Ford Project

Project summary

Ford is a multinational automaker company that has its headquarters in Dearborn,

Michigan. The company has a primary target of launching 40 fully electric vehicles out of

which 16 will be run by batteries and 24 will be plug-in hybrids by the year 2022 (Muller,

2018). Their principle mission is to ensure that their vehicles are supremely environment

friendly and drivers can derive better driving experience compared to other vehicles that are

run by fuel. Moreover, Ford along with manufacturing fully electric vehicles will also

produce clean energy and storage products. The principle behind this is that if every vehicle

on earth is run by electric energy then that will be a great improvement of environment

sustainability as there will be zero emissions. Just like any new innovation this mission will

also cause several economic disputes and prospects. Although manufacturing of electric

vehicles is still at nascent stage, this development has the potential to bring a revolution in

industries and communities at large. The new project will ensure that that target is fulfilled

with every principle working behind this target getting complied with in the true sense.

Goals and objectives

In this section, I will be providing the goals and objectives of this Ford Development project.

Goals: This Ford Development project will be concerned with the process of manufacturing

fully electric vehicles. The major risks that will be associated with this project can be

understood from the activities that will be mentioned in the WBS. The principle goal of this

project is to make plan for effective risk management strategies that will help Ford to

continue to manufacture fully electric vehicles without any hurdles. This project has been
initiated keeping in mind the high recall rate of electric motor vehicles and reducing profits

with new models.

As such, the most important stages of this project will be recognizing all risks, evaluating and

examining the risks, making risk response plans, and finally apply risk managing strategies

and monitoring the strategies for reviews. It needs to be mentioned here that some risks do

not fall within the parameters of this project. Such risks include those that can emerge from

cultural diversity in the company, other business aspects, and other internal and external risk

contributing factors.

Objectives: The main objective of Ford Development project is to initiate and execute all

courses of actions that will be needed to control every predictable risk. Another objective is

to mitigate risks so that production process is not delayed as this will prevent cancellation of

reservation of models of electric vehicles. The purpose is to accelerate global transition to

sustainable energy by producing the most persuasive electric vehicles in the 21st century.

Therefore, suppliers will not need to give discounts to save cost of supplies. Moreover, the

project aims to manage all impending opportunities and threats in such manner that is

practical, operative and appropriate so that the probability of success of the project is

maximized with relation to fulfilling its objectives and also maintaining risks at an acceptable

level. Here, “Acceptable risk” is classified in the manner that is stated below:

 The level of risk that the project can have for Ford Inc. and for the sponsors of the

project.

 The positive and negative impacts that can be felt by the project’s stakeholders from

the lack of consistency or any unexpected outcome from any stage of this Ford

Development project.
  Identification of the number of high level risks whether in positive or negative level

by evaluating the risk register.

 The degree of urgency in giving attention to reduce or eliminate the risks when

evaluating the risk matrix at the pre and post risk response.

Ford will ensure that all stakeholders remain aware at every stage of the project about any

detail with relation to risk oriented information so that they have timely knowledge of current

risk exposure. The project manager will also ensure that all stakeholders can give importance

to those areas of the project that are most vulnerable to risks which can act as either

opportunity or threat that can help in progressing the project or hindering the project in the

fulfilment of its goals and objectives. The risk management process will focus on the internal

(technical and organizational) area of the manufacturing process of fully electric vehicles.

Key customers

Global car manufacturers are now paving the way for a future market for electric

vehicles. There is an emerging segment of consumers who are seeking to buy vehicles that

are both user friendly as well as environmental friendly. These customers are more interested

in the impact that their cars will have on the natural environment. These consumers opt for

cars that are electrically driven or consume less fuel. Moreover, consumers for whom quality

matters most are also looking for latest technology cars. With electric vehicles becoming the

new brand of cars, these consumers can also be key target for manufacturers of electric

vehicles.

Key stakeholders

The external stakeholders can be as follows:

  The government or regulatory bodies that are responsible for overseeing the

production of electric vehicles

 The suppliers of products needed by the manufacturers of electric vehicles

 The key consumers groups of electric vehicles (environment conscious consumers and

tech savvy consumers)

The internal stakeholders can be as follows:

 Board of directors

 Project manager and entire project team

 Project sponsor

The following is an example of a Stakeholder Analysis. This table demonstrates the degree of

involvement of the stakeholders within Ford Inc. and the manner in which they can influence

the result or assessment of the Ford Development Project’s Risk Management Approach.

Stakeholder Attitude Power Interest Stakeholder Type

(+/-) (+/-) (+/-)

CEO + + - Sleeping Giant

Board of + + + Savior
Directors

Communities + - - Acquaintance

Customers + - + Friend

Employees + - + Friend

Investors/Shareh + + - Sleeping Giant

olders
 Governments - + - Time Bomb

Project Manager + + + Savior

Project Sponsor + + + Savior

Risk Owner + _ + Friend

Action Owner + - + Friend

Risk Champion + + + Savior

Project milestones

The project milestones will be to ascertain the risks associated with the project,

scrutinize the level of impact the risks can have on the project, make effective strategies to

execute risk response plan, and supervise and study for outcome and timely inform the

stakeholders. The one year project is scheduled to start on July 01, 2019 and end by June 30,

2020.

Project deliverables

1. As long as there is no other specification given in the contract, the contractor shall

provide all supplies, personnel, equipment, tools, materials, supervision, and other

items or services needed to perform the supervision and execution of motor vehicle

assembly functions. All supplies and materials shall be of a type and quality that

complies with applicable Federal specifications and standard. All supplies, materials,

and equipment to be used in the performance of work will require the signed approval

of the Project Manager.

 2. The contractor will need to provide the Project Manager with a list that will include

name of the manufacturer, the brand name, and the intended use of each of the

materials, proposed for use in the performance of the assembly of the electric

vehicles.

3. The contractor shall provide intermediate maintenance, preventive maintenance and

scheduled inspections/tests; repair/replace unserviceable parts, assemblies,

subassemblies and components; refinish, fabricate parts, make modifications; repair

accessories and auxiliary equipment, and body and structural repair.

4. The contractor shall maintain all vehicles to the standards contained in USDA

mandatory directives and manuals.

5. The contractor shall accomplish scheduled preventive maintenance, concurrent and

special inspections, tests, and calibration.

6. The contractor shall be responsible for installation or transfer of vehicle accessories

and special equipment as approved by the Project Manager. The contractor shall be

responsible for repairs and parts after installation.

Timeline with key tasks and deadlines

The Work Brreakdown Structure (WBS) is given below:

Task name Duration Start Finish

1. New Electric Car  
1.1 Car Development  
1.1.1. Body  
1.1.1.1. Frame 18 days Mon 07-01-2019 Wed 07-24-2019
1.1.1.2. Fixed Parts 16 days Thu 07-25-2019 Thu 08-15-2019
1.1.1.3. Doors 16 days Fri 08-16-2019 Fri 09-06-2019
1.1.1.4. Interiors 16 days Mon 09-09-2019 Mon 09-30-2019
   
1.1.2. Gear Train  
1.1.2.1. Motor 17 days Tue 10-01-2019 Wed 10-23-2019
1.1.2.2. Transmission 17 days Thu 10-24-2019 Fri 11-15-2019
1.1.2.3. Wheels and axels 17 days Mon 11-18-2019 Tue 12-10-2019
    
1.1.3 Integration  
1.1.3.1. Of Body 22 days Tue 10-01-2019 Wed 10-30-2019
1.1.3.2. Of Gear Train 24 days Wed 12-11-2019 Mon 01-13-2020
1.1.3.3. Of Body and Gear Train 22 days Tue 01-14-2020 Wed 02-12-2020
   
1.2. Battery Development  
1.2.1. Mechanical Development  
1.2.1.1. Housing 5 days Mon 03-09-2020 Fri 03-13-2020
1.2.1.2. Connections 4 days Mon 03-16-2020 Thu 03-19-2020
1.2.2. Chemical Development  
1.2.2.1. Solid components 8 days Fri 03-20-2020 Tue 03-31-2020

Project’s cost and resources

The project’s total cost is estimated at $850,000. About fifty percent of this amount will be

used for recurring activities and the remaining 50 percent will be used for non-recurring

activities. The total cost is estimated for manufacturing of 40 fully electric vehicles.

Resources that will be needed for risk response are as follows:

 Risk register tool – In the risk register tool, all the associated risks that are identified

are documented along with the actions that are taken as response to the risks.

 Assumptions Log – From this document it is possible to know all the assumptions

that have been made during designing and supervising the project.

 Lessons Learned Register – This document is maintained throughout the tenure of

the project and every time a risk occurs. Every success or failure of the risk

management process is documented here for future use in other projects.

Project risks and management

Some identified negative risks are manufacturing risks, delay in production risks,

complications with brakes, car development taking longer than estimated time, chemical
hazards, and assembling issues. Other identified positive risks are increased customer

satisfaction, safer brakes, budget surplus, integration advantages, etc. The entire process

consists of identifying, analyzing, preventing and non-intervention of risks so that entire

project runs smoothly in order to timely manufacture the 16 fully electric vehicles. The

project team needs to study all the elements of the risk monitoring process with regards to

inputs and outputs of the process to make rational and effective decisions regarding risk

mitigation or risk elimination process.

Conclusion

The purpose is to stay on track and for this all identified risks should be effectively

managed. From this project, it can be seen that while positive risks can be encouraged the

negative risks should be eliminated. There should also be contingency or backup plan in case

any pre-designed risk response plan fails. Proper decision making is needed by the CEO and

the project manager so that attention can be given to details and plans can be made

accordingly.

Reference
Muller, J. (2018). Ford Will Invest $11 Billion by 2022 To Launch 40 New Electric Cars and
Hybrids Worldwide, Forbes, retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/
2018/01/14/ford-will-invest-11-billion-by-2022-to-launch-40-new-electric-cars-and-
hybrids-worldwide/#42f0e5577801