You will be presented with a situation showing the details of how a company is currently working, a manufacturing plant with various stand-alone computers and printers, and you will research and determine the best configuration to help the manufacturing plant network their computers and include connections to the Internet for all computers.

You will need to explain and support the decisions and be able to explain how the changes will benefit the manufacturing plant, including describing how the changes will be managed and implemented.

Case Study: JAMS Manufacturing

You have been employed by a company called JAMS manufacturing, a company that manufactures widgets. Right now, the company has three manufacturing plants and an office building in three different locations (the office building is located next to one of the plants).

Each manufacturing plant has a number of personal computers and manufacturing computers that are used in the buildings. Currently each computer connects to its own modem or router to connect to the Internet. The company has hired you to help them determine the best way to update their computer systems to network all the facilities.

The Transition

To complete this project, the company wants All their computers to be networked. Each manufacturing plant (and the office building) should have its own private network, and those networks should be connected to one another and to the Internet.

There are approximately ten PCs in each manufacturing plant and 25 in the office building. These are all old machines and the company expects to purchase all new computers, including additional servers for the networks.

In preparation for this project, telecommunications wiring has already been put in place in the buildings, so you can consider that when you are working on your analysis.

For this assignment, you are to prepare a detailed report to help the company manage this transition. This report will need to include all of the following:

An Executive Summary

This portion of the report is often written last. It should be a one page summary of the entire report that includes an overview of the information contained in the report. Nothing should be mentioned here that is not included, in detail, in the body of the report.

Project Advantages and Changes

This section needs to describe the major benefits of this change. How will implementing this system help the manufacturing plant in general and specific employees in the company? Be sure to indicate changes that will be visible to employees and include a way to manage or mitigate those changes.

A Work Breakdown Structure

This portion of the document will outline all the individual tasks that need to be completed for the project to be a success. This section should also indicate in what order the tasks will need to be completed. All steps for the transition should be included in this section in detail. This will include ordering computers, physical setup of computers, installation of software, network connections, training, etc.

A Cost Summary

This section needs to include an estimate of the costs for all of the expenses associated with the project. This will include not just hardware and physical expense, but also an estimate of any other resources, such as people, required to complete the project. Ensure that your people estimates include workers and management of the workers.

A Project Timeline

Assume a two-week review cycle from the time that you finish this document. Starting after that date, include a detailed timeline to describe the implementation of this project.

Please ensure all highlighted elements below are covered:

Provided an executive summary of the project including all parts of the report.

Explained the potential success of the project including advantages in the areas of saving money, saving time, and potential future IT projects.

Included details about the types of individual computers that will be installed (brand, RAM, CPU, etc.).

Included information and details about other types of hardware that will be required for the installation (routers, printers, etc.).

Included information about the server to be used and how it will connect internally to the network.

Added information about how the network will connect to the Internet (firewall, monitoring service, connection type, etc.).

Provided the timeline for the project to be successful that integrates all portions of the work breakdown structure.