Management Professional (PMP®)-certified project managersmanaged by a program manager out of Marriott’s Lodging ProgramManagement Office (PMO), conducted extensive market, productdevelopment and product and operational testing research to getinside the minds of their customers and affirm that the linensproducts adhered to their requirements.

The program managerwas strongly supported by the Lodging Program ManagementOffice. Her duties included maintaining communication among allparties, conducting regular team meetings with clear agendascovering upcoming milestones, identifying issues or risks andrecognizing major accomplishments. She facilitated communicationbetween the various headquarters’ teams, regional teams andproperties, identifying and employing the most appropriate methodof communications depending upon the type of information beingconveyed and the urgency of the message.

Challenges

One of the mostambitious projects undertaken by Marriott International, theBedding Program produced several challenges on a global scale thatthe company had to overcome throughout the project lifecycle if itwas going to prove successful in the end.

Marriott had anexisting bedding standard prior to the Bedding Program initiativein 2004. However, with the differing ages of hotels and differentbrands came a great deal of variation in bedding specifications. Insome cases, mattresses, especially in limited service hotels, wereof various heights. In order to comply with the new standards, someproperties had to purchase new mattresses. Other properties had toorder special linens for higher mattresses. Box springs weredifferent heights off the floor so properties had to preciselymeasure bed heights from the floor to the top of the box spring inorder to purchase bed skirts of the appropriate length. King-sizedbeds existed in three different sizes, impacting the length andwidth of sheets that had to be ordered. With so many moving partsand dependencies and 21 internal project teams, the project scopebecame

a clear challenge.Project teams had to work across time zones, languages and avariety of cultures and government regulations to achieve asuccessful outcome, making effective and efficient communicationand coordination a significant challenge.

Stakeholderendorsement of the Marriott Bedding Program was essential forimplementation since owners and franchisees would bear primaryresponsibility for the necessary financial investment. Owners andfranchisees are required to comply with Marriott standards andthe

introduction of newoperational measures, but if they are not supportive of a change,the implementation process can be significantly delayed. Inaddition, at the time of the Bedding Program, some properties hadjust opened and the new bedding standards required them to disposeof relatively new linens, which posed a financial burden forsome.

With more than143,000 employees worldwide and over 200 direct projectassociates, implementation of the bedding program requiredsignificant changes in hotel management processes. Thousands ofpeople including housekeepers

and laundry associates had to learnhow to switch the new bedding out and also maintain the newstandard form for each room and each linen change. Training had tobe specific to the bedding packages designed for different brands.Additionally, property management teams needed to be educated aboutthe rationale for the bedding change and the linen orderingprocess. Other training complications centered on a languagebarrier between property managers and housekeeping and laundryassociates and the need to train all staff at the same level. Inaddition, some properties experienced staff turnover during theimplementation process, requiring additional training for newpersonnel.

Much of the beddingMarriott sought was manufactured and distributed from overseascompanies. This created a six- month lag time between the time anorder was placed and when linens were delivered. In addition,across all brands the Bedding Program involved over 1,850 differentproducts such as mattresses, pillows, sheets, pillow cases, etc.,which posed a challenge of tracking and distribution.

Solutions

In order to address the challengesbrought on by such a multifaceted project, Marriott’s PMO needed toset forth specific processes and procedures to keep the lines ofcommunication open between the different departments and levels ofinvolvement in the project.

The massive scope ofthe Bedding Program presented a challenge in itself. To bring theproject down to size, the team implemented several projectmanagement techniques, the most important being communication.Project teams used meetings, emails, status reports, memos,conference calls, conferences, wordless videos, how-to videos andpamphlets,

photos, the internetand Marriott intranet to communicate to the global audiencesaffected by the program. Solid record keeping and documentationalso played a large part in keeping the team organized with thenumerous elements of the project.

In addition, theproject had several levels and processes, all depending on projectteams and milestones, thus it was important to ensure thatdependencies between project

teams and keymilestones were identified in a timely manner. For example, apriority for one project team might require the support of asecond project team, but might not be a priority for the secondteam. The program manager had

to help facilitatethese issues in order to keep the project within the set objectives- timeframe, budget and expected results. Project requirements weredocumented and publicly discussed at the very beginning of theprogram. As the project progressed, new requirements or additionalscope changes were evaluated against the initial requirements andrisks identified.

To combat thechallenge brought on by variations in product sizing and mattressheights. Marriott asked individual hotels simple questions andconverted the answers into a database that helped the ProcurementTeam create a preliminary order and cost estimate for each hotel.This information also aided the team in planning, manufacturing anddistribution needs. Properties were trained in the use of theinventory model through telephone conference calls.

With over 10different brands, Marriott had to devise a plan to adapt thebedding to each brand’s identity. To do this, two core beddingteams were established: one responsible for Marriott’s full servicebrands and one for the limited service brands. These teams were incharge of identifying the new bedding concept for each brand,developing the specifications to support those concepts, projectingsystem- wide implementation costs and on-going operating costs,

conducting marketresearch with consumers, testing products in hotels, establishingthe new bedding standards, creating training and implementationmaterials to ensure proper execution and conducting conferencecalls with properties during implementation to provide assistanceand monitor progress.

Customer research proved critical togaining the support of owners and franchisees as it demonstratedthe compelling guest desire for new bedding. Additionally, producttesting in properties was essential to show that the newbedding could be properly implemented in hotels of various sizes.Negotiating competitive pricing was important, especially to thosehotel owners who opened a new property within a year of the BeddingProgram. Marriott negotiated with vendors

to obtain the best possible pricing sothat owners would be encouraged to use

Marriott’sprocurement process. The negotiation process proved to be achallenge itself since Marriott could not forecast the volume ofbedding purchases until the orders were placed, but owners wouldnot commit to purchasing the bedding without price quotes. Theprocurement team negotiated preliminary pricing, preparedproperty-specific

quotes for all properties and thenobtained signed agreements from the owners. Continuouscommunication proved invaluable to gaining the support fromproperty owners and franchisees.

To resolve thechallenges brought on by Marriott’s complex procurement process,Marriott contracted an outside distribution company to receive,repackage and ship the bulk of the bedding to the properties. Thisallowed the properties to receive complete orders - a Marriottrequirement that reduced the risk of storage complications atproperties that received items piece-meal. Within Marriott, eachdistribution team was responsible for tracking actual and projectedshipments and shortfalls by item, by week. The distributions andprocurement teams met with vendors every week to reviewmanufacturing schedules and overseas shipping status reports andplan how to address shortfalls.

To overcome languagebarriers while training staff, the project team developed wordlesstraining videos and job aides with photos to demonstrate how thebeds should be made. To keep up with staff turnover, Marriottleveraged an intranet web site where department or initiativeinformation could

be posted and easily accessed.Additionally, the project team conducted property conference callsduring the ordering process and when the linens were shipped toreinforce written communications and ensure no confusion wascreated by a change in managers.

In addition to thetransformation of all bed linens across all Marriott brands andproperties, the company saw an opportunity to save money and becomemore

environmentally friendly through theestablishment of a linen reuse program. The program mandates linensto be changed only as needed, upon guest request and between stays.This allows the hotels to conserve energy and water as well asreduce energy costs.

TASK:

Conduct a risk audit and try to come upwith a few risks (both planned and unplanned) that might affectthis project. What are some of the ways that you could deal withthe risks that you have identified?