Exercises: Project documentation

List the five basic documents of a technology project (report, drawings, list of materials, planning schedule, and budget) and write a sentence explaining what each contributes and who would need it.

Match each document to its content and justify one of the pairs: (a) report: justified account of the whole process; (b) drawings: technical drawings with the measurements of the object; (c) list of materials: everything needed, with quantities; (d) budget: itemised costs and their total. Which document would you consult first if you wanted to repeat the project?

The figure shows the planning of a six-week project using a Gantt chart: each row is a task and each column is a week.

Between construction and presentation there is a covered task occupying weeks 5 and 6: testing the object and correcting any errors that appear. Explain what is done in this task, why it is useful for it to overlap slightly with construction, and the risk of planning without allocating time for it.

Explain what a Gantt chart is: what each row and column represents, what it means when two bars overlap in time, and why it helps to know if a project is running behind schedule just by looking at it.

Order the parts of a project report and explain what each one describes in one sentence: conclusions and difficulties, project objective, chosen design, construction process, final budget.

A list of materials is used for buying items without forgetting anything or having leftovers. State the minimum four pieces of information each line must have (item name, quantity, specification or measurement, unit price) and write three example lines for a wooden coat rack.

Explain the difference between a rough sketch or draft (a quick freehand drawing for brainstorming) and a final technical drawing (an exact, dimensioned drawing for manufacturing), and explain why both are necessary and neither can replace the other.

A classmate wants to repeat your project from last year using only your document folder. Explain which documents they will review and in what order, and what will happen if any of them is missing.

Complete the budget for a wooden laptop stand: (a) two pine boards at $8\ \text{€}$ each; (b) a box of screws at $4\ \text{€}$; (c) half a tin of varnish if a whole tin costs $7\ \text{€}$; (d) four rubber feet at $0{,}50\ \text{€}$ each. Calculate the subtotal for each item and the total, and explain why 'a box of screws' appears in the list even if you only use eight.

The chart shows the breakdown of the budget for a plant trolley, with the total covered.

Calculate the total budget, state which item accounts for the largest share, and propose two specific changes that would lower the budget without ruining the project, explaining how much each would save.

In project planning, the task 'purchasing materials' overlaps with 'finishing the drawings'. Explain why this overlap makes sense (timber can be bought while deciding on the hardware), which task should never overlap with construction, and what happens if two interdependent tasks are planned in reverse order.

Write the 'objective' section of the report for a specific project: an adjustable tablet stand made from recycled materials. Write between four and six lines addressing what problem it solves, for whom, under what material constraints, and how it will be known to work.

A budget overlooks two things: VAT on materials and the tools that will need to be bought. Explain how each oversight disrupts the budget (one inflates all items by a percentage; the other can double the cost if an expensive tool is missing) and what 'contingency' item you would include in your budgets.

Your class is organising an end-of-term party over four weeks. Create a schedule with five tasks (choosing activities, budgeting, purchasing, preparing the venue, party), assign them weeks using a Gantt chart described in text, and justify which tasks can overlap and which cannot.

Describe a simple shelving unit: two side panels of $60\ \text{cm}$, three shelves of $50\ \text{cm}$, twelve screws, glue, and four bracket supports. Write its full list of materials with quantities and specifications, and add a line for 'tools required', which are not purchased but condition the project.

A project must be completed in six weeks and the workshop is only available for two hours per week. Explain how this restriction conditions the planning (what tasks can be done outside the workshop: design, report, purchasing) and how you would show this on a Gantt chart.

You must prepare a comparative budget to build 10 nest boxes in the workshop. Option A uses new plywood boards: material cost of $24\ \text{€}$, estimated manufacturing time of $10\ \text{h}$, and a $5\ \%$ scrap rate (cutting waste). Option B reuses pallet wood: material cost of $0\ \text{€}$, but requires $8\ \text{€}$ in water-based fungicide treatments, specific screws for $6\ \text{€}$, a working time of $22\ \text{h}$ (dismantling, de-nailing, sanding), and a $25\ \%$ scrap rate due to cracked boards. If labor is valued at $5\ \text{€/h}$ and a $10\ \%$ contingency is added to the accumulated total cost of each alternative: calculate the unit cost per box for each option and technically justify which one you should choose if the workshop only has 14 class hours available for the entire term.

A classroom team presents the preliminary project for a self-watering planter for technical validation. When auditing the folder of project documents, you detect three serious inconsistencies among them:

1. On the dimensioned part drawing, the inner reservoir has a diameter of $12\ \text{cm}$, but the bill of materials lists a standard $8\ \text{cm}$ bottle.

2. The budget includes hot-melt adhesive, but the technical process sheet specifies heat-welding the polypropylene parts to ensure watertightness.

3. In the Gantt chart, the filling and watertightness test is scheduled for the same assembly session, before the sealants have cured.

Explain the real impact that each contradiction would have if moving directly to manufacturing in the workshop, and write down the precise corrections that must be recorded in the technical report.

Analyze the following schedule proposed by a 3rd-year ESO team to build an electromechanical prototype in 6 weeks (12 workshop sessions):

Identify three methodological flaws in precedence and risk management in this chart. Justify the practical consequences that the team will suffer in the workshop with this distribution, and develop a corrected version in a table, justifying the overlaps between phases.

An industrial workshop agrees to manufacture a pre-series of 500 coat racks based on your classroom prototype, but returns the technical dossier stating that mass production is unfeasible with that documentation. They point out three deficiencies:

1. a) The drawings have nominal dimensions without dimensional tolerances ($\pm 0,5\ \text{mm}$).
2. b) The bill of materials generically indicates "wood and screws", without standardized commercial references or finishes.
3. c) The budget charges the entire cost of special tools to a single unit instead of apportioning it.

Explain what extra costs and assembly line failures each of these three omissions would cause, and write a corrected example for each case as required by a technical office.

A 3rd-year ESO school cooperative manufactures wooden phone stands and decides to sell them at $12\ \text{€}$ per unit, estimating that it spends $5\ \text{€}$ on wood and screws per stand and that the remaining $7\ \text{€}$ is pure profit. Upon reviewing the figures, they discover losses. Analyze the mistake based on these real unallocated costs:

• Labor: $45\ \text{min}$ per piece at a rate of $8\ \text{€/h}$.

• Overhead costs (wear of drill bits, sandpaper, glue, and electricity): $1,20\ \text{€}$ per piece.

• Scrap due to defective parts: an additional $10\ \%$ on direct manufacturing costs (materials and labor).

• Taxes: $21\ \%$ VAT on the final selling price.

Calculate the real unit production cost, determine how much money they were losing on each stand sold at $12\ \text{€}$, and set the new retail price (RRP) that guarantees a net profit of $15\ \%$ before taxes.

During the stress test of a toothpick bridge with a $40\ \text{cm}$ span, the structure fails at $18\ \text{N}$ (approx. $1,8\ \text{kg}$). After the test in the workshop, two technical facts are confirmed:

1. The wooden members did not fracture, but the joints of the lower nodes detached cleanly, revealing glue applied in a thick layer without clamping, tested after $12\ \text{h}$ of drying instead of the recommended $24\ \text{h}$.

2. The upper truss suffered lateral buckling (it bowed to one side) seconds before the collapse of the nodes.

Write the "Incidents, failure analysis, and improvements" section of the technical report: determine the physical or process cause of each problem using structural technical terminology, and detail two specific modifications (one design-related and one manufacturing-related) for version 2.0.

Two team members (Operator A and Operator B) must manufacture an articulated support in 4 workshop sessions of 2 hours each (8 hours in total). The required tasks are:

• Task 1: Marking out and cutting profiles (2 h, 1 operator).

• Task 2: Drilling and deburring (2 h, requires Task 1, 1 operator).

• Task 3: Sanding and anti-rust treatment (2 h, requires Task 2, 1 operator).

• Task 4: Assembly and riveting of the structure (2 h, requires Task 2 and strictly requires both operators at the same time for safety reasons).

• Task 5: Mechanical tests and final adjustments (2 h, requires Task 3 and Task 4, 2 operators).

Demonstrate by means of a session-by-session assignment table whether it is possible to finish within the 4 planned sessions without violating dependencies or safety rules. Identify the critical path and propose what reorganization or splitting of tasks would make it possible to avoid idle times for stopped operators.

A 3rd-year ESO group receives the technical dossier from the previous year to build an exact duplicate of a programmed traffic light with electronic control. The folder only contains the program code, a photo of the finished prototype, and the overall budget of expenses. When attempting to manufacture it in the workshop, three problems arise:

1. The LED diodes burn out when connected to the power supply because the value of the associated resistors is not listed.

2. The 3D-printed enclosure does not close because the screw holes do not align with the perforated board.

3. When soldering the components, the printed circuit board traces deteriorate due to applying heat in the wrong order.

Indicate which specific technical document was missing from the dossier for each of the three problems, what standardized data each document should have contained, and draft the circuit's process sheet with precise instructions to avoid soldering damage.

Unit challenge. Redesign an everyday object from your study area (for example, a phone stand or a pencil holder) to adapt it to your actual needs, applying the technical project methodology.

1. Object analysis: Select the object and carry out its formal, technical, and functional analysis. Accurately measure its actual dimensions (width, height, and depth in $\text{cm}$, for example $12,5\text{ cm}$) and identify ergonomic or usability flaws.

2. Data collection: Design a short $3$-question survey for $3$ users at your home regarding the comfort and usefulness of the object, recording the answers in a table.

3. Design and technical documentation: Propose an improved version that solves the detected problems. Draw a dimensioned freehand sketch or create the digital 3D model using Tinkercad.

4. Final report: Write a brief technical document in LibreOffice Writer (maximum two pages) that compiles the initial analysis, the user data table, the drawing or screenshot of the redesign, and a justification of the improvements introduced.

Assessment criteria:

• Thoroughness in the technical analysis and accuracy in measuring the original object.

• Orderly collection of real data and consistent identification of needs.

• Quality and clarity of the graphic documentation (dimensioning or 3D modeling).

• Reasoned justification of the feasibility and usefulness of the new design.