Project Management in the Information Age

Project Management in the Information Age

MASY1-GC1250

Summer 2021

Instructor: Larry Mantrone

Project Name: Project proposal

Plan Name: Project Titan – ‘Next Level’ Autonomous Car

Date: Friday, June 04, 2021

Submitted by:

Team Violet: Ruijia (Chloe) Liang, Jing Wang, Xueyu Weng, Qiaoying Chen, Weihao Fang, Tingyu Wang

Team Violet:

Grade: 93 (A-)

You did a good job overall in putting together your proposal. While the scope is probably too ambitious in reality (it’s likely to be a long time before fully autonomous cars will be sold for public use on all roads), you may have the latitude to do so if you wish. However, the autonomous driving feature was not addressed consistently throughout your proposal.

There were a couple of other areas which I felt needed to be tightened up as well. Please review my comments in the margins below for more details. Let me know if you have any questions about my feedback.

Larry

A Working Title: Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: You should have used the template which had the memorandum / report format. That content is required when creating a proposal for an Applied Project Capstone and is expected to be used here.

Apple Car Grand Launching

Name:

Project Titan – ‘Next Level’ Autonomous Car

The company name “the client”:

Apple Inc.

Cupertino, CA, USA.

Name and role of your proposed project sponsor:

John Giannandrea, Apple’s AI and machine learning chief

Sponsor’s location:

Apple Inc.

Cupertino, CA, USA.

Description of the client’s business:

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Starting from 2014, Apple began working on ‘Project Titan’, aiming to launch a ‘very high-end’ electric car.
Goal of the project:
The goal of this project is to develop a customer-facing Apple automotive driving car. Apple is a tech company planning to revolutionize the staid, 130-year-old industry. This will be a sign of how cars will be joining cell phones in morphing into personal computers. Apple is aiming for a “revolutionary design” that could potentially be used in a future autonomous vehicle. The Apple car is designed to operate without a driver. The vehicles will be fully autonomous. The Apple car is designed to be the “next new star” product, and marketed as a “very high end” vehicle. Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: Are you saying that this car would be for use by the general population, not just for businesses or government organizations? If so, you would want to use a term other than “customer-facing”. Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: This passage is unclear and perhaps contradictory. On the one hand, you refer to technology “that could potentially be used in a future autonomous vehicle”. Then in the next sentence, you say “the vehicles will be fully autonomous”. First you need to clarify whether the vehicle you are creating now will be fully autonomous. If it is, you need to at least be aware the ability to create such a car seems to be many years in the future. It is acceptable for you to “push the envelope” and have the goal of your project be something which isn’t feasible right now. I do want to see a clearer definition of what you will create in your project charter.
Projected business benefit of the project:
As a revolutionary fully autonomous car, the design of the product has attracted worldwide attention quickly. The company’s strong brand, deep pockets, and ability to vertically integrate, among other factors, set it apart from other EV startups. So it is a wonderful opportunity for Apple to enter the EV market and expand its market share. Once the project is launched successfully, Apple will be recognized by its technology. And it will obtain more orders on Apple’s other products. Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: Apple isn’t in this market yet, as far as I know, so it isn’t a matter of expanding market share as much as obtaining one. You could also just talk about earning revenue, too.
Brief description of your project:
The apple Apple car is a self-driving car. And this car would let a user input their destination and be driven there with “little or no other engagement.” Apple is going to produce a passenger vehicle that could include its own breakthrough battery technology. The new battery design could “radically” reduce the cost of batteries and increase the vehicle’s range. Moreover, this car will have a wide range of technologies, including silent motorized doors, car interiors sans steering wheel or gas pedals, augmented reality displays. Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: This clearly states you are building a self-driving car. If that’s the route you want to go, fine. You do need to clean up the language mentioned in my comment in the Goal of the Project section. Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: You mention this prominently here but don’t appear to mention it in other sections below.
Relationship to the client:

We are the XXXX engineering team, a team focused on software, hardware design, application, installation, and maintenance. We have participated in several similar electric car projects before, such as Hyundai KONA electric, Kia Soul Ev, and Tesla Model S. Apple invited our team to help with the software design, software testing, Apple car design, and Apple car testing. Since the project is with upwards of 1000 car experts and engineers, our team will be divided into four different groups: the software design group, software testing group, car design group, and car testing group to help other project members develop the apple electric vehicle. Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: Perhaps you could come up with a more imaginative name for your team? Are you a private company of your own? It sounds like that, based on your work with other automobile manufacturers.
Project objectives and description:

Objectives

Description

Target group Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: What do you mean by “target group”? Are these the people doing the work? If so, another label would be better.

Initiating the Apple car project

Starting the project and focus majorly primarily on the risk management throughout the entire project

Project managers

Software Design and performance evaluation

The design process of Titan system, and performance evaluation of the system on the existing electric car from other brands Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: What is the “Titan system”? I know you have named your project Titan and it makes sense to use the name to describe a key software system, but which one are you talking about? Is this the system that enables autonomous driving?

Software design team and hardware team

Exterior and interior design

The design process of apple car’s exterior and interior

Software design team, body design team and hardware team

Close road test and evaluation

Close road tests of apple car

The entire team

Launch conference and production line

Apple car conference and production line

The entire team

Project objectives and Metrics for measuring project success:

Initiating the Apple car project:

1. Set up the project schedule
2. Identify the potential risks of the project (Risk identification)
3. Measure risk likelihood and impact (Risk assessment)
4. Back-up plan is required to reduce risks (Risk control)
5. Conduct final risk report
6. Update the project schedule daily or weekly based on the potential risks and starting in June 2020

Software Design and performance evaluation:

1. Design and develop Apple’s autonomous car system, the process starting in August 2020 and end in December 2021
2. Complete software performance tests before end of August 2022
3. Performance evaluation before the end of August 2022

Exterior and interior design:

1. Exterior design
2. Interior design
3. Final version of Apple car design should be complete before end of December 2022

Close road test and evaluation:

1. Close road tests with Apple car and Titan system
2. Conduct performance evaluation before the end of April 2023
3. Feedbacks from the team and Stakeholders

Launch conference and production line:

1. Apple car launch conference in September 2024
2. Began to roll off Apple car production line in February 2025
3. Supply chain management
   Key roles in the project : Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: Any thoughts about having a project manager? You might also want to define a role for whoever would be overseeing manufacturing. Even if you don’t include the operational process of manufacturing within the scope of your project, there would be a need to coordinate with such a person.

NAME

ROLE

ROLE DESCRIPTION

Chloe

Project sponsor

1.Responsible for the Apple Car project.

2.Ensure the project is progressing as planned.

Wendy

Head of design department

1.Explore exterior and interior for the car to link with Apple design language.

Jack

Head of Technology department

1.Responsible for self-driving software.

2.Responsible for interaction design. Deep integration of the Apple operating system.

Stella

Marketing department

1.Advance publicity. Advertising,

2.Store location

3.Mainly responsible for the procurement of car parts from all over the world

Ellen

Chief engineer

1.Vehicle structure and safety design to follow MDA regularly.

Proposed duration
Project set up 2020.06
Site the plant, recruits the staff 2021.07-2021.11
Project Titan (self-drive software) start 2020.08-2021.12
Titan closed road test in existing car brand.2022.2-2022.8
Exterior and interior design for car 2022.8-2022.12
Closed road test with Apple car 2023.1-2023.4
Road test 2023.5-2024.05
Apple car launch announcement 2024.09
Show car into worldwide Apple Store, online order start. 2024.11
Cars began to roll off the production line 2025.02 Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: Why would it take ten months to deliver cars that had been manufactured to your customers? Also, is development of manufacturing capability part of your project or not? It would be acceptable for that to be a related project within an overall program to design and build the cars.
First Apple Car delivered to the customer. 2025.12
Expected completion date:
December 2025
Resources required:
Human Resources:

· The talents of designing group

· Talents of car engineering group

· Talents of management and leadership

· IT talents

· Accountant

· Talents of car manufacturing workers

· Strict Supervision Team

Funding:

· From the sponsor

Data:

· Analyze the current market of the electric car

· Report of Safety Test

Materials:

· Electric Motors

· Battery Cells & Packs

· AI

· Software
Anticipated Findings:

· Self-driving Tech

· 300 miles on a single charge

· High safety test credits

· High-tech functions

· Link to Siri

· Connect with iPhone
Potential solutions that you will explore:

We will work with a manufacturing partner to produce vehicles. We will hire a supervision team to test the safety of the vehicles. In addition to the strict safety test, we plan to invite both professionals in the vehicle field and Youtubers who are not professionals to try the Apple Car and return the performance evaluations back to us with comments. In order to differentiate from the rival brands, Apple will innovate specific features to its vehicles. Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: That’s a good reason to include some role for that manufacturing partner in your roles and responsibilities table above.

Discuss any limitations you expect to find once the project is concluded:

Project Titan is a time-consuming and risky project. It has plenty of potential limitations such as the power of the rivalry, the little historical datas in new energy vehicles and the large capitalized cost. Apple legs behind its competitors in the autonomous vehicle market so the power of the rivalry is one of the biggest limitations the project will have. Besides, the apple Apple car is an entirely new model of vehicle compared to the fuel-based car, so the little experiences with the product will lead to consumers’ concerns of safety which limits the future sales of the cars. The lack of experiences Apple has in vehicle spaces will lead to a huge capital cost in entering this new market. The vehicle is a new field for Apple, they have no previous experiences in producing a car including the outlook design or the manufacturing. The lack of historical datas will limit their senses of innovating new model vehicles. Comment by Lawrence Mantrone: I’m not sure what this means.