Page 192 - Writing Winning Business Proposals

Writing the Methods Slot 183

Composing the P-Slots for Task 5: Develop a Plan
to Implement the Selected Option

Merely defining the best facility option for ABC won’t be enough. They will need
to know precisely how to implement the selected strategy, and they will look to
Paramount to provide that direction. Since space, equipment, new technology,
and people probably will be added in stages during the forecast period, ABC will
want to know just when and how much new capital and additional manufac-
turing resources will be needed over that time period. You feel confident that
carefully worded statements based on this need will provide an impressive open-
ing P-slot.
Your closing P-slot will stress that completing this task is most important to
ABC. It will provide them with an accurate, carefully defined road map showing
precisely how to implement the facility strategy in a timely, efficient, and cost-
effective manner. The draft of the final task looks like this:

Task 5: Develop a Plan to Implement the Selected Option
Because the additional manufacturing resources required will likely be
brought onstream at various times throughout the forecast period, ABC will
need a carefully prepared plan to monitor progress during implementation.
To that end, we will prepare a plan to ensure that additional manufactur-
ing resources and facilities are in place when and where they are needed to
meet forecasted demand. The various steps in our implementation plan will
be time-phased so that management will know precisely when additional
capacity is required and when other managerial decisions and actions are
needed.

Specifically, we will:

◉ define the tasks necessary to implement the selected option
◉ define the resources and responsibilities necessary to complete those
tasks
◉ develop a critical path to estimate the time required to complete all tasks

As a result of this task, management will know all the tasks required to provide
the additional manufacturing resources, when each task should be initiated
and completed, and the skills required to complete each task. The imple-
mentation plan will provide you with a critical mechanism to monitor overall
progress, to efficiently invest required capital and other resources when they
are needed, and to take corrective actions if actual market demand differs sig-
nificantly from that projected.