Analytics Exercise: Product Design Project

You work for a company that makes cell phones and have been made project manager for the design of a new cell phone. Your supervisors have already

scoped the project, so you have a list showing the work breakdown structure, and this includes major project activities. You must plan the project

schedule and calculate project duration. Your boss wants the schedule tomorrow morning!

You have been given the information in Exhibit $4\mathrm{.}13.$ It includes all the activities required in the project and the duration of ench activity. Also,

dependencies between the activities have been identified. Remember that the preceding activity must be fully completed before work on the following

activity can be started.

EXHIBrT $4$:$13$ Work Breakdown Structure and Activities for the Cell Phone Design Project

Your project is divided into five major subprojects. Subproject $"P"$ involves developing specifications for the new cell phone. Here, decisions related to

such things as battery life, size of the phone, and features need to be made. These details are based on how a customer uses the cell phone. These user

specifications are redefined in terms that have meaning to the subcontractors that will actually make the new cell phone in subproject $"$S$"$ supplier

specifications. These involve engineering details for how the product will perform.

The individual components that make up the product are the focus of subproject $"$D$."$ Subproject "I" brings all the components together, and a working

prototype is built and tested.

Finally, in subproject $"$V$,"$ suppliers are selected and contracts are negotiated.

Draw a project network that includes all the activities.

Calculate the start and finish times for each activity and determine the minimum number of weeks for completing the project. Find the activities that

are on the critical path for completing the project in the shortest time.

Identify slack in the activities not on the project critical path.

You have been asked to study the impact of making two changes to how the project is organized. The first change involves using dedicated teams that

would work strictly in parallel on the activities in each subproject. For example, in subproject P $($product specifications$)$ the team would work on P$1,$

P$2,$ P$3,$ and P$4$ all in parallel. In other words, there would be no precedence relationships within a subproject$-$all tasks within a subproject would be

worked on at the same time and each would take the same amount of time as originally specifled. With this new design, all the subprojects would be

done sequentially with P done first, then S$,$ D$,$ I, and finally V$.$ What would be the expected impact on how long it would take to complete the project

if this change were made?

The second change to consider would be to select the suppliers during subproject $P$ and have them work directly with the dedicated teams as

described in step $4.$ This would involve adding an additional activity to subproject $P$ called supplier selection and contract negotiation $($P$5)$ with a

duration of $12$ weeks. This new activity would be done in parallel with P$1,$ P$2,$ P$3,$ and P$4.$ Subprojects S and V would be eliminated from the project.

What would be the expected impact on how long it would take to complete the project if this additional change were made?

Evaluate the impact of making these changes using criteria other than just the time to complete the project. Do you think it would be best to try to

make these changes in how the firm runs this and future cell phone design projects?