Executive summary
Emirates airline and Fly Dubai provides flight services from the United Arab Emirates to different parts of the world. Fly Dubai is a low-cost airline based in Dubai and provides flights to other destinations. It is rapidly expanding its operations in getting into the international scene. The airline connects with the Emirates airlines to provide flights for the Emirates customers to destinations not served by the Emirates.
The airlines have purposed to renovate one of the terminals of the Dubai international airport to improve on the quality of their services. The intended project is a construction of a double perimeter fence all round the terminal. This will improve on the security at the airport leading to increased customer and employee satisfaction.
More customers will be attracted to the services of the airline. Similarly, the employees will be motivated thereby improving on their output. As such, the project has objectives that are in line with the objectives of the different airlines.
The perimeter-fencing project is divided into several activities ranging from the initial training on project management, through the construction processes to the final installation of CCTV. Each of these activities has an estimated duration. The whole project is intended to take ten months (about 40 weeks). The project will cost about Dh 100 million (equivalent to about $ 25 million). It is to be executed in the 2011/2012 financial year.
The identification of the different activities involved in the project and the precedence relation is essential in ensuring that the project runs smoothly. A Gantt chart showing the start and finish time of each activity as well as their precedence relations will be use in monitoring the progress of the project.
By examining the Gantt chart, activities critical to the project like conducting training, recruitment of professionals, excavation, and the construction of the concrete wall are identified. Much resource can then be channeled to these activities as opposed to the less critical ones to ensure that the project is completed in time.
The success of the project will depend on the cooperation of the different individuals involved. Proper communication between the project stakeholders is essential in minimizing the risks involved in the project.
Introduction
Fly Dubai is an airline that was founded in 2008 to provide low-cost air transport services in the Middle East countries. The airline has its headquarters in Dubai, United Arabs Emirates. It started its flights operations in 2009 with a daily return flight between Dubai and Beirut (Flemming 2009). It was also intended to provide daily return flight between Dubai and Amman.
The airline was expected to have rapid expansion and offer flights to the other countries in the Middle East, India, parts of Europe, and northern and East Africa (Flemming, 2009). In deed, the airline has had significant growth in its operations over the short period. As a step towards expansion of its operations, Fly Dubai often connect with Emirates airlines to provide flights to some areas that were not served by Emirates.
The Emirates customers destined to regions like Djibouti and Alexandria can ‘connect through Dubai to and from an Emirates flight’ (Connecting with flydubai).
In order to improve on its operations, Fly Dubai with the support of the Emirates airline has purposed to reconstruct the perimeter fence of the Dubai airport terminal 2, one of the terminals at the Dubai International Airport. Fly Dubai has concrete management team with professionals with modern technical skills..
The issue of security is fundamental in different business and even non-profit organizations. Security becomes one of the key performance drivers in these organizations. Industrial and commercial organizations are more concerned with the security of their premises. One of the measures that can be taken to ensure security of these premises is perimeter fencing.
Perimeter fencing can be ‘used very effectively to help with warehouse security, factories, schools, and car park security [whereas] electric powered fencing is important as perimeter security for military bases, power stations, prisons, and construction sites’ (Advanced Perimeter Systems Limited, 2011). CCTV surveillance is essential in detecting agents of a criminal or terrorist act that has occurred in a given situation.
The airport has facilities that should be protected in much the same way as those in other business premises. Similarly, there is need to ensure that no criminal and terrorist acts are committed in the international hub. This is achievable if proper screening is possible for thus entering the airport.
Thus, the project that is to be considered in this case is perimeter fencing to ensure security in the airport. It will not only include the construction of a physical barrier around the airport but also an establishment of electric powered fence on the perimeter. The project will be accomplished by an installation of CCTV within and around the airport.
The project plan
Goals and objectives of the project
The goals and the objectives of this project are strategically defined in line with the overall business goals and objectives of the organization. The organization is a provider of transport services to passengers and goods. Thus, it aims at increasing its market share by attracting and retaining many clients in order to ensure sustainability of its operations.
In order to achieve this, the organization intends to provide high quality services to its customers. It also aims at providing a safe working environment for its employees. It is the need of the organization also to operate according to the legal provisions within the United Arabs Emirates and across the borders. An improvement on the airport facilities is one of the measures for ensuring that these business objectives are achieved.
The perimeter fencing helps in preventing crimes and terrorist attacks thereby improving security at the airport. This is a busy airport serving several passengers and a number of air cargos with millions of tons of freight and mail. Proper perimeter fencing of the airport will improve on the international recognition of the facility.
The airport is a source of employment for thousands of people and a key contributor towards economic development. The safety at the airport is thus very essential in the local and international scene.
High level of security in the airport will define the quality of services provided to the customers. More clients will be attracted to the services of organization thereby increasing the market share of the organization. This is in line with the business objectives.
Assessment of the business case for the project
Reasons for the project
The perimeter-fencing project is important for a number of reasons. One reason of the perimeter fencing is enhancement of security (Free No-Hassle Estimate, 2011). The completion of the projects will ensure that only authorized genuine travelers are allowed into the airport. Another reason that is also related with security is the privacy of the airport.
The airport is fenced to ensure privacy of some of the operations. Planning of crimes and other terrorist attacks can be minimized of some of the operations such as preparations for departure are kept private. This achieved through proper perimeter fencing. Perimeter fencing is also done for aesthetic purpose (Free No-Hassle Estimate, 2011). It is aimed at improving the physical attractiveness of the airport.
The costs
The project is projected to cost about Dh. 100million. The airport is intended to have a double fence, a concrete wall, and an electric powered chain link. The amount is subdivided to different activities within the project.
This include purchase of construction materials for the concrete wall (Dh 30 million), payment of salaries and wages for the laborers during construction (Dh 24 million), purchase of materials and construction of electric fence (Dh 20 million) and installation of CCTV (Dh 20million). The remaining Dh 6million is left to cater for the emerging issues during the execution of the whole project.
Benefits of the project
As has been stated, the project has certain benefits to the organization. It will save the organization the losses that are incurred due to crimes carried out in the airport. This initiative will also ensure compliance with legal provisions. As such, the organization is not bound to suffer other losses like fines by relevant regulatory agencies.
The improved security and the attractiveness of the airport will attract more clients to the organization. This will increase the sales at the organization thereby ensuring sustainable operations.
The improved working environment will also boost the morale of the airport workers who will in turn deliver their duties responsibly. This will improve on the total output of the organization. Thus, there is linkage between security at the airport, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction in the organization.
Timescales
The project will be implemented in the FY 2011/2012. The project is intended to take a period of about 10 months. However, the benefits of the projects will not be evidenced immediately after its completion. The improved sales and increased customer satisfaction will be evidenced at least a year after the completion of the project.
Investment appraisal
The organization could carry out, including forgoing the perimeter fencing completely, other alternative projects. It could employee security officers to patrol the areas surrounding the airport in order to detect and prevent intended terrorist attacks and other criminal acts. This is not only costly but also unreliable due to expanse of the surrounding geographical area.
The intended project has to be beneficial to the organization. In deed, the perimeter-fencing project is among the most critical. It is estimated that rate of return on this will be about 40% annually. On the hand, the losses that can be associated with forgoing the projects are huge, irregular and may not be predicted.
Assumptions and constraints
The business case is based on certain assumptions. Firstly, it is assumed that it is a legal requirement to fence facilities like airport. It is also assumed that the management of the organization is willing to implement the project given the necessary resources. It is also assumed that resources are available. However, the extent of the operations will be regulated by the scarcity of the available resources.
The appropriate project planning and management tools
The project can be easily managed if it is broken down into simpler subdivisions of project tasks termed as activities. The whole project is divided into two broad categories of activities corresponding to the construction of the two fences. The perimeter-fencing project starts with the construction of inner concrete wall. The activities corresponding to the construction outer fence begin after the trenches have been laid.
It is important that the project should be completely exhausted so that all the tasks are included in some activity (Construction planning, n.d). Some of the activities that constitute the whole project have some relations. There are activities that have to be carried out before others can be initiated whereas other activities can be performed simultaneously.
There are estimates for the duration to be taken by each of the activities that make up the project. Some activities may not have duration but have to be categorized as activities since the commencement of other activities will depend on them (Construction planning, n.d). There are activities whose start time or completion time can be delayed without affecting the completion time for the project.
On the other hand, there activities whose start and finish time cannot be delayed without delaying the whole projects. These are termed as critical activities and a trade-off of resources can be carried out to ensure that there executions are not interrupted.
It is important to identify such activities that depend on the completion of other activities in the entire project chain without time floats. This is necessary to estimate the total project completion time.
The project has been broken down to different activities. Some of the activities involve other separate tasks that have been grouped together. The activities involved in the project and their estimated durations in weeks are provided here below.
- Conducting training and education on project management to different personnel within the organization (3)
- Procurement of construction materials for the concrete wall (2)
- Recruitment of skilled professionals (4)
- Recruitment of unskilled laborers (3)
- General excavation and demolishing the existing fence (3)
- Excavation for the utility trenches (4)
- Construction of the wall (18)
- Procurement of the construction materials for the outer chain link fence (3)
- Placement of the framework for the fence (3)
- Construction of the fence (3)
- Installation of the electric powered fence above the chain link (2)
- Constructions of gates (6)
- Installation of CCTV (2)
The above activities have precedence relations that can be defined as follows. The management of the projects will be accomplished by the personnel in the organization and not the hired professionals. It is then necessary to have the different individuals trained before the other activities of the projects can be carried out. Thus, activity A will be the predecessor of all the other activities in the project.
Activities B, C, and D can all be done simultaneously after A. Activity E can only be performed after C and D are accomplished since the excavation will require both skilled and unskilled laborers. The excavation for utility trenches (activity F) then follows activity E. The activity G involves the construction of the concrete wall as well as making installations like lighting system.
Activities H and I can be performed simultaneously after the completion of activity F (Excavation for the utility trenches). The completion of both activities is necessary for the commencement of activity J. Gates will be constructed corresponding to the two layers of fences. Thus, the commencement of activity K has to follow the completion of the activities G and J. the last activity in the project will the installation of CCTV (activity M).
Monitoring and control of the project
A critical path analysis of the network developed by the above activities indicates that the activities A, C, E, F, G, L, and M fall on the critical paths and the total estimated completion time for the project is 40 weeks. The available resources will be channeled more towards these crucial activities in order to ensure that the set duration of ten months is not exceeded.
Some of the have floats and can be delayed for sometime without delaying the whole project. For instance, the start of activity B can be delayed by a maximum of two weeks without affecting the successive projects.
Activity D may also be delayed by one week without affecting activity E. The floats will enable the monitoring and evaluating team to allocate much resource like human hour on the crucial activity to improve the completion time for the project.
To monitor the progress of the activities, a Gantt chart will be helpful in providing a visual impression of the activities that should have been performed at a given time (GANTTCHARTS, 2011). The Gantt chart indicates the activities that can be delayed without affecting the project completion time. It shows the starting dates and expected completion dates of the activities (Ganttcharts, 2011).
The Gant chart will also indicate the dependency between different activities in the whole project (Sodipo, 2008, p.158). It is then possible to crass the project depending on the resources available. This involves performing a trade-off between time and the available resources until it is uneconomical to reduce further the duration.
Managing risks
The project may fail to be implemented even if the resources are available. This happens since the different stages of the project from its definition and diagnosis to the implementation and final usage involve different individuals. Different levels of stakeholders exist in the process of executing the project. This includes the primary stakeholders, secondary stakeholders and the peripheral stakeholders.
Some failures may occur due to a misunderstanding among different stakeholders. This misunderstanding is in turn caused by poor and untimely communication between the key stakeholders. The failures may be minimized through proper identification of the objectives of a given project and the key stakeholders of the project.
In this case, an effective means of communication is then identified that ensure a common understanding of the project and its objectives by all the concerned personnel. The timely communication will enable the concerned individuals to provide their opinions concerning the intended project. It will be possible to learn about the opinions that are opposed to the project.
The conflicting issues that arise may be ironed in time in favor of the project. The different individuals concerned with this particular project have been identified. The different boards have an effective communication with each other and the arising issues can be tackled easily.
Failures are also avoided by allocating the responsibilities to the right individuals. Most of the activities involved in this project require expertise in the relevant areas.
Proper care will be taken to ensure that the right professionals and skilled workers are hired to carry out such activities. The human resource section in conjunction with the IT Project manager will be responsible for the recruitment of the right professionals for the different assignment.
Conclusion
The importance of this project for improved operations at the airport is evidenced. The success of the project will depend on the cooperation of all the stakeholders involved in the project. Proper communication of the intended projects to the various stakeholders is essential in ensuring its success. There is need to have a proper coordination of all the activities involved in the organization.
Much attention should be given to the critical activities that have been identified in the project. It is also important to examine the previous projects that had been carried out and the challenges that were faced. The failures for this project can be anticipated from the failures that have been experienced in the other projects that have been carried out by the organization.
Reference List
Advanced Perimeter Systems Limited. 2011. Perimeter Fencing, Electric Perimeter Fencing, Perimeter Management CCTV. Web.
Connecting with flydubai. 2011. Emirates can now provide through connections to selected flydubai destinations. Web.
Construction planning. N.d. Defining precedence relationship among activities. Web.
Flemming, A., 2009. Fly Dubai – Low Cost Airlines Information for Fly Dubai. Web.
Free No-Hassle Estimate. 2011. Perimeter fencing. Web.
Ganttcharts. 2011. About Gantt charts. Web.
Sodipo, E., 2008. Project Management Explained. NY. Web.