1. Cem Kilinc 2149311
English 1 for IB&M
Miryam Wijnhoven
January 10, 2012
Group 4
A Building Construction: Project Shanghai
To: Managers and sponsors of the Leatty Shanghai site
From: Cem Kilinc, Head of project development, Leatty
Date: 01-10-2012
Subject: Assessment report: New strategy at Leatty Shanghai
Introduction
The Leatty Shanghai site is suffering from multiple delays in finishing the project due to
avoidable circumstances. In order to keep the delays to a minimum within the given
budget, the management and sponsors of Leatty Shanghai have requested an assessment
report. The aim of this report is to suggest a new strategy that will allow the Leatty
Shanghai project to be run more efficiently, to operate with no further disruptions and
finish on time, consequently more effective.
Improvements for Leatty Shanghai
Coordinating and communicating
The first point on the agenda is to improve the information exchange and the
coordination of tasks, therefore, we suggest creating a project-wide intranet as well as
establishing quarterly face-to-face meetings.
The intranet should be accessible globally through individual accounts by team
members involved within the project. It is supposed to be used as a primary tool to
check the ongoing work and keep everyone updated with the latest news concerning the
project. Therefore, important information and deadlines can be updated to this platform.
Furthermore, we advise you to set up quarterly face-to-face meetings to create a better
relationship with your global partners and avoid misunderstandings, which occur
through other communication platforms like, for instance, teleconferences.
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2. Improving team morale
Further problems we have encountered are the lack of team moral between employees
and wrong working practices.
Due to the current situation we recommend team-building events that will increase the
team spirit and level of companionship among employees. For instance, official
barbecues from time to time may be a powerful mean to achieve this goal.
Moreover, we propose for one or two days off for accomplished work. This will motivate
the employees stocking up some energy. Thus, they are able to improve working
practices.
Mentoring program
Furthermore, there have been complaints from different members involved within the
project about unrealistic work schedules. The working climate has suffered under these
circumstances leading to an atmosphere of mistrust.
To be able to create a safe atmosphere so that team members talk openly about
problems and risks we advise you to introduce a mentoring program. Each
uppermanager should be responsible for several employees. Thus, managers respond to
employees as job adviser as well as a mentor that employees can talk to whenever they
need to talk.
However, we suggest improving the general manager – employee relationship. For
instance, more compliments for accomplished work should be given out and even when
there are time pressures employees should not get the feeling they have to work under
inhuman conditions.
Learning from the past
The last point on the agenda is that we have to learn from past mistakes. So far
improvements have been mentioned, however, they are worthless if we refuse to learn
from it.
One crucial lesson we should realize from the past is that specific tasks have to be done
in due time. We propose to update specific deadlines in advance to the new company
intranet and have them written down and handed out as memos at the building site.
Managers should verbally remind workers of important deadlines as well. So, Engineers
will know when a task has to be done in the second and third phase of the project.
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3. Furthermore, there have been delays due to unforeseeable events like a heatwave
during the summer months. Events like this show that you cannot plan a project
perfectly in advance, we have to calculate with some delays. In order to have a safety
buffer in case anything unplanned happens, we advise you to calculate with more delays
in advance.
Conclusion and recommendations
In conclusion, Leatty Shanghai needs to be remodeled in order to operate more
efficiently and to reduce the delays.
We recommend you to introduce the intranet as a communication platform as well as
face-to-face meetings in order to improve internal communications. To maximize team
morale and the general work atmosphere we suggest you have team projects like
barbecues, give employees rewards for accomplished work and advise each employee
an in-house point of contact. Finally, there should be delays calculated into the project
planning. Furthermore, we propose you make deadlines clear for everyone so there are
no misunderstandings and employees have access to all information concerning
deadlines.
These improvements will enhance the ongoing project and sponsors as well as
employees will enjoy completing the construction successfully Leatty Shanghai in a
pleasant work environment.
Cem Kilinc
Head of project development
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