Quantitative Methods for Business (BA168IU)

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Quantitative Methods for Business (BA168IU)

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CHAP 12: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Problem 1:

Sid Davidson is the personnel director of Babson and Willcount, a company that specializes
in consulting and research. One of the training programs that Sid considering for the middle-
level managers of Babson and Willcount is leadership training. Sid has listed several
activities that must be completed before a training program of this nature could be
conducted. Besides that, he was able to determine the activity times for the leadership
training program. he would like to determine the total project completion time and the
critical path. the activities, immediate predecessors and activities times appear in the
following table:
Activity Immediate Times (days)
predecessors
A --- 2
B --- 5
C --- 1
D B 10
E A,D 3
F C 6
G E,F 8

Problem 2

Monohan Machinery specializes in developing weed harvesting equipment that's used to

clear small lakes of weeds. George Monohan, president of Monahan Machinery, is
convinced that harvesting which is far better than using chemicals to kill weeds. Chemicals
cause pollution, and weeds seem too grow faster after chemicals have been used. Gẻoge is
contemplating the construction of a machine that would harvest weeds on narrow rivers
and waterways. the activities, immediate predecessors, and activity times that are
necessary to build one of these experimental weed-harvesting machines are listed in the
following table
Activity Immediate Times (days)
predecessors
A --- 6
B --- 5
C A 3
D A 2
E B 4
F B 6
G C, E 10
H D, F 7
a) Construct a network for these activities.
b) Determine ES, EF, LS, LF, and slack for each activity
c) Determine the total project completion time and the critical path
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Problem 3
Tom Schriber, a director of personnel of Management Resource, Inc., is in the process of
designing a program that its customers can use in the job-finding process. Some of the
activities include preparing resumes, writing letters, making appointments to see
prospective employers, researching companies and industries, and so on. Some of the
information on the activities is shown in the following table:
Activity DAYS Immediate
a m b predecessors
A 8 10 12 ---
B 6 7 9 ---
C 3 3 4 ---
D 10 20 30 A
E 6 7 8 C
F 9 10 11 B, D, E
G 6 7 10 B, D, E
H 14 15 16 F
I 10 11 13 F
J 6 7 8 G, H
K 4 7 8 I, J
L 1 2 4 G, H

a) Construct a network for this problem.

b) Determine the expected time and variance for each activity
c) Determine ES, EF, LS, LF, and slack for each activity
d) Determine the total project completion time and the critical path
e) Determine the probability that the project will be finished in 70 days or less
f) Determine the probability that the project will be finished in 80 days or less
g) Determine the probability that the project will be finished in 90 days or less
h) Determine the due date for the completion of the project so that there is an 80%
chance of finishing on schedule
i) Determine the due date for the completion of the project so that there is an 90%
chance of finishing on schedule

Problem 4:

What is the minimum cost of crashing the following project by 4 days?

ACTIVITY NORMAL TIME CRASH TIME NORMAL COST CRASH COST IMMEDIATE
(days) (days) PREDECESSOR
A 6 5 $900 $1,000 ---
B 8 6 $300 $400 ---
C 4 3 $500 $600 ---
D 5 3 $900 $1,200 A
E 8 5 $1,600 $1,600 C

Problem 5:
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Development of a new deluxe version of a particular software product is being considered

by Ravi Behara’s software house. The activities necessary for the completion of this project
are listed in the following table:
ACTIVITY NORMAL TIME CRASH TIME NORMAL COST CRASH COST IMMEDIATE
(days) (days) PREDECESSOR
A 4 3 $2,000 $2,600 ---
B 2 1 $2,200 $2,800 ---
C 3 3 $500 $500 ---
D 8 4 $2,300 $2,600 A
E 6 3 $900 $1,200 B
F 3 2 $3,000 $4,200 C
G 4 2 $1,400 $2,000 D,E

a) What is the project completion date?

b) What is the total cost required for completing this project on normal time?
c) If you wish to reduce the time required to complete this project by 1 week, which
activity should be crashed and how much will this increase the total cost?
d) What is the maximum time that can be crashed? How much cost increase?

Problem 6:

Latte Carpet and Trim installs carpeting in commercial offices. Carol Latte has been very
concerned with the amount of time it tool to complete several recent jobs. Some of her
workers are very unreliable. A list of activities and their optimistic completion time, the
most likely completion time, and the pessimistic completion time (all in days) for a new
contract are given in the table below.
Activity DAYS Immediate
a m b predecessors
A 3 6 8 ---
B 2 4 4 ---
C 1 2 3 ---
D 6 7 8 C
E 2 4 6 B, D
F 6 10 14 A, E
G 1 2 4 A, E
H 3 6 9 F
I 10 11 12 G
J 14 16 20 C
K 2 8 10 H, J

a) Determine the expected completion time and variance for each activity
b) Determine the total project completion time and the critical path for installing
carpeting in a large new office building. In addition, determine ES, EF, LS, LF, and
slack for each activity
c) What is that probability that Latte Carpet and Trim will finish the project in 40 days
or less?
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Problem 7:

Bill Fennema, president of Fennema Construction, has developed the tasks, durations, and
the predecessor relationships in the following table for building new hotels. Draw the AON
network and answer the questions that follow.
Activity DAYS Immediate
a m b predecessors
A 4 8 10 ---
B 2 8 24 A
C 8 12 16 A
D 4 6 10 A
E 1 2 3 B
F 6 8 20 E, C
G 2 3 4 E, C
H 2 2 2 F
I 6 6 6 F
J 4 6 12 D, G, H
K 2 2 3 I, J
a) What is the expected time for activity C?
b) What is the variance for activity C?
c) Based on the calculation of estimated times, what is the critical path?
d) What is the estimated time of the critical path?
e) What is the probability of completion of the project before week 36?
f) What is the due date the completion of the project so that there is an 60% chance of
finishing on schedule?

Problem 8:

Tom Sam Manufacturing produces custom-built pollution-control devices for medium-size

steel mills. The most recent project undertaken by Sam requires 14 different activities. The
appropriate data are shown in the following tables.
Activity DAYS Immediate
a m b predecessors
A 4 6 7 ---
B 1 2 3 ---
C 6 6 6 A
D 5 8 11 A
E 1 9 18 B, C
F 2 3 6 D
G 1 7 8 D
H 4 4 6 E, F
I 1 6 8 G, H
J 2 5 7 I
K 8 9 11 I
L 2 4 6 J
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M 1 2 3 K
N 6 8 10 L, M
a) Determine the total project completion (in days) and those activities that lie along
the critical path
b) What is the probability of being done in 53 days?

Problem 9:
Dream Team Production is in the final design phases of its new film, Killer Worms to be
released next summer. Market Wise, the firm hired to coordinate the release of Killer
Worms toys, identified 16 activities to be completed before the release of the film. The
tasks (in time units of weeks) are as follows:
Activity DAYS Immediate
a m b predecessors
A 1 2 4 ---
B 3 3.5 4 ---
C 10 12 13 ---
D 4 5 7 ----
E 2 4 5 ---
F 6 7 8 A
G 2 4 5.5 B
H 5 7.7 9 C
I 9.9 10 12 C
J 2 4 5 C
K 2 4 6 D
L 2 4 6 E
M 5 6 6.5 F, G, H
N 1 1.1 2 J, K, L
O 5 7 8 I, M
P 5 7 9 N

a) How many weeks in advance of the film release should Market Wise start its
marketing campaign? What is the critical path?
b) If activities I and J were not necessary, what impact would this have on the critical
path and the number of weeks needed to complete the marketing campaign?

Problem 10:

A project was planned using PERT with three-time estimates. The expected completion of
the project was determined to be 40 weeks. The variance of the critical path is 9.
a) What is the probability that the project will be finished in 40 weeks or less?
b) What is the probability that the project takes longer than 40 weeks?
c) What is the probability that the project will be finished in 46 weeks or less?
d) What is the probability that the project takes longer than 46 weeks?
e) The project manager wishes to set the due date for the completion of the project so
that there is a 90% chance of finishing on schedule. Thus, there would only be a 10%
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chance the project would take longer than this due date. What should this due date
be?

Problem 11:

Using PERT, Ed Rose was able to determine that the expected project completion time for the
construction of a pleasure yacht is 21 months and the project variance is 4

a) What is the probability that the project will be finished in 17 weeks or less?
b) What is the probability that the project will be finished in 20 weeks or less?
c) What is the probability that the project will be finished in 23 weeks or less?
d) What is the probability that the project will be finished in 25 weeks or less?

Problem 12

A project in James He’s South Carolina company has an expected completion time of 40
weeks and a standard deviation of 5 weeks. It is assumed that the project completion time if
normally distributed.
a) What is the probability that the project will be finished in 50 weeks or less?
b) What is the probability that the project will be finished in 38 weeks or less?
c) What is the due date? The due date for project is set so that there is an 90% chance
of finishing by this date.

Problem 13:

Bowman Builders manufactures steel storage sheds for commercial use. Joe Bowman
Builders is contemplating producing sheds for home use. The activities necessary to build an
experimental model and related data are given in the accompanying table
ACTIVITY NORMAL CRASH TIME NORMAL CRASH COST IMMEDIATE
TIME (weeks) COST PREDECESSOR
(weeks)
A 3 2 $1,000 $1,600 ---
B 2 1 $2,000 $2,700 ---
C 1 1 $300 $300 ---
D 7 3 $1,300 $1,600 A
E 6 3 $850 $1,000 B
F 2 1 $4,000 $5,000 C
G 4 2 $1,500 $2,000 D, E
a) What is the project completion date?
b) Crash this project to 10 weeks at least cost. What is the additional cost?
c) Crash this project to 7 weeks (which is the maximum it can be crashed) at the lease
cost.

Problem 14:
The estimated times (in weeks) and immediate predecessors for the activities in a project
are given in the following table. Assume that the activity times are independent.
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Activity Immediate DAYS

predecessors a m b
A --- 9 10 11
B --- 4 10 16
C A 9 10 11
D B 5 8 11
a) Calculate the expected time and variance for each activity
b) What is the expected completion time of the critical path? What is the expected
completion time of the other path in the network?
c) What is the variance of the critical path? What is the variance of the other path in
the network?
d) If the time to complete path A-C is normally distributed, what is the probability that
the project will be finished in 22 weeks or less?
e) If the time to complete path B-D is normally distributed, what is the probability that
the project will be finished in 22 weeks or less?
f) Explain why the probability that the critical path will be finished in 22 weeks or less is
not necessarily the probability that the probability that the project will be finished in
22 weeks or less.

Problem 15

The Scott Corey accounting firm is installing a new computer. Several things must be done
to make sure the system works properly before all the accounts are put into the new
system. The following table provides information about this project.

Activity Immediate Times (weeks)

predecessors
A --- 3
B --- 4
C A 6
D B 2
E A 5
F C 2
G D, E 4
H F, G 5
a) How long will it take to install the system?
b) What is the critical path?
c) The managing partner of the Scott Corey accounting firm has decided that the
system must be up and running in 16 weeks. Consequently, information about
crashing the project was put together and it’s shown in the following table:
ACTIVITY NORMAL CRASH TIME NORMAL CRASH COST IMMEDIATE
TIME (weeks) COST PREDECESSOR
(weeks)
A 3 2 $8,000 $9,800 ---
B 4 3 $9,000 $10,000 ---
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C 6 4 $12,000 $15,000 A
D 2 1 $15,000 $15,500 B
E 5 3 $5,000 $8,700 A
F 2 1 $7,500 $9,000 C
G 4 2 $8,000 $9,400 D, E
H 5 3 $5,000 $6,600 F, G

i. If the project is to be finished in 16 weeks, which activity or activities should be

crashed to do this at the least additional cost? What is the total cost of this?
ii. List all the paths in this network. After the crashing in part (a) has been done,
what is the time required for each path? If the project completion time must be
reduced another week so that the total time is 15 weeks, which activity or
activities should be crashed? Solve this be inspection. Note that it is sometimes
better to crash an activity that is not the least cost for crashing if it is on several
paths rather than to crash several activities on separate paths when there is
more than one critical path.
Quantitative Methods for Business (BA168IU)
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Quantitative Methods for Business (BA168IU)
TUTORIAL MATERIAL | Powered by Ky Duyen Nguyen
Quantitative Methods for Business (BA168IU)
TUTORIAL MATERIAL | Powered by Ky Duyen Nguyen