INFS3632 Service & Quality Management
A strategy consultancy company plans as project with a new client.
INFS3632 Service & Quality Management
The School of ISTM requires you to submit your homework with
a signed cover sheet, which can be found on Moodle.
Submit a typed hard-copy that contains detail answers for all
questions. You may write equations or draw diagram by hand if
they are deemed too time-consuming to produce.
To facilitate the instructor’s marking, you are required to submit a summary page
(as shown on Page 2), which must be typed and contain no equations and diagrams.
You still need to provide detailed answer for each question that
the instructor will also check.
Organise your submission as follows:
o Signed cover page
o Summary page
o Detailed answers for the questions 1 Name: .
Summary of Answers Question 1
(a)
Activity
A
B
C
D
E
F
G ES EF LS LF Float Critical () Float Critical () Earliest time that the project can be completed = ?
(b) Yes/No and Why?
Question 2
(a)
Activity
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J ES EF LS LF Earliest time that the project can be completed = ?
(b) How long and why?
(c) Which activity and why?
Question 3
Project
duration
14 13
13 12
12 11 Critical path(s) before
crashing Activities
crashed Crash cost
incurred ($) Total crash cost: 2 Question 1 (30 marks)
A strategy consultancy company plans as project with a new client. The following table gives
information on the activities in a project.
Activity
Duration (days)
Predecessors A
25
– B
20
– C
18
A, B D
10
B E
10
D, G F
9
D G
7
A (a) Draw the project network diagram and perform CPM. Fill your CPM result in a table
same as the following one. What is the earliest time that the project can be completed?
Which activities are critical? (20 marks)
Activity
A
B
C
D
E
F
G ES EF LS LF Float Critical () (b) Is the project completion time altered if each activity requires one person working full
time for its entire duration and there are only three employees available to work on the
project? (Hint: draw a Gantt chart) (10 marks)
Question 2 (40 marks)
A publisher is planning to launch a range of handbooks designed for sale as exam aids for
students. The following table describes the activities in this project with times and precedence
relations.
Activity
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J Duration
(weeks)
7
5
6
12
10
16
15
18
9
20 Predecessor
s
C
A, C
B
A, D
D, E
G, H
E, F 3 (a) Draw the project network diagram of this project and perform CPM. Fill your CPM result
in a table same as the following one. What is the earliest time that the project can be
completed? Which activities are critical? (20 marks)
Activity
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J ES EF LS LF Float Critical () (b) If both A and E are delayed by one week (so that their durations become 8 weeks and 11
weeks respectively), by how long, if at all, will the project as a whole be delayed? Why?
(10 marks)
(c) Suppose that, by adding extra resources, any single activity can have its duration reduced
by 5 weeks, but these extra resources can only be assigned to one activity. Explaining
your reasoning, state which activity should be chosen in order to have the largest impact
on project completion. (10 marks) 4 Question 3 (30 marks)
Ridlan Eelctronics produces a variety of medical equipment. Ridlan is proposing to build a
new type of blood analysis machine, suitable for use in developing countries. The activities
required to build a prototype for the new design are shown in the table below.
Activity
(Act)
A
B
C
D
E
F
G Normal
duration
(weeks)
(X)
3
2
2
7
6
3
4 Shortest
possible
duration
2
1
2
3
3
2
2 Cost of
one
week’s
reduction
$600
$700
$75
$50
$500
$150 Predecessors A
B
C
D, E The project network diagram is shown in the following figure with the CPM result. STAR
T $6
0 00
A3
0 3 3 $7
3 5D 10
3 7 10 $7
0 00
B 2
2 2 4 2 E 8
4 6 10 0 C 2
9 2 11 $5
2 00
F 5
11 3 14 $1
1050
G 14
10 4 14 1
FINI
4
SH Legen
d Act EF
ES
LS X LF
Suppose that there is a trade show in 11 weeks time. Based on the project costs, you are asked
to determine the most cost-effective way to reduce the project duration to 11 weeks to finish
the prototype in time. Perform activity crashing to shorten the project duration by one week at
a time sequentially. Summarise your answer in a table similar to the following one. (30
marks)
Project
duration
14 13
13 12
12 11 Critical path(s) before
crashing Activities
crashed Crash cost
incurred ($) Total crash cost: 5 6
