Assignment 6-1

AMGT390-F1WW (SU10)

Justin Reed

August 6, 2010

Professor Clark

Lexi Electronics problem:

Lexi Electronics is nearing completion of a two-year project to develop and produce a new digital phone. The phone is no bigger than a Popsicle stick but has all the features of a standard digital cellular phone. The assembly line and all the production facilities will be completed in 5 months. The first units will be produced in 8 months. The plant manager believes it is time to begin winding down the project. He has there methods in mind for terminating the project: extinction, addition, and integration. He is not sure which method is best.

Question: Which of the three methods would you recommend, and why? (Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton, 2007)

Let’s first look at the books definition of each of these and this will help us to define which are the best for this scenario. First, we will look at termination-by-addition. This occurs when an “in-house” project is successfully completed and institutionalized as a new, formal part of the organization. This may take the form of an added department, division, subsidiary, or other such organization entity, depending on the magnitude of importance of the project. (Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton, 2007)

Although this seems like a good route to take for termination of this project, the fact that Lexi Electronics already is a producer of this type of item, and this is just a variation requiring a new line, I feel that this does not offer the best termination option. The department would still be the cell production facility just that it is now adding another production line to this department.

Next we look at termination by starvation. This often occurs when it is impolitic to terminate a project but its budget can be squeezed, as budgets always are, until it is a project in name only. (Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton, 2007)

This is not a solution for this, at all. The reason is obvious, the project is already being considered for termination as a success. The production line is being completed and they have a live date for when they will implement the new phones. The budget, although undefined, can be estimated to be within tolerances and the project will finish and move to production.

Termination by extinction means that it was either successfully completed or because the expectation of failure was high. Successful projects are complete and delivered to the client. Failure occurs when the project no longer meets cost/benefit criteria, or when its goals have been achieved by another project, often in another firm. Extinction also means that the project suddenly stops (Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton, 2007)

Although this is a good option for termination, normally this occurs when the project suddenly stops with property, equipment, materials and personnel to disburse. This would work as a completed project but my opinion is that the project is still in motion however it is winding down. Extinctions definition says that everything has halted. I would not terminate with this method because we do not see a clear stop of the project for some time to come.

The next termination type is integration. The output of the project becomes a standard part of the operating systems of the sponsoring firm, or the client. The new software becomes the standard, and the new machine becomes a normal part of the production line. (Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, & Sutton, 2007)

This appears to be the best termination type to use. Because this will become integrated into a department in the company, and most likely the most advanced item, we can expect this to be a standard using all of the newest and best components, machinery and also personnel. Because of the size improvement, you would expect that the technology would become a standard that would be distributed to all of the other products that were to be produced in the future.

References

Mantel, Samuel, Meredith, Jack, Shafer, Scott, & Sutton, Margaret. (2007). Project management in practice. Wiley.