,BTEC Assignment Brief
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma in
Electrical/Electronic Engineering
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma in
Qualification Manufacturing Engineering
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma in
Aeronautical Engineering
Unit number and title Unit 5: A Specialist Engineering Project
B: Develop project-management processes and a design
Learning aim(s) (For NQF solution for the specialist engineering project as undertaken
only)
in industry
Implement project-management processes to develop a
Assignment title
solution for an engineering project
Mark Rosenthal
Assessor
w/c 29th November 2021
Issue date
w/c 13th December 2021
Hand in deadline
Your supervisor is pleased with the work that you carried
out to develop and scope out technical solutions to the
engineering problem you were given. Your supervisor has
now asked you to plan out your project and apply a number
of project-management processes to develop a solution to
the engineering problem that you have already
Vocational Scenario or investigated.
Context You should think through ways to make best use of project-
management processes and generate a design solution
which takes into account contingency and considers
constraints. Remember that there is a possibility that the
solution may be implemented if it is an improvement and
feasible.
You completed a feasibility study on possible alternative
solutions for Assignment 1; you are now to consider
project-management processes before producing a
technical specification and then applying the necessary
tools to design a solution to the engineering problem.
Task 1
To do this:
You will first need to implement appropriate project-
management processes to plan out your project. Your
, planning should include:
● the resources required for the project
● the time scale of activities
● a critical path analysis including milestones
● a consideration of project contingencies and
constraints
● a resource plan which may include reference to the
internet, humans, peers, books and equipment
● a project risk and issue log, considering the
processes to be followed to avoid ‘crisis
management’, and to improve the probability of
success/increase the possible competitive advantage
of the solution.
With your planning completed and the potential risks
identified, you should now apply your understanding of
project-management processes during the design of a
solution to your given engineering problem. This will be
achieved through the production of: i) a technical
specification and ii) a design to solve your given
engineering based problem.
Your technical specification should be appropriate to the
engineering problem, considering factors which should
include:
● function and features, including interfaces
● materials to be used
● standards relevant to the product, system or process
● environmental and sustainability issues
● maintenance and performance requirements.
The technical specification should also consider other
relevant factors such as tolerances, security, operational
conditions, process capability, reliability and capacity.
You should then use your technical specification to produce
an optimised design that solves your given engineering
based problem; this should include sufficient documentation
so that the solution is fully communicated. This could
include the provision of engineering drawings, simulations,
physical models, computer programs, safety information
and other related and appropriate documentation.
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, Full details of the design solution must be provided. The
documentation will take into account sustainability and
contain details of how the solution has been optimised by
iteration within the given constraints set out previously.
Finally, you should include an outline test plan for
destructive and non-destructive tests (as appropriate)
which references the parameters that will demonstrate that
the product, system or process is fully functioning as
expected.
As you progress through the project, you should make sure
that you record in a logbook any problems that you
encounter and how you have overcome these, and you
should keep logging your progress against your plans,
critical path analysis etc. Log entries should be frequent.
You should also note any discussions you have had (for
technical support, progress, feedback etc), and how these
have impacted on the development iterations of your design
proposal.
Your logbook should also include details of your monitoring
of the project and how you managed issues (by prevention,
reduction etc) where the severity risk was identified as
being medium, high or extreme.
Checklist of evidence Project logbook including the development of a technical
required specification that shows the application of project-
management processes with full details of the problem(s)
and solutions, technical support, progress, discussions,
group activities and development iterations.
A full range of design documentation to communicate
the solution, such as engineering drawings, computer-
aided drawings (CAD), simulations, physical models,
processes or computer programs and other
documentation as appropriate (e.g. tables, formulas,
pseudocode, outline of key algorithms, descriptions
etc). A test plan should also be provided.
Criteria covered by this task:
Unit/Criteria
To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to:
reference
5/B.D2 Optimise the project-management processes and design solution while
allowing for reasonable contingency and considering constraints.
Implement project-management processes, including detailed planning
5/B.M2
and monitoring and proactive risk and issue management.
5/B.M3 Design a coherent solution, considering alternative approaches.
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, Implement project-management processes, including planning,
5/B.P3
monitoring and risk and issue management.
Produce the technical specification for a solution to an engineering
5/B.P4
problem.
Produce design documentation to detail the solution, including a test
5/B.P5
plan and taking account of sustainability.
Sources of information Books
to support you with Uher,T. Zantis, A.; Programming and Scheduling
this Assignment Techniques; Routledge 2012; ISBN 9781136860508
Barkley, B.; Project Risk Management; McGraw Hill
Professional 2004; ISBN 9780071436915
Websites
https://www.mindtools.com/critpath.html
https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/10-golden-rules-of-
project-risk-management.php
Above are some examples of websites. Further
useful resources may be found at
http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/publishe
d-resources.html#step1
Other assessment
materials attached to
this Assignment Brief
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, Implementation of Project Management Processes
Project contingencies:
Project contingencies are a key part of the project, and it must be accounted for even though if it
has a very low likelihood of happening. The main purpose of a project contingency is to know
what you will do in a situation where certain equipment breaks down or malfunctions and it will
be out of use for a few days. Based on this you must decide how can you get around these
issues.
• For my project I do not use the CNC milling machine to cut the material however I do use a
machine saw and it is common for it to require a blade change or some minor fix however it
could take days for it to be fixed in some serious cases and by this it could delay my
manufacturing process by days. A way that I can get around it is by using a hax saw due to
the fact the material I am using for the base plate and main body only has a thickness of 10
mm which can be cut using a hax saw however the surface finish will be very poor however
we can improve it using the grinder machine.
• Another very important machine that I require to use frequently is the Pillar drill currently in
the workshop there are 3 pillar drills there is a very low likely hood that all 3 of them will
break down at the same time however if it happens I can still use the CNC milling machines
however then I will require to spend extra time creating a G and M program accurately
which can take up to 1 day to do it and to make sure its correct to my requirements. Due to
the fact that I will be requiring some assistance as I have only created a G and M Code only
once and that had some serious issues in it.
• Another important aspect is a contingency fund which is a fund allocated in case some issues
might occur where you will be required to buy extra parts for your project. Due to the fact
that there are roughly 100 students doing their project the college did not allocate specific
fund for each one, rather they told us to plan our project around the material and parts we
have in the workshop and we were also allowed to make some slight adjustments during the
process to use up the parts we have in the workshop. By doing this it will allow us to save
money and also help the environment by using the parts and materials we have in stock
rather than ordering material and because of transport and manufacture of the part there
will be a lot of CO2 produced and by not requiring delivery we can half the CO2 produced.
• None the less we must also allocate extra time to every process even tough there might not
be any issues it is better to finish a project early and having a good and functional project
rather than completing the project after the deadline and also the project might not
function as desired. By allocating extra time to your project allows you to work stress free
and it allows you to implement changes/ modifications as you will not be under pressure
due to deadlines. Also allocating extra time might also come in handy when you are stuck on
something and you require assistance for a teacher or one of your peers and they might not
be available right away, but you will be able to adjust your time to ensure you remain
efficient.
