Case study – Grand Wines
You are an employee of Grand Wines Ltd and project leader of a proposed project to equip each of the company’s 20 sales representatives with a wireless data entry device by which they could instantly communicate customer orders to the company’s central sales database in Sydney. The sales representatives operate over all areas of NSW and service around 400 independent wine and liquor stores in the state.
Currently, the sales representatives complete customer orders manually and after leaving a copy with the customer, they forward the customer orders by mail or fax to the sales department in Sydney, where the orders are entered into the sales database and processed through the inventory system for shipment to the customer.
The problems with the current process are:
• At least one-day is lost in supplying customers with products because of the delays in getting orders into the system.
• Sales representatives do not know the latest inventory position of their products when they accept orders from the customer. Delays in delivery can result when orders are placed on “back-order” because of a lack of stock.
• Orders are often “lost” or entered into the sales database incorrectly through human error.
• The sales representatives and many customers are dissatisfied with the current situation. Competitive wine companies have improved their order systems and are outperforming Grand Wines Ltd in terms of delivery speed, order accuracy, availability of ordered stock and overall customer satisfaction.
Your CEO has stressed the importance of the project to the company and asked you to use your skills as a project manager to make sure the project is successful by following the relevant project management processes.
You have been assigned a project leader of this project. Your manager has given you guidance that the project needs to be completed within 6 months and that costs should be minimised wherever possible.