Case Study #1 - R.C. Coleman Project Management R.C. Coleman distributes a variety of food products that are sold through grocery store and supermarket outlets. The company receives orders directly from the individual outlets with a typical order requesting the delivery of several cases of anywhere from 20 to 50 different products. Under the company's current warehouse operation, warehouse clerks dispatch order-picking personnel to fill each order and have the goods moved to the warehouse shipping area Because of the high labor costs and relatively low productivity of hand order-picking, management has decided to automate the warehouse operation by installing a computer-controlled order-picking system, along with a conveyor system for moving goods from storage to the warehouse shipping area R.C. Coleman's director of material management has been named the project manager in charge of the automated warehouse system. After consuting with members of the engineering staff and warehouse management personnel the director compiled a list of activities associated with the project. The optimistic, most probable and pessimistic times (in weeks) have also been provided for each activity. 4 8 16 ? 6 2 8 6 24 D C 10 E 4 6 8 C 4 6 H 4 6 4 6 14 H 3 4 5 K 2 4 6 Immediate Most Activity Description Optimistic Pessimistic Predecessor Probable Determine equipment needs ? 6 Obtain vendor proposals 8 Select vendor A,B 4 Order system E Design new warehouse layout 7 10 13 F Design Warehouse G Design computer interface 20 Interface computer D, F, G Install system D, F j Train system operators Test system Develop a report that presents the activity schedule and expected project completion time for the warehouse expansion project. Include a project network in the report. In addition, take into consideration the following issue. 1. R.C. Coleman'stop management established a required 40-week completion time for the project. Canthis completion time be achieved? Include probability information inyour discussion What recommendations do you have if the 40-week completion time is required? 2. Suppose that management requests that activity times be shortened to provide an 80 percent chance of meeting the 40- week completion time if theva ance in the project completion time is the same as you found in part (1), how much should the expected project completion time be shortened to achieve a goal of an 80 percent chance of completion in 40 weeks? 3. Enrichment Using the expected activity times as the normal times and the following crashing information, determine the activity crashing decisions and revised activity schedule for the warehouse expansion project. Activity Crashed Activity Time Costs (weeks) Normal 1,000 1,900 1,000 1,800 1,500 2,700 D 2,000 3,200 5,000 8,000 3,000 4,100 8,000 10,250 5,000 6,400 10,000 12,400 4,000 4,400 5,000 5,500 Crashed A 4 B C 7 2 8 7 E F 4 G 5 H 4 1 4 3 K 3