The organization: Lumi Juice was founded in April, 2013 in Charlottesville, Virginia, by entrepreneur Hillary Lewis. Lumi, which stands for “Love U, Mean It,” was to be a new brand of 100% organic

The organization: Lumi Juice was founded in April, 2013 in Charlottesville, Virginia, by entrepreneur Hillary Lewis. Lumi, which stands for “Love U, Mean It,” was to be a new brand of 100% organic juice. To preserve the juices’ nutrients and flavor, Lumi juices would be produced using high-pressure processing (HPP) instead of heat pasteurization (Grushka-Cockayne, 2015).

The project: The scope of the project was to build a fully-functioning manufacturing facility complete with an HPP machine and to design and bring to market a new line of cold-pressed juices. The goal was to put a product on the shelves of a major national retailer as soon as possible, using a limited initial investment of US$500,000 and only two full-time employees. Lumi would also need to file for approval from both the Virginia Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to comply with the regulation.

The market was extremely competitive. The market size of the super-premium juice category was estimated at US$1.9 billion. The organic health food market represented a US$32 billion industry. While the organic juice market consisted of well-known national brands such as Naked and Tropicana, these brands were heat pasteurized. In the United States, Evolution Fresh, BluePrint, and Suja were newcomers to the organic juice market. They all used HPP technology and were distributed wholesale. Starbucks bought Evolution Fresh in 2011 and launched it in all stores in January 2014. Hain Celestial Group acquired BluePrint for US$109 million in December, 2012. The San Diego-based Suja generated US$18 million in revenues in 2013 and was forecasting revenues of US$70–80 million by 2015. While all brands were experiencing growth, a clear market leader had not yet been established.

Project summary: On June 28, 2013, Lewis scoped out her project using a traditional waterfall approach. After laying out the dependencies and the expected durations of all the tasks, Lewis estimated that the project would take a total of 49 days to implement, suggesting a launch date of September 4, 2013. Unexpected events (such as delays to the shipment of the HPP machine and the need for an extremely uncommon power supply unit) transpired, resulting in delays. Lewis, serving as the CEO and project manager, and knowing which tasks were critical, was able to focus only on those and respond quickly to changes. The first Lumi Juice was sold at Wholefoods on Oct 29, 2013.

Create a SWOT analysis for Lumi Juice based on the information in the case.

Was the project scope rigid or flexible?

Was critical path analysis performed? Why or why not?

Would this be considered a successful project? Why or why not?