FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

BENG (HONS) ELCTRONICS & ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING (3+0)

IN COLLABORATION WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF SUNDERLAND

MAY 2024
ASSIGNMENT

EAT 340
PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
TECHNIQUE
Overview:
This assignment contributes 30% to your final module mark. Please ensure that you retain a
duplicate of your assignment. We are required to send samples of student work to the external
examiners for moderation purposes. It will also safeguard in the unlikely event of your work
going astray.

The following learning outcomes will be assessed:

Knowledge
• Critical understanding of Engineering management and related business practices
• Critical understanding of tools and systems used to control and manage finance within an
operation environment.

Skills
• Ability to apply theoretical concepts to practical managerial situations.
• Ability to apply a range of financial tools that can be used to control costs and manage a
business.
Important information:

You will receive no marks for work that is not your own. Your work may be subject to checks for
originality.

Where you are asked to submit an individual piece of work, the work must be entirely your own.
The safety of your assessments is your responsibility. You must not permit another student access
to your work.

Submission Date and Time XXXXXX

Submission Location CANVAS

Instructions to candidate:

1. Submit the assignment through Canvas in PDF format.

2. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited. ZERO marks will be given for the colluded sections.
 Professional Engineering Management Techniques
EAT340
Group Assignment
Group Assignment Brief
The assignment is based on a hypothetical scenario concerning “WahsherWasher”, a washing
machines company. The company has a project team and a geographically distributed management
team. They use the widely available communication technologies and approaches to communicate,
work together, share documents, discuss ideas, solve problems, and make decisions.
The Scenario
A manufacturer of washing machines, ‘WasherWasher’, is considering the introduction of a new
range of products. Currently, the company produces a single type of washing machine in ‘white’,
but their marketing department believe that they can increase sales by widening the product
portfolio and producing different colored washing machines. In particular, they believe black
machines with gold doors and handles could be a ‘niche’ market at the moment but would like the
ability of manufacturing to vary the color of the product as ‘fashion trends’ and buyer preferences
change in the future. The CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of WasherWasher is not convinced by
the idea, and has asked the management team – Manufacturing, Marketing and Finance and
Engineering to carry out a feasibility study.
He has assigned a team lead by the Project Manager consisting of the Marketing, Manufacturing,
Finance, Human Resource and Operation Managers to carry out a feasibility study. They must
produce a report and present their findings/ recommendations in a formal presentation. A detailed
overall project feasibility analysis process flowchart is required to be integrated in the report.
Individual students/Team Members must adopt one of the following managerial roles for their part
of the report and each member needs to have a different role. The main questions to be answered
by each management team members are:
Project Manager
• Who are the project stakeholders? Provide the project stakeholders analysis.
• What are the success criteria and critical success factors of the project?
• What are the benefits of the proposed initiatives to the company, employers, and
customers?
• What is the current communication protocol between the project team and management
team?
• Are you facing any communication problems between the team members? If any, explain
what they are and how to overcome them. Otherwise, suggest the future plan to maintain
and further improve the communication between the team members.
Marketing Manager
 • What is the marketing plan/strategy currently adopted by the marketing team?
• Who is the ‘target’ market of the automobile products produced?
• How is the historical, current, and forecast market demand of the automobile products to
justify the needs for production capacity upgrading?
• What methods/processes/approaches will be adopted by the marketing team to ensure that
the upgrading meets the customer needs and requirements?
• Do you need additional staff to cope with the proposed initiatives?
The CEO expects that such a strategy should involve some if not all of the conventional
‘marketing’ approaches i.e., market research, 4’p’s (Price, Promotion, Place, Product), SWOT,
PEST analysis.
Manufacturing Manager

• What impact might the proposed production capacity upgrading, have on existing and
future manufacturing in terms of safety, the environment, cost, customer service and
quality factors.
• Due to the upgrading, what are the technology and facilities need to involve in the
production line?
• Will the upgrading require additional resource allocation and planning?
Finance Manager
• What are the financial implications to the business?
• What is the current profit/loss status?
• What will be the profit/loss status after the capacity upgrading?
• Is the new project viable financially? The cash flow and cost/benefit analysis that clearly
articulated the payback period, ROI, NPV etc. is essential in the report and presentation.
Human Resource Manager
The HR manager should consider including some of the following areas in their report:
• Will the upgrading impact the employee lifecycle, the policies and statutory requirements.
• What is the recruitment process will be followed for new employees, who skills are
required to support the upgrading? How will that be organized and managed?
• Holistically, what is the existing culture in the company? How will that be conveyed,
embedded, and communicated to new employees?
• What systems are in place to reward, measure the performance of employees and what are
the challenges that might ensue and be guarded against?
• What training will be required for new starters? What grading system will be adopted?
Other factors that might be relevant such as issues of flexibility, standard operations, equality of
terms and conditions, balance between work and home life, individual development are suggested
to be discussed.
Operation Manager
As Operation Manager your task is to develop and present a operation strategy for the increase of
bag production. You need to highlight the difference(s) of the developed strategy compared to the
existing strategy and discuss explicitly how this new strategy can be integrated in the existing
strategy. You should consider on how the operation activities will to be planned, controlled, and
recorded. Another consideration are the systems that need to be in place to ensure safety of drivers
and vehicles. Examples would be: statutory 6 obligations, risk assessments, permit to work etc.
Recommendations of corrective actions are welcome.
It is expected that students will use the PMBOK, and practical aspects covered in the course to
inform their approach.
---------------------------------------------
Finally, the whole management team should identify any issues or risks associated with the project
and through this analysis, recommend or reject the proposal. Consideration should also be given
to the impact of the proposed capacity upgrading on the environment and any actions that might
be taken to minimize this effect?
Team Instructions
Each student group consists of up to 6 members (the management team) and together provide the
report for the CEO. Teams should organize regular review meetings with the CEO along with their
own team meetings. Minutes of team meetings must be recorded showing dates held, points
discussed, and actions agreed with owners. These minutes should be made available to the CEO
for inspection as an appendix to the final report.
The two key deliverables of this assignment are:
1) A report comprising of an Executive Summary, Conclusions/ Recommendations,
Reference sections (written by the team and marked as the team). The main body of the
report will comprise of individual named report sections from each manager (length 1500
words +10%).
2) A formal presentation of the findings and recommendations to the CEO’s (Module
Instructor) via a 20-minute (max) power-point presentation at the end of the course.
Presentation will be scheduled based on CEO time and date.
The marks will be awarded as follows:

Elements Marks

Quality and relevance of the report

50
• Quality of written work
20
• Approaches and techniques used.
15
• Grammar, tense, spelling, paragraph 15
writing
Organization and Structure of Material
30
• Front page, content lists, captions etc.
15
• Appropriate introduction, main body, 15
and conclusions/recommendations

Team Working and Records of Meetings 5

Presentation 5

Use of References 10

BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND CONSTRAINTS

• To accommodate WasherWasher’s new product portfolio an extension to the existing
production building is needed to house the additional paint spraying equipment and new
ink mixing process.
• The manufacture of different colored washing machines will require special training and
new staff especially in color matching and ink mixing.
 • And additional spray booth needs to be integrated into the production line and additional
services are required.
• Refer to the ‘additional information’ section for specific details in Appendix.

Referencing
• Students may use textbooks or appropriate academic literature (journal articles and
conference papers) to justify their statements. All data sources used and cited in the report
should be correctly referenced utilizing the Harvard Reference System.
• It is expected that each part of the assignment will have 5 –10 academic references. An
exceptional assignment will have more.
• References from commercial and other web pages are to be used very sparingly. Excessive
use of such web pages will be reflected in a reduction of the use of references’ mark, due
to using non-academic references. A general reading bibliography is not required to be
included.
• The assignment must be presented as a formal report and printed in 'Times New Roman',
the body of the report being font size 12pt. The report should be single space and printed
on A4 paper and stapled in the top left-hand corner. The report should not be placed in a
folder or cover.
• The report should be professional in its nature and to a high standard and quality.
 APPENDIX
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION SECTION

Appendix 1

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Direct Labour Cost 16

Table 2 Direct Material Cost 17
Table 3 Forecast of Future Selling Prices 19

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Existing layout of WasherWasher manufacturing 9

Figure 2 Overview of Proposed extension plus existing services 10
Figure 3 Drum/Cabinet process detail 11
Figure 4 Final Assembly detail 12
Figure 5 Final assembly process and detail 13
Figure 6 Planned new building extension and equipment 14
 OVERHEAD CONVEYOR SYSTEM TO FINAL ASSEMBLY

Completed swing group

Fit concrete Mount electrical front
Mount drive motors

LIFE

O/HEAD CONVEYOR SYSTEM FROM SWING GROUP

Anti corrosion
Paint spray Booth Drier box
OOvveerrhheeaadd ccoonnvveeyyoorr

CABINET

SSTTOORRAAGGEE CONVEYOR TO FINAL ASSEMBLY CONVEYOR CONVEYOR

Empty Painted cabinets

Install swing
Connect cable Clean and remove
Robot to rotate
Fit door Quality Inspection Functional testing Fit rear cover

assembly into washing

machine cabinet 30 S

Figure 1 : Existing layout of WasherWasher manufacturing

Figure 2 : Overview of Proposed extension plus existing services
Figure 3 : Drum/Cabinet process detail
Figure 4 : Final Assembly detail
Figure 5 : Final assembly process and detail
Figure 6 : Planned new building extension and equipment
Appendix 2

Financial data

Assumptions
• Fixed costs are shared equally between production lines of bags
• Discount Cash flow calculations - uses a 8% Discount rate

Fixed cost
Marketing and Advertising

Advertising £3,000
Direct marketing £500
R&D development £3,000
Administrative
Wages and salaries £40,000
Labour £30,000
Materials £9,000
Outside services £15,000
Sundry Supplies £150
Meals and entertainment £250
Rent £5,000
Telephone £800
Utilities £1,000
Depreciation £0
Insurance £300

Manufacturing Data
Current production shifts and capacity
 Table 1 :Production Capacity
Output Shifts Duration Break
per hour of shift per shift
Drum Line 40 2 8 hour 1 hour
Cabinet line 40 2 8 hour 1 hour
Assembly line 70 1 8 hour 1 hour

Direct Manufacturing costs

Table 2 : Manufacturing Costs
EXISTING LABOUR
Headcount Annual Monthly Annual Salary Monthly
Cabinet Production
Per shift Salary (£) Salary (£) (£) (3 Shifts) Salary (£)
1 Four flexible operators 4 £80,000 £6,667 240000 20000
2 Loader 1 £20,000 £1,667 60000 5000
3 1 x Supervisor 1 £35,000 £2,917 105000 8750
4 Anti-corosion 1 £20,000 £1,667 60000 5000
5 Paint spray 1 £20,000 £1,667 60000 5000
6 Drier 1 £20,000 £1,667 60000 5000
7 Drum Line Production 0 0
8 Three flexible operators 3 £60,000 £5,000 180000 15000
9 1 x Supervisor 1 £35,000 £2,917 105000 8750
10 Swing Group assembly 0 0
11 four operators 4 £80,000 £6,667 240000 20000
12 Final assembly 0 0
13 six operators 6 £120,000 £10,000 360000 30000
14 Functional testing £30,000 £2,500 90000 7500
15 One operator 1 £20,000 £1,667 60000 5000
16 Making ready for transport 0 0
17 Four operators 4 £80,000 £6,667 240000 20000
16 Making ready for transport 0 0
17 Four operators 4 £80,000 £6,667 240000 20000
18 Cleaning and fitting top covers 4 £80,000 £6,667 240000 20000
16 Storage and loading 0 0
17 Two forktruck drivers 4 £40,000 £3,333 120000 10000
18 1 x warehouse supervisor 4 £35,000 £2,917 105000 8750
TOTAL 47 £855,000 £71,250 £2,565,000 £213,750
ADDITIONAL LABOUR FOR COLOUR PROCESSING
1 3 X MIX ROOM OPERATORS 3 £60,000 £5,000 £180,000 £15,000
2 TOTAL 50 £915,000 £76,250 £2,745,000 £228,750

Table 3 : Materials

COSTS
DIRECT (£)
MATERIALS
white colour
Motor £20 £20
Dispenser £5 £5
Drum £30 £30
Cabinet £40 £40
Paint £5 £20
 Door £5 £10
Pump £5 £5
other £30 £30

Marketing Forecast
Sales before project
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Quantity
White washing m/c 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000
Black and gold 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Green 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Red 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Sales units forecast Year 1

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Quantity
White washing m/c 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000
Black and gold 300 300 300 300 300 300 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
Green 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Red 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Sales units forecast Year 2

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Quantity
White washing m/c 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000
Black and gold 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
Green 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Red 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100

Sales units forecast Year 3

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Quantity
White washing m/c 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000
Black and gold 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500 1500
Green 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150
Red 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150

Sales units forecast Year 4

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Quantity
White washing m/c 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000
Black and gold 300 300 300 300 300 300 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
Green 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150
Red 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150 150

Sales units forecast Year 5

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC
Quantity
White washing m/c 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000 10000
Black and gold 1200 1200 1200 1200 1200 1200 1200 1200 1200 1200 1200 1200
Green 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400 400
Red 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500 500
 FORECASTED SELLING PRICE
WHIT BLACK & GREE RED
E GOLD N
YEAR 1 £250 £300 £300 £300
YEAR 2 £250 £300 £300 £300
YEAR 3 £250 £300 £350 £350
YEAR 4 £250 £300 £350 £350
YEAR 5 £250 £300 £350 £350

Sales forecast
List of tasks and cost estimate for new extension, equipment and installation
This scope of the project management element includes describing the management process!
…. of cost benefit analysis, writing of appropriation, design and procurement of equipment,
supplier selection, equipment specification. Project Engineers are not expected to propose
specific items of equipment and design.

Civils: Estimated cost £2.0 million

Design extension
Architectural
designPlanning
permissionBuild
Extension
New substation/MCC
Excavate Foundations
Lay concrete floors including ducting for
servicesErect structural frame
Fit cladding and roof

Electrical: Estimated cost £500k

General
• Cable installation, power, lighting, networking and telemetry
• Design power system layout – in-house project team
• Additional 415 V circuit breaker – contract out
New substation
• New supply to extension Ink mixroom MCC substation – contract out
 • Capacitor bank for power factor correction - in-house project team in conjunction with
outside supplier
• Motor control centre (MCC) to supply services 415 V 3 phase to motors, ink mixers,
pumps, extraction fans etc. - in-house project team in conjunction with outside supplier
• Emergency stops’ interlocking for mixers
New extension building and additional storage area
• High bay lighting for all areas – in-house project team
• 2 up and over doors/ access between warehouse and main building – contract out
• Fire alarm system

Mechanical Installation: Estimated cost £750k

New paint spraying booth - in-house project team in conjunction with outside supplier

Ink mix room-mixers/pumps/ultrasonic baths etc in-house project team in conjunction with
outside supplier
Colour match computer- in-house project team in conjunction with outside supplier
Monorail modifications and Lifting equipment - in-house project team
Pneumatics/compressed air ring main- in-house project team
3 x Fork lift trucks - in-house project team

Floor painting and signage

Sprinkler system extension and assessment

Fire equipment – Extinguishers

Mess room facilities for break