The Design
A couple of months later as S&P commenced
their preliminary designs and raised questions and issues for decision, Moneysworth
found he needed assistance to cope with the paper work. John Carpenter suggested
he use Ian Leadbetter, a bright young mechanical engineer who had specialized
in programming semi-automatic manufacturing machinery. Moneysworth realized that
this knowledge would be an asset to the project and gave Leadbetter responsibility
for running the project. Ian was keen to demonstrate his software skills to his
friend John Carpenter. So, while he lacked project management training and experience
(especially any understanding of "project life-cycle" and "control
concepts") he readily accepted the responsibility.
During the initial phases of the mechanical
design, Ian Leadbetter made good progress on developing the necessary production
line control software program. However, early in design EID suggested that Woody's
should take over the procurement of the production train directly, since they
were more knowledgeable of their requirements. Miles Faster jumped at the opportunity
to get involved and decided to change the production train specification to increase
capacity. Because of this, the software program had to be mostly rewritten, severely
limiting Leadbetter's time for managing the project. It also resulted in errors
requiring increased debugging at startup.
Neither Moneysworth nor Leadbetter was conscious
of the need for any review and approval procedures for specifications and shop
drawings submitted directly by either S&P or by Eddie Forgot of Piecemeal
Corporation, the suppliers of the production train. In one two-week period, during
which both Faster and Leadbetter were on vacation, the manufacturing drawings
for this critical long-lead equipment sat in a junior clerk's in-tray awaiting
approval. For this reason alone, the delivery schedule slipped two weeks, contributing
to a later construction schedule conflict in tying-in the new services.
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Planning
