2016

PROJECT PLAN-MARRIOTT
BEDDING PROGRAM

5/24/2016
 Assessment 2

BG010: PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Group Assignment

Submitted to:

Wilfred Kurukulasuriya

Submitted by:

RAKESH DOMMATI
ID: i156861

SHUJATH MIRZA
ID: i156897

MANIDEEP YELLANKI
ID: i156859

HEENA DAMANIA
ID: i156431

MOHITH THAKUR
ID: i157108
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction .............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Project charter ............................................................................................................................ 5

Background ............................................................................................................................. 5

Vision...................................................................................................................................... 5

Objectives ............................................................................................................................... 6

Scope....................................................................................................................................... 6

Key Stakeholders .................................................................................................................... 7

Project milestones ................................................................................................................... 7

Project budgeting .................................................................................................................... 8

Limitations, expectations and threats ..................................................................................... 8

Values ................................................................................................................................... 10

Core Critical Path..................................................................................................................... 10

Work Breakdown Structure ..................................................................................................... 11

Gantt chart................................................................................................................................ 12

Budget ...................................................................................................................................... 14

Risk Management Plan ............................................................................................................ 16

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 19

Recommendations .................................................................................................................... 20

References ................................................................................................................................ 21
INTRODUCTION

Many organizations have tried to uplift their standard by trying their hands in providing good

bedding hospitality to the customers and the same was done by Marriott back in 2004 by

initiating the well-known bedding program. It included many aspects as well as parameters that

in turn improved the working plan of bedding process. Bedding process includes down pillows,

simple embroidery at the borders, creative way of arranging towel, duvet covers, and light

shade bed sheet, etc. for the comfort of their customers. The project aimed at providing the

listed amenities which in turn would benefit both the franchise and their customers. Customer’s

satisfaction depends on the hospitality of the hotel and the services provided to them. If in case

customer files even a single complaint then it would be counted as a negative point towards

organization’s reputation and position. Project was implemented in different phases and tasks

were appropriately divided among the various stakeholders involved in the project. Our

bedding program will provide different colors for pillow and bed which would provide a classy,

simple and decent look to the overall bedding arrangement. Project was capable of maintaining

organization’s standard and customer’s satisfaction and was completed as scheduled and within

budget i.e. $190 million. The project like any other project faced many challenges but timely

and appropriate solutions were adopted to overcome those challenges and make this project

successful. Therefore we can say that the overall benefit of the project was to provide a new

and a distinctive selling point so that they could attract more customers through their

innovative approach towards renovating the entire bedding facilities which in turn would bring

in great revenues for the franchise in the long run. This project also helped the franchise to gain

competitive advantage and flourish in the hospitality industry ("Marriott Bedding Program-

Case Study", 2012).

PROJECT CHARTER

Project charter is basically a plan provided to project manager to accomplish given objectives. It

comprises of instruction to be followed by the project manager. The basic idea of using project

charter is to maintain consistency between various tasks. In this manner project manager’s work is

reduced as everything will be processed as planned in the project charter. It also acts as safe side for

organizations because firstly project charter will be reviewed before getting into the implementa tio n

phase. On the basis of business point of view it also proves to be advantageous to the organizatio n’s

value and position. Project charter popularity is increased due to its strong capability of maintaining

correlation and consistency between tasks. On the whole project charter comprises of tasks or

instructions that needs to be followed in the project process by project manager ("ASQ Service

Quality Division", n.d.).

Background

The idea of Marriott hotels had provided luxurious environment to the customers. As per their

plan they had used luxurious bedding style that suits with the customer’s standard. They

actually understood the living style of the customers. They had introduced new bedding style

by considering new brand that had supported customers comfort level. There plan had focused

on improving living standards of their hotels to impress and attract customer’s interest.

Vision

To give good quality of hotel facility and hospitality to the customers they visualized to

enhance the comfort level of their services and maintain sustainability of the environment for

promoting the Green initiative. Enhancing the comfort level incorporated new bedding style

based on the feedback provided by the customers and also by considering architect suggestio ns.
Objectives

 To improve bedding quality by considering previous successful methods.

 To maintain same standard and rules across all the branches of the franchisee.

 To maintain good status in the customer’s eyes.

 To give classy look in the bedding standard.

 To set their demands in budget.

Scope

Marriott bedding program was successfully implemented by making changes in 628000 beds

across their branches. Their idea was implemented in their 2400 branch locations which were

located in 68 different countries. Their main aim was to provide good and luxurio us

environment to the customers. They tried to bring new look in the bedding standard. They

realized in a timely manner that they needed to take this crucial turn to improve the living

standard and to maintain good position in the market. In most of the cases innovation proved

fruitful but sometimes it takes years to overcome the loss. Their approach definitely had

provided eco friendly environment which in future will attract more and more customers across

the globe.
Key Stakeholders

Key stakeholders are highlighted in the following table:

S. no. Stakeholder Role

1. Client Orders were generated from client side.

2 Project manager Project manager was responsible for

arranging, managing, executing and
monitoring task.

3. Project team members Those members who were involved in

performing tasks and those who processed
them

(i) Full service brand oriented staff

(ii) Limited service brand oriented

staff

4. Distribution and tracking staff Distribution staff mainly carried out the
distribution of the material across various
branches of the hotel and tracking staff role
was to track the materials during the course of
the project.

Project milestones

 Checking or going through stakeholder’s agreement.

 Continuing after getting approval from owner side.

 Getting plan tested from the owner end.

 Budget related discussion with the owner.

 Implementing same plan across all the Marriott branches.

  Project budgeting

The overview of the project budget id highlighted in the following table:

S. no. Entity Cost in $

1. Salaries of the stalk holders 35

2. Material cost 60

3. Communication coast 5

4. Staff Training cost 10

5. Transportation cost 10

6. Tracking and Distribution 5

7. Record keeping and Documentation cost 5

8. Conducting Questionnaires and Research cost 5

9. System wide and implementation cost 20

10. Testing product at various branches of the franchisee cost 10

11. Distribution company hiring cost. 10

12. Maintaining an intranet website cost 5

13. Implementation cost of linen Reuse program 10

14. TOTAL COST 190

Limitations, expectations and threats

1. Limitations

Limitations term defines the work that acted as a hurdle in successful implementation
of the project. In this project the main limitations were as follow:-

 Project team member are placed at different countries (location).

 Poor coordination between project manager and client.

 Lack of communication between team members.

  Issue with estimating the order volumes.

 Distribution Process as almost 1,850 products’ was associated with the

project.

2. Expectations

 Involvement of all the Marriott hotel branches.

 Industries will not let us down in fulfilling demands.

 Industries will provide good quality and A class bedding order.

 Hotel staff will cooperate in implementing adopting new method or style

gracefully.

 All the employs are do their assigned tasks will loyalty and dedication.

 All the members will complete their work on time or in given time of period.

 There will no need of extra resources (provided resources are enough to

complete task).

3. Threats

 Project team members are not sufficient.

 Project manager suffering from serious disease.

 Project may not be completed on time

 Project may exceed its budget.

 Industries unable to process required demand.

 Industry manufactures provide poor quality goods.

 Client changes their order in between.

 Insufficient resources at the point of completion.

 Processes do not meet the client requirements.

  Competing businesses may have a better strategy or may implement a similar
plan.

Values

 Maintain devised standards and status.

 Ensure innovation and creativity.

 Emphasizes on customer satisfaction.

 Adapting modification in the living standard of the hotel.

CORE CRITICAL PATH

Core critical path helps the project managers in planning over the tasks that are required to

finish the task. When any project is distributed among many complex tasks, core critical path

plays an essential role in simplifying the tasks and organizing them in an appropriate and

sequential manner. This project planning mechanism is widely used to keep a track of the

respective activities of a project. The most essential feature of devising core critical paths is

that they provide an insight into the time allocated to each task along with their sequences in

which they must be accomplished. Another advantage of the CCP’s is that they help in

supervising and handling the project resources. One feature that cannot be missed is that these

devised critical paths even help in comparing the devised plan with the actual plan (Zachary,

2015).
The core critical path for the Marriott Bedding Project can be represented through the

following figure:

WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE

Work breakdown structures are one of the essential components of the project plan which help

in representing the hierarchical structures of all the activities involved in the project. These are

the activities that need to be accomplished for the successful implementation of the project.

Work breakdown structures also help in identifying the start date and the end date of the project

and even for its respective activities. Work breakdown structures basically focus on

deliverables so that the project stakeholders can know what is important and holds priority in

the project. The project work is subdivided into appropriate sections which in turn help is

minimizing the efforts of distributing the project oriented tasks.

The bedding program initiated by the Marriott Group also incorporated a range of activitie s

that needed to be in order so that all the activities could be completed on time and in a sequence

so that one task could follow other. The devising of the work breakdown structured thus helped

in identifying the various tasks, distribution of time or scheduling based on the tasks and even

helped in identifying the various dependencies that were imposed by the various tasks.

Therefore we can conclude that the Work Breakdown Structure helped in maintaining the
decorum and understanding among the various stakeholders by maintaining and organizing the

required tasks in an appropriate manner ("Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)", 2014).

The Work Breakdown Structure for the Marriott Bedding Program is represented as follows:

GANTT CHART

Gantt chart is a kind of a bar chart that helps demonstrate the scheduling of different tasks that

are needed to complete the project. Gantt chart usually illustrates the various activities within

a project against time. Gantt chart can be consequently related to with the work breakdown

structure as the various activities that are listed in the work breakdown structure along with its

required end and start dates helps in devising the Gantt chart. The Gantt chart consists of

activities in the form of a bar which has a particular length and position which in turn is

dependent on the start date, end date or basically the duration of that particular task. The
information which the Gantt chart provides include the activities, the start and the end time for

each of the activities, how long will a particular activity last, activity overlapping and their

extent and also the start time and the end time of the entire project.

In the Marriott’s Bedding Program the project managers made use of this project manageme nt

tool to get an insight into the above mentioned information such as activities, their duration

and start and end times. Thus we can conclude that Gantt chart is important as it helps us in

planning, coordinating and also tracking the specific activities involved in the course of a

project ("Gantt Charts: Planning and Scheduling More Complex Projects", n.d.).

The Gantt chart for the Marriott Bedding Program has been illustrated below:
BUDGET

Budget can be referred to as the most important entity in any project plan as it helps in estimating

the costs at an early stage of the project so that the expenses can be arranged and distributed in a

timely and effective manner. Budget helps a project to stay within the decided costs and prevents

the project from exceeding its allocated budgets.

In case of Marriott Bedding Program the entire financing of the project depends on the devised

budget and the very budget helped us in estimating the total expenditures involved in the project

which have been recorded as somewhere equal to $190 million. Detailed and accurate budget helps

in preventing the entire project from getting haywire. The costs mentioned in the budget should be

thoroughly discussed among the key stakeholders and decided upon by based on the experts’

opinion (WATT, n.d.). Therefore we can conclude that including the budget section would help in

justifying the financial assets available with the organization with respect to the project to be

developed.
The budget plan for the Marriott Bedding Program is demonstrated as follows:

MARRIOTT BEDDING PROGRAM BUDGET ESTIMATION

ALL COSTS IN MILLION DOLLARS ($US)

ENTITY COSTS

Salaries of the stakeholders 35

Full service brand oriented staff
Limited service oriented staff
Materials Costs 60
Mattress
Down Pillows
Bed Sheets
Duvet Covers
Soft Linens
Communication Costs 5
Meetings
Conference calls
Conferences
Pamphlets
Internet Usage Costs
Staff Training Costs 10
Scheduled training
Additional Training
Transportation Cost 10
Tracking and distribution 5
Record Keeping and Documentation Costs 5
Conducting Questionnaires and research Costs 5
System Wide Implementation Costs 20
Testing products at various branches of the franchisee cost 10
Distribution company hiring cost 10
Maintaining an intranet website cost 5
Implementation cost of Linen Reuse Program 10
Total Cost 190
RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN

Risk management plan is one of the essential features of any project plan as it provides the critical

information about what are the risks or rather threats that could hamper the success of the project.

The risks must be identified at an early stage and dealt with in a timely manner so that the project

can be successfully implemented. Risk management plan is highly important as it gives an

indication towards what could limit the project from achieving the required results and even helps

in reducing the overall costs which could be high and may exceed if such risks are dealt with later

on in the project (WATT, n.d.).

The risk management plan for the Marriott Bedding Program can be highlighted through the

following tables:

RISK DESCRIPTION LIKELIHOOD MITIGATION PLAN

Exceeded It may be a case Low Budget should be made flexible

Budget that the allocated so that the extra costs incurred
budget for the during the course of the project
project may can be easily incorporated
exceed

Project does not It may be a case Low Enough time should be made
meets the that the project available for each of the tasks so
deadline or its respective that there is no issue with less
tasks may not get time available which may even
completed on lead to employees working
time under stress

Ineffective It may be a case High Various measures should be

communication that the taken to mitigate the risks
communication related to effective
among the communication such as video
various conferences, wordless videos,
stakeholders may telephonic conversations, regular
not be meetings, Skype conferences
appropriate etc.
 Data loss Critical data Medium Appropriate data backups should
related to the be maintained or a cloud
project may get provider should be hired so that
damaged or may data can be stored and managed
be lost appropriately and can be
permanently recovered effectively in case of a
disaster

Competition It may be a case High The bedding program should be

that the such that it incorporates facilities
competing that are highly distinctive and
businesses may innovative. Also a promotional
implement a campaign should be run so that
similar or a to spread awareness about the
better strategy new initiative taken by the
Marriott Group.

The critical risk possibilities can be concluded using the following table:

VARIABLE LOW MED- MEDIUM MED- HIGH

LOW HIGH

Probability

EXCEEDED Impact
BUDGET

Detectability

Probability

DEADLINE ISSUE Impact

Detectability
 Probability

INEFFECTIVE Impact
COMMUNICATION

Detectability

Probability

DATA LOSS Impact

Detectability

Probability

COMPETITION Impact

Detectability
CONCLUSION

The project plan for the Marriott Bedding Program successfully incorporated each element

required such as the project charter which defined the project’s scope, objectives, constraints,

stakeholders, budget etc., the Work Breakdown structure which incorporated the various activities

involved in the project along with its dependencies and estimated time required for each one of

them, the Gantt chart that further helped us in estimating the activities along with its timelines such

as start and end date, the budget plan that helped in providing the estimated costs required to

implement the project successfully and the risk management plan which helped in identifying

various risks associated with the project along with its severity level and the corresponding

mitigation plan.

Therefore the project plan has successfully been able to remove the dependencies as every task is

performed individually as per planned by project manager. The bedding program was successfully

completed within budget and on time. Bedding stuff and style has given a new touch to the

customer’s choice. Organization had a fully devised project plan so that if any problem or error

occurs they only needed to check the particular level rather than reviewing plan from the starting.

Project has appropriately taken care of comfort level and customers demand. The facility of extra

resources has helped in sorting out the problem in short period of time. Therefore we can conclude

that the bedding program helped in maintaining environmental sustainabilit y and also gain a

reputation globally and in turn also helped in creating an irreplaceable brand value.
RECOMMENDATIONS

As far as the project is concerned it has been flawlessly undertaken with no place for errors or any

problems. Everything from vision, scope, devising stakeholders, identifying constraints, devising

Work breakdown structure, Gantt chart to Risk management plan was in place that helped in

successful implementation of the project at hand therefore leaving no place for recommendatio ns.

However a liable recommendation would be that continuous involvement of the stakeholders and

also the other staff employees should be considered so that ideas can be shared more openly.

Another recommendation would be that communication should be considered beforehand and a

well effective communication plan should be developed so that this essential component does not

stay out of focus. It would also be recommendable that before implementing such projects, the

strategies of the competing businesses should be researched upon as the clashing of renovation of

same services would not benefit or bring revenues as the distinctiveness of the whole idea may get

lost. Staff motivation is also one of the main parameters to enhance the performance and interest

of the employee towards their respective work and must be considered seriously. Lastly, all the

rules and the regulations or the standards that are set should be followed or adhered to strictly and

in order to do so strict guidelines should be formulated which in turn would help in sustaining the

implemented project consistently over a period of time.

REFERENCES

Marriott Bedding Program-Case Study. (2012). Pmi.org. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from

http://www.pmi.org/Business-Solutions/~/media/PDF/Case%20Study/Marriott_Case_Study_New.ashx

ASQ Service Quality Division. Asq.org. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from http://asq.org/service/body- o f-

knowledge/tools-project-charter

Zachary, S. (2015). ProjectManagement.com - Critical Path Analysis. Projectmanagement.com.

Retrieved 24 May 2016, from http://www.projectmanagement.com/wikis/233036/Critical-Path-

Analysis

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). (2014). Projectsmart.co.uk. Retrieved 24 May 2016, from

https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/work-breakdown-structure.php

Gantt Charts: Planning and Scheduling More Complex Projects. Mindtools.com. Retrieved 24

May 2016, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_03.htm

WATT, A. 12. Budget Planning | Project Management. Opentextbc.ca. Retrieved 24 May 2016,

from https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/chapter/chapter-12-budget-planning-proje ct-

management/

WATT, A. 16. Risk Management Planning | Project Management. Opentextbc.ca. Retrieved 24

May 2016, from https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/chapter/chapter-16-risk- manageme nt-

planning-project- management/