Levis Jeans Case Study: A Successful Project Management Plan

Question

Task: These jeans were a market failure. Create a project management plan to turn them into success.

Assessment Description
In this individual assessment, students will be given an opportunity to analyse the organisational factors that
promote effective project management by analysing elements of the project management planning and execution phases that may give rise to ethical compromises. More importantly, students will practice creating an integrated project management plans that meet industry standards and objectives.

Assessment Instructions

• Construct a plan to project manage these Levi jeans to success using the five stages of IPECC as per PMBOK.
• Use the criteria for success from assessment 1 and software that would be the best fit for this task from
• assessment 2. Justify both these choices.
• Use research and common sense to find all the data you need for each step in your complete project plan
• There will be additional information which gives a fuller description of the assessment requirements along with KBS presentation guidelines. This will be posted on the myKBS Assessment page.
• Please refer to the marking guide to assist you in completing all the assessment criteria.

Answer

Introduction
The critical evaluation on Levis jeans case study is conducted to prepare a project management plan to turn the product into success. The way a firm or an individual guides the essential assets to create a project a total achievement is known as project management. It covers five stages of starting, plan, implementing, monitoring and finally concluding the project of a team to attain the desired goal and achieve the particular success criteria, in accordance with PMBOK. It is the submission of skills, information, methods, and tools to reach project management. Many times situations arise, when the project managers fail to include the necessary steps or implement the correct strategy which leads to failure of the product, which happened in case of Levis Jeans Type 1. In this project, Levis jeans type 1 has been taken for the Levis jeans case study. Here in this Levis jeans case study analysis it would be discussed how and why the type 1 jeans of Levis were a complete failure and by implementing which strategy would have resulted in its success.

Overview of the Levis jeans case study
Levis undoubtedly is a standard trademark with a remarkable importance around the world. Despite a huge marketing strategy initiated by Levi's in promoting the jeans in the 2000's, it failed to bring the desired result. Since 2013 the sale of Levi's fell by 11%. It was correct on the part of Levis to ignore the choice of the targeted customers (Brooks, 2015).

Along with this there are several other loopholes in the part of designing the type 1 jeans such as unnecessary great lengths, oversized button, red tab, and bold stitch, triggered with price gouging by the retailers, which leads to the failure of the product. Variance with the pricing like the price ranges from $30 to $100 without much difference in the quality of the product.

As per the details provided in the Levis jeans case study, Levis has blamed its ERP system for the substantial drop of the expected result and the failure of the product. The company must have used a wide operational method of record, which would have helped the engagement group to interconnect better with the users and understand the market demand (Regan, 2015).

Project starting phase
The initial stage in project management life cycle is the project initiation, which includes planning up a new project. This phase forms the base of the project; the project is approved or rejected based on this. It mentions the requirements of the projects which include goals, objectives, timeline and cost to carry out the project (Weninger, 2015). Along with this, it also helps manage the available resources of the plan for improved development. So, for inducing the product illustrated in the Levis jeans case study, Levi's supervision team could have carried out correct tactical planning, to know about the market demand. And also Levis could have put back its obsolete manual techniques and taken up contemporary tools for procurement the completed items. This could have given the products a better look (Onalaja, 2018).

Project administration planning
After the phase of the task opening arises the stage of plan managing phase. This includes scheduling how the project would be accompanied and who would be involved in carrying out the programme. The project managing team agrees the strategy beforehand this is obtainable to the project guarantor to become authorized. The team members are presented with a well-planned guideline of the project which explains in which gives a sense of way in which the project has to be passed out, to gain quality output and handling risk. (Ottosson, 2016).

This has been found out from the Levis jeans case study that there was quite a lot of lack of good statement between the team fellows, along with deprived time management, lack of appropriate marketplace study prior to the launching of the product which added a reason for the failure (Din, 2017). The targeted group of people aged between fifteen to twenty five years of female and male. It has been seen that project management team was unable to conduct a market survey of this type of style they are expecting, as per the core trends at that point of time. It would have been a completely dissimilar scenario if Levis would have applied the prior stated plans.

Project implementation stage
Project execution phase is the process where the project comes into existence by the usage of all resources and deliverables for the satisfaction of their customers. Herein, team members of a project management team are assigned with the job role of allocating the resources and the execution phase is dependent upon the planning phase of the same. 

Considering the project of Levis Jeans type 1, the major issue of the project is the quality for the cost in which the jeans were supplied to the customers. The major complaint from the customers outlined in the Levis jeans case study was that the quality provided was not up to the mark and it was against the brand reputation of Levis. This is also one of the major reasons responsible for the failure of the project. Henceforth, implementation of techniques like lean management, just in time approach, total quality management can be used for the success of the project. Furthermore, the project manager is also required to increase their vision, be a good communicator and make appropriate decisions for the success factor of the project. Maintaining transparency and tracking internal progress might also add to the suitability of the project (Iyer and Banerjee, 2016).

Project control and monitoring process
Corresponding to the main problem underlined in the Levis jeans case study, it could be said that in spite big marketing investments made in 2000s, this product is considered as a market failure. After that, this company is planning to intricate communicative marketing campaign underlined as “Levi’s Type 1 Jeans Gold Rush” in relation with the denim brand’s commercial called super bowl. The project management and controlling steps are detailed below;

Project control standards

• The project management team responsible for the project planning, implementation and results should involve in a division permitted interactive workshop training for the members to educate and train them.
• After that application of the operations for a least of nine successive months should be planned. Additionally, securing supports from targeted community sectors should be preceded, which is accountable for offering access to the target consumers (Perrier et al., 2019)
• The project management should collect fundamental survey information from a selected sample of the target sample. Collection of the results for minimum of one year to aid in the modification of the promotional messages and evaluation development to the success of the campaign goals should be done.
• On the other hand, increasing a minimum of one goal applying the fundamental line information from the target consumers is important as mentioned in the Levis jeans case study to understand the market.
• The project management team with the help of executive team members for this project should work on developing every goal with precise direction of change (both decline and development), underline concentrations on change, recognize the selected consumer base, and be quantifiable from the information sources (Webb, 2017).
• Increment and releasing project resources, consistent with the campaign goals, to be produced at least one time in each six weeks.
• The project manager should make sure that project resources do not involve any unethical appeals as well as do not concentrate on the long-term identified risks related with ATOD application.
• Distribution of the project variables applying at least two message supply sources is important. Supply of messages with the help of sources, which are famous and credible with the selected population, is also included in this stage (Westney, 2017).
• At the end, it is stated herein Levis jeans case study evaluation that reviewing feedbacks on the proposed Communicative marketing campaign messages are important while taking measure for project implementation.

Project monitoring phases
 The project monitoring steps include four different steps that are developing an efficient plan for monitoring the project progression, application of report running mechanism, building recommendations for future change in the project and observing guidelines are followed effectively (Russell et al., 2018). Therefore, it could be said that monitoring process group in Levi’s should initially start their works in performance monitoring. After that evaluation done in this Levis jeans case study analysis, monitoring team for remarketing of jeans type 1 should identify if the project phrases are staying facts to the project planning. As per the third stage in the project monitoring part described above, the project management team in Levi’s should inform if any vacancies are observed and correlative steps should be taken to achieve project operations in relation with the project plan. At the last stage, the project management team should look for extra passes with the help of planning procedure to readjust the entire project goals.

Figure 1: Project monitoring stages
(Source: Russell et al., 2018)

End of the project
The information provided in the Levis jeans case study signifies that the project closing procedure is generally the most frequently avoided procedure in entire project management. The project management team for Levi’s Jeans type 1 remarketing should oversees that if the project goals met with the needs and requirements, project closure with collecting informative data for future reference. The project closure should include all the core outcomes form project planning to execution stages and the time of ending procedures that could be evaluated and used to avert important challenges in case of market acceptance of Levi’s jeans type 1 in the future (Kerzner, 2017). In this stage contract closeout happen and official reception along with approval is done from the project shareholders.

Clarizen project management software application with Levi’s Jeans type 1 remarketing
The criteria for success in the previous study are related to application of Clarizen project management software in the project management phrases. It has been underlined that, in project planning, execution and initiation stages, this software could be applied. On the other hand, this software could help in management of workloads, effective use of resources for the project and application of developed marketing design for Levi’s jeans type 1. This is online project management software as discussed in the Levis jeans case study, which will assist the project management team in communicative marketing campaign to simplify operations and achieve objectives. This is an enterprise co-operative work management result, which will permits consumers to share objectives and develop answerability. This software application steps for this campaign are listed below;

• The project management team through Clarizen project management software application will be able to store the survey data regarding consumer preferences and minimize unauthentic interactions (Daradkeh, 2019).
• Through application of this software, the project management team could effectively control individual operations of employees and monitoring the progress of online implementation of the program as well as survey process.
• This software will be effective for this project in minimizing cost of the project phrases and will take less time to complete the project. On the other hand, team communication would be easy through this software management (Daradkeh, 2019).
• At the end, this software will help in supporting with resources for various work styles such as marketing team functions in communicative marketing campaign, human resources team management work, financial team decisions and others.

Figure 2: Clarizen project management software work
(Source: Daradkeh, 2019)

Ethical negotiation factors for this project
The project manager in this project should negotiate continuously, and not just at the time of operating as well as processing out contractual arrangements with shareholders. Increasing a proposal for this project and iterations as well as adjustments is important and will be based on responses of the users to the proposal pitch (Russell et al., 2018). This is important that these ethical resolutions should happen continuously. As per the critical evaluation of Levis jeans case study, the project manager for Levi’s Jeans Type 1 re-marketing should perform negotiating risk trade-offs, which may interfere in financial management, time allocation and others. On the other hand, it could be remembered that stakeholders involved in this process should be reviewed the project changes, scope as well as any deviations during the project implementation.

Conclusion
The above project management study has underlined various shortcomings of the decision-making process and project execution as well as planning for the marketing of Levi’s Jeans Type 1. In this Levis jeans case study analysis, it has been identified that project planning, execution, implementation should be done effectively and decision-making should be communicated more systematically. On the other hand, it has been acknowledged that project monitoring and control stages should be processed with proper judgment and following proper steps. The Clarizen project management software application has also been meticulously and effectively detailed in this project with adequate information. This study, additionally, has pointed out the fact that project management phrases and necessities should be understood by all the members and groups involved in the process for the planning to the project closure. Finally, this study has been helpful in revealing the importance and specifications of project management in the fast forwarding business world with supportive examples from the Levis jeans case study.

References
Brooks, A., 2015. Systems of provision: Fast fashion and jeans. Geoforum, 63, pp.36-39.

Daradkeh, M., 2019. Understanding the Factors Affecting the Adoption of Project Portfolio Management Software Through Topic Modeling of Online Software Reviews. Levis jeans case study International Journal of Information Technology Project Management (IJITPM), 10(3), pp.91-114.

Iyer, K.C. and Banerjee, P.S., 2016. Measuring and benchmarking managerial efficiency of project execution schedule performance. International Journal of Project Management, 34(2), pp.219-236.

Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.

Mun, G.W., Wei, O.C., Jusoh, Y.Y. and Din, J., 2017. A Preliminary Survey on Project Management Practice in Higher Learning Institute. In Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering (Vol. 1).

Onalaja, A., Cheung, W.M. and Samwinga, V., 2018. Identifying Infrastructure project uncertainties during project initiation using system thinking.

Ottosson, H., 2016. Practical project management for building and construction. Auerbach Publications.

Perrier, N., Benbrahim, S.E. and Pellerin, R., 2019. A comparison of project control standards based on network analysis. Go for it: Where IS researchers aren’t researching.

Regan, C., 2015. Role of denim and jeans in the fashion industry. In Denim (pp. 191-217). Woodhead Publishing.

Russell, J., Pferdehirt, W. and Nelson, J., 2018. Critical Project Management Skill: Negotiation. Technical Project Management in Living and Geometric Order.

Webb, A., 2017. Using earned value: a project manager's guide. Levis jeans case study Routledge.

Weninger, C. and Huemann, M., 2015. Project initiation: Investment analysis for sustainable development. In Banking, Finance, and Accounting: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1-17). IGI Global.

Westney, R., 2017. Computerized Management of Multiple Small Projects: Planning, Task and Resource Scheduling, Estimating, Design Optimization, and Project Control. Routledge.