Managing new-product development process. Managers often have to oversee a series of related activities directed to a desired goal or output. As a new-product development manager, you are responsible for two sequential steps of the product development process, namely, the development of product specifications followed by the design of the manufacturing process. Let X be the number of weeks required to complete the development of product specifications, and let Y be the number of weeks required to complete the design of the manufacturing process. Based on experience, you estimate the following probability distribution for the first step:

Weeks (X): 1 2 3 Probability: 0.3 0.5 0.2 For the second step, your estimated distribution is Weeks (Y): 1 2 3 4 5 Probability: 0.1 0.15 0.4 0.30 0.05

(a) Calculate μX and μY .

(b) The cost per week for the activity of developing product specifications is $8000, while the cost per week for the activity of designing the manufacturing process is

$30,000. Calculate the mean cost for each step.

(c) Calculate the mean completion time and mean cost for the two steps combined.