Scope Creep in a Six-Week Furniture Project
A student has six weeks and 18 workshop hours to design and make a small side table for a school cafe area. The brief requires a stable table 450 mm high with a 400 mm square top, made from a single 2400 x 1200 mm sheet of 18 mm plywood, with a finish suitable for daily use. In week two the student decides to add a curved laminated leg, a routed decorative edge, and a small integrated magazine shelf. By the end of week three the curved lamination has failed twice due to springback, the student has used 60 percent of the plywood sheet, and no joinery has been cut. The teacher notes that the cafe opens in four weeks and the table is the only item the student is producing.
1. Diagnose the project-management failure and identify the decisions that caused it.
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The failure is scope creep against fixed time and material constraints. The brief defined a simple table with a 400 mm square top and a single sheet of plywood; the student added three features, each of which consumes time and material without adding to the stated requirements.
The curved laminated leg is the critical error. Lamination with springback is a process with a learning curve, and the student attempted it twice, losing perhaps a week and a significant share of the sheet. The routed edge and magazine shelf add machining and assembly steps that were never budgeted. By week three, 60 percent of the material is gone and no joinery exists, which means the remaining 40 percent must produce the entire structure, including any rework.
The underlying decision errors are: adding features without re-checking the schedule or material budget, choosing an unfamiliar process for a prominent component, and failing to set a stop rule after the first lamination failure. A simple check at week two, comparing planned versus actual hours and material, would have exposed the problem before the second failure.
2. Propose a revised plan for the remaining three weeks and 18 hours that delivers a compliant table, and justify what is cut.
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The revised plan should protect the brief's hard requirements: 450 mm height, 400 mm square top, single-sheet material, stable, and a durable finish. Everything else is optional.
Cut the curved laminated leg and the magazine shelf. Replace the leg with a straightforward tapered or square-section leg cut from the remaining plywood, laminated in flat layers if extra thickness is needed, which avoids springback entirely. Cut the routed decorative edge or reduce it to a simple chamfer that can be produced in one pass. Reserve material first for the top and four legs, then use offcuts for any rail or brace.
The 18 hours should be allocated roughly as: 2 hours finalising drawings and a cutting list, 6 hours cutting and machining, 5 hours joinery and assembly, 3 hours finishing, and 2 hours for contingency and the drop/stability check. The justification is that a plain, well-made table meets the brief and the cafe deadline, whereas an ambitious table that is unfinished meets neither. The cut features should be documented in the portfolio as considered and rejected for time and material reasons, which shows judgement rather than omission.