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Zodiac Company produces a product that involves various activities shown in the

ID: 455517 • Letter: Z

Question

Zodiac Company produces a product that involves various activities shown in the network diagram below. Based on the information provided on the network diagram, please answer the questions that follow. (The times are in weeks)

A.    Identify the critical path, and determine the project completion time?

B.     Suppose you have encountered unexpected absenteeism and you are compelled to delay the start dates of some activities. Which activities would you consider to delay without adversely impacting the completion time of the project?

         

C.     Determine the slack for the following activities:          

(i)                 activity C

(ii)               activity D

(iii)             activity G

(iv)             activity H

Suppose the customer needed the project sooner than the normal completion time, and has offered to pay an incentive of $500 for each week the project is completed below 100 weeks. Further, suppose that the cost of crashing each task is already computed, and it is found that crashing costs increase when the same activity is crashed for a second or third week as shown in the “Cost to Reduce Activity Duration” table below. Determine the maximum net incentive pay Zodiac would receive.

Cost to Reduce Activity Duration

TASK

FIRST WEEK

SECOND WEEK

THIRD WEEK

A

400

800

1600

B

390

550

700

C

350

450

400

D

100

300

900

E

70

                   400

850

F

250

450

700

G

250

600

900

H

520

700

1500

K

400

650

950

M

200

                   900

1100

Cost to Reduce Activity Duration

TASK

FIRST WEEK

SECOND WEEK

THIRD WEEK

A

400

800

1600

B

390

550

700

C

350

450

400

D

100

300

900

E

70

                   400

850

F

250

450

700

G

250

600

900

H

520

700

1500

K

400

650

950

M

200

                   900

1100

Explanation / Answer

A.    Identify the critical path, and determine the project completion time

Answer :

Paths :

Critical Path :

ACFKM = 92

ACGHM = 92

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B.     Suppose you have encountered unexpected absenteeism and you are compelled to delay the start dates of some activities. Which activities would you consider to delay without adversely impacting the completion time of the project?

Answer :

Activities B , D, E are not coming on critical path . So for delay we can consider  B , D, E without adversely impacting the completion time of the project.

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c)

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D)

Here we have followed a rule that if we crash the activities which are coming on critical path . That will help to reduce the cost . Because all activity on critical path takes more time.

Naturally by crashing all the activity on path , rest of the activities also crashed within time.

So conclusion is that crash the project in 1 week for reducing the cost..

Paths Total ABFKM 10 15 14 20 26 85 ACFKM 10 22 14 20 26 92 ACGK 10 22 24 20 76 ACGHM 10 22 24 10 26 92 ADEHM 10 20 24 10 26 90