Documenting and Improving a Home
Building Process
Assignment 1 Tasks
Your Consulting Team (three members) has been engaged by Custom-Built Kit Homes (CKH) to produce a business report (up to 25 pages), which will include a comprehensive set of asis process models, detailing CKH’s end-to-end home building process. Your report will be developed from a process description sourced from various key stakeholders.
For this assignment, you are to complete the following two tasks:
Task 1 [Group/Individual] Produce a business report for CKH management detailing the current state of their core home building process, which will include a set of interrelated process models of the end-to-end process. Specifically, your team is to produce:
• A Level 1 model (i.e. a value chain) of the process.
• Collaboration diagrams, using BPMN 2.0, that show, at several appropriate levels of abstraction, how each activity/step in the process is currently conducted. Each model (besides the value-chain) will capture the three main process perspectives (i.e. the control flow, data and resource perspectives).
o Each team member must produce at least one collaboration diagram set.
• A description of the modelling conventions adopted for the process models, to assist readers’ understanding.
• A description of all assumptions made when developing the report, together with justifications for the assumptions made. Include references to any standards and/or frameworks referred to, if any, during the completion of the report.
The collaboration diagrams produced for this report will later (i.e. in Assignment 2) form the basis for a performance analysis of the process, from which a set of concrete improvement & implementation actions can be established.
Task 2 [Individual] Write a personal reflection, that:
• explains your role within the team and what your contributions were to the assignment and to your team (i.e. what parts of the assignment did you complete, what parts did you review/provide feedback on)
• describes what you did to ensure that you worked efficiently individually and with your team to create a cohesive report
• evaluates how efficiently the team worked together to complete the report
• explains each team member's role in the team, how they worked with each other and what they contributed to the team.
Due: 11:59pm Friday 29 April 2022 (end of Week 7)
Background
Custom-Built Kit Homes (CKH) is a company specialising in the construction of small, prefabricated homes, site offices and granny flats. They build each structure to order, entirely on their factory floor, then ship it to its final site for installation. CKH offer 22 different floorplans, any of which customers are free to modify to meet their specific requirements.
CKH was established in 2005. Since 2015, they have been experiencing massive growth in sales, but there has also been a growth in negative customer feedback. The biggest pain points have been found to be:
• There is often an unacceptably long period of time between an initial request for quote and the delivery of the finished home.
• Customers often experience difficulty in finding out the current status of their build.
• Customers report having to deal with a wide variety of CKH employees during the process.
• Customers feel that there is a lack of responsibility taken for the building of their home.
• Costs have been steadily increasing, making CKH less competitive in the market.
CKH management are determined to address these problems and have hired your team to examine their current core process. They have requested a report to be delivered with a summary of findings of current work practice and performance, and some preliminary suggestions for potential improvements, by 29 April 2022.
Interviews with key stakeholders have delivered the following process description.
Process Description
A case starts when a request for quote (RFQ) is received. The RFQ will include the choice of home, a list of variations (that is, relocating walls, increasing or decreasing room sizes and dimensions, and so on), and a list of the fixtures and fittings (e.g. sinks and tapware, oven and cooktop, door handles, benchtops, etc.) chosen by the customer. A customer will complete and submit an RFQ via a form on the CKH website. A Sales Assistant will occasionally check the website for submitted RFQs and, if there are any, will print each one (to a PDF) and send it to the Estimation team for processing. Occasionally, customers will come to the sales office to have a Sales Assistant help them complete the RFQ. In such cases, the sales assistant uses the same website form to prepare the RFQ. An additional fee is charged for this service.
An Estimator will receive the RFQ document and begin preparing a quote for the job. A quote is good for one month from the date it is sent. From the base price of the chosen floorplan, the Estimator will draw the plan, making adjustments from the base plan for any variations, and for fittings & fixtures choices. If the structural changes are large, the Estimator will send the redrawn plan to a structural engineering firm (external to CKH) to check that the plan meets regulatory requirements. If the plan does not meet requirements, the Estimator will make the necessary changes to the plan and resubmit it to the structural engineering firm, until such time the regulatory requirements are met. Once the plan and consequent quote for the job are complete, the Estimator will return the RFQ, the plan and the quote back to the Sales office. A sales assistant will then photocopy the RFQ, plan and quote, then file the copies. The sales assistant will then put the original documents, together with other marketing and informational material, in an envelope for posting to the customer. Once a day, the outgoing mail is collected by a sales assistant and taken to the local post office for mailing.
When a customer receives the quote, they will respond in one of four ways:
1. Accept the quote by signing it and returning it to the Sales Office, either via the post or in person. Accepting a quote also requires the payment of a 30% deposit before work can proceed (see below for more details).
2. Request a variation to the quote by writing the details of the required variations on the quote and/or plans, and returning the document(s) to the Sales Office, either via the post or in person.
3. Reject the quote by ticking a box on the quote and returning it to the Sales Office, either via the post or in person.
4. Do nothing (also effectively a rejection of the quote).
In the case of (1), a Sales Assistant will photocopy and file the accepted quote. Then, they will raise a purchase order (PO) detailing the agreed price, work to be done and other formalities, using information from the quote, and send it to the customer for signature. If the customer does not return the signed PO within one month, the sales assistant will place a cancellation note on the customer’s file, and the case completes at this point. Otherwise, when the signed PO is received from the customer, the Sales Assistant will send it to the Finance Office to await the payment of the deposit. If payment of the deposit is not received within two weeks of the PO acceptance date, a Finance Officer will return the PO to the Sales Office, with a nonpayment advice attached. A Sales Assistant will place the non-payment advice on file, and the case completes at this point. Otherwise, when payment is received from the customer, the payment is processed by a Finance Officer, who will then produce a receipt in triplicate: one copy is sent to the customer via mail, one copy is attached to the accepted PO and returned to the Sales Office, and one copy is placed on file in the Finance Office. On receiving their copy of the receipt, a Sales Assistant will place it on the customer’s file.
In the case of (2), the Sales Assistant will send the requested changes to the Estimators for updating. An Estimator will make the necessary changes to the plan quote, consult the external structural engineering firm if required until approval, then return the updated quote and plan documents to the Sales Assistant. The Sales Assistant will file copies of the documents and return the original documents to the customer in the same way as the original quote. The customer will then proceed in one of the four ways mentioned above. A customer may request a variation to a quote any number of times.
In the case of (3), a Sales Assistant will place the rejected quote on file. The case completes at this point.
In the case of (4), if nothing is heard back from the customer after a period of one month after the quote and plan have been sent, a Sales Assistant will place the “cancellation due to inaction” note on file. The case completes at this point.
When a Sales Assistant receives notice from the Finance Office that a deposit payment has been processed for a PO (from outcome 1 above), the Sales Assistant will send the plans to the local building approving authority (e.g. the local council) to check that the planned home meets all local requirements. There may be several cycles between the Sales Assistant and the local authority until approval is granted.
Once the plan is approved by the local authority, the manufacturing of the home will begin with a Sales Assistant sending the plans associated with the PO to a Production Manager. Each Production Manager is responsible for the entire build of a home from start to finish. A Production Manager will start by creating a work summary (WS) from the plan. A WS will contain a number of items that each detail an aspect of the home to be built (e.g. walls, roofing, plumbing, electrical, etc), and the materials required. From each item in the WS, a work order (WO) is produced by the Production Manager. In other words, one work summary produces multiple work orders. The WO is the document that allows employees to keep track of the manufacturing of a particular aspect of the home requested by a customer.
Before work can begin, a copy of each WO is sent from the Production Manager to a Procurement Officer, who checks each required material item listed in the WO. Most of the required materials are maintained in stock in the CKH warehouse, but occasionally some need to be sourced from one or multiple suppliers. The Procurement Officer determines whether the required material is available in stock or if it has to be ordered. If material has to be ordered, the Procurement Officer consults the Suppliers spreadsheet, selects one or more suitable suppliers for the particular kind of material needed and sends a request for quote to each of the selected suppliers. After two weeks, the Procurement Officer selects the best quote out of the quotes received from the suppliers (if other quotes arrive after this time, they are discarded), and sends a purchase order to the selected supplier (note: this is a supplier PO, which is different to the customer PO). After some time, the supplier delivers the requested materials to the CKH warehouse. Once all materials required to fulfill a work order are available, the Procurement Officer organises for all of the materials listed on the WO to be delivered to the bay (a marked-out area on the factory floor) designated on the WO, and then informs the Production Manager that all materials are available by signing and returning the WO to the Production Manager.
The Production Manager is responsible for scheduling each stage of the build. At the appropriate time, a WO is sent by the Production Manager to the relevant Line Supervisor, who is responsible for managing the team that will produce that item. Once the work detailed in a WO is complete, a notice is sent to the Quality Assurance team to check the work. Occasionally, a Quality Inspector finds a defect in the product and reports it to the Production Manager. When this happens, the Production Manager must decide whether: (i) the build should undergo a minor fix; or (ii) the work should be dismantled and rebuilt. This cycle may continue until the build finally passes quality control. When the work for a WO is complete and approved, the Line Supervisor informs the Production Manager that the WO has been completed by signing and returning the WO to the Production Manager. Once all WOs are complete, the Production Manager will mark the work summary (WS) as finalised. The WS is then sent to the Sales Office so that the delivery and installation of the home can begin.
Once a Sales Assistant has been notified that the build is complete, they will notify the Finance Office to invoice the customer for payment of the outstanding amount, less 10% (to be paid after delivery). Once payment has been received, a Finance Officer will notify the Sales Office of the payment. A Sales Assistant will then raise a deliver & install work order (note: this is a different work order to a build work order).
The home is delivered to the customer in one of two ways:
• Full installation: If a full installation has been requested by the customer, the work order is passed to an Installation Supervisor for processing. In much the same way as a build work order, the Installation Supervisor is responsible for organising teams of workers to prepare the site with the necessary foundations and footings, plumbing and electrical connections, and so on. Once that work is complete, the Installation Supervisor will notify the Delivery team that the homesite is ready for the home to be delivered. The home is delivered, then set on the foundations, and all required plumbing and electrical connections are made. The Installation Supervisor will then contact the local authority to inspect and approve the installation. If the installation is not approved, the Installation Supervisor will organise the necessary team(s) to rectify the issue, then have the local authority reinspect the work. This cycle will continue until approval is granted.
• Do-it-yourself (DIY) installation: In this case, the customer has decided to take care of the organising of all on-site installation requirements. The delivery order is sent directly from a Sales Assistant to the Delivery team. The customer will contact the Sales Office when the site is ready for the home to be delivered, at which point a Sales
Assistant will notify the Delivery team to deliver the home to the customer’s homesite.
Once the home has been delivered, and installed if requested by the customer, a delivery receipt is sent to the Sales Office. A Sales Assistant will notify the Finance Office to invoice the customer for payment of the final outstanding amount. Once the payment has been received, the Finance Office notifies the Sales Office. A Sales Assistant will then place a copy of the final receipt on the customer’s file, which marks the case as completing successfully.
Submission Requirements
• Submit a single PDF file of your report, including all text and models, via the Assignment 1 link on IFN515 Blackboard space.
• Each submission must clearly state which team member completed which section of the process models.
• Each submission must contain a declaration, signed by all group members, stating that they have viewed the final version of the assignment that is to be submitted and that it is entirely their original work (see Appendix B for the declaration template).
• Each team only needs to submit one report (by only one of the team members).
o Team members may submit their Task 2 reflections individually, rather than by insertion into the overall assignment submission, if they wish.
Additional Information
? LATE SUBMISSIONS: According to QUT policies, submissions past the deadline will NOT be marked, and will thus attract a mark of 0/100. Therefore, you are strongly advised to submit your report, even if it is a draft only, by the due date.
? ACADEMIC HONESTY: Any action or practice on your part which would defeat the purposes of assessment is regarded as academic dishonesty. The penalties for academic dishonesty are provided in the Student Rules. For more information consult the Academic Integrity Kit available on the unit Blackboard site, and the QUT Library resources for avoiding plagiarism.
? GROUP FORMATION: Each group will comprise 3 students. Group members who work closely as a team and actively and equally contribute to the assignment work will receive the same group mark for their assignment. Group members who fail to make an active and equal contribution to the assignment work will be assessed only on the part of the assignment work they produce.
Students are recommended to form groups based on their own contacts, and report group members to the unit coordinator by the end of Week 3. Anyone not in a group by the end of Week 3 will be randomly allocated to a group.
? GROUP DISPUTES: Groups must be responsible for resolving their own group disputes. The teaching team will NOT become involved in these disputes.
? GETTING FEEDBACK: The teaching team will be available to answer specific questions about the assignment but cannot pre-mark assignments. The teaching team will NOT read report drafts and review detailed models prior to the submission of the assignment. Detailed feedback will be provided in written form, when the marker returns the marked assignment back to the students.
Appendix A: Sample Report Structure
1. Cover page (1 page) o Title
o Name and Student ID of each team member o Signed declaration of original work (see Appendix B)
2. Executive summary (1 page)
3. Table of contents (1 page)
4. Introduction (1–2 pages) o Purpose of the report o Project goals o Structure of the report
5. Business process modelling (10–15 pages) o Modelling assumptions (0.5 - 1 page)
? Describe in a structured manner, any assumptions made relating to the process or its activities.
o Modelling conventions (0.5 - 1 page)
? Conventions adopted for the process models, with justifications.
o Process models
? Value chain
? Collaboration diagrams laid over different levels of abstraction, and capturing the three main perspectives (i.e. the ‘as-is’ process).
? Process models should be presented in a structured and organised way and, where necessary, accompanied with short explanations. 6. Conclusion (1 page) o Summarise the main findings/outcomes of this report, and if possible, the next steps or future work.
7. References (1 page)
8. Appendices o Task 2 reflection statements
Appendix B: Declaration Template
By submitting this assignment, I am/We are aware of the University rule that a student must not act in a manner which constitutes academic dishonesty as stated and explained in the QUT Manual of Policies and Procedures. I/We confirm that this work represents my individual/our team’s effort, I/we have viewed the final version and does not contain plagiarised material.
Full Name Student No. Signature