Reference no: EM132227973

ALLIED DISTRIBUTING EQUIPMENT, INC.

As the staff assistant to the marketing director of Allied Distributing Equipment, Inc. (ADE), you are to plan and schedule the marketing program for the introduction of a new conveyor system. Together with the marketing director, the sales manager, the advertising manager, and the technical director, you have identified four major parts of the program, and the major activities associated with each. These are described below, with activity identification numbers and durations following the activities in parentheses.

Salesmen Training

The required salesmen training program requires three phases. The first is a refresher course describing ADE’s other products and how the new conveyor system relates to them. The second phase communicates to the salesmen their role in the total marketing program to sell the new conveyor system including sales demonstrations and customer approaches. The third phase familiarizes the salesmen with the customer instruction manuals, which cover the technical aspects of the new conveyor system.

To save time training salesmen, the marketing director asked the sales manager to simultaneously prepare Phase I of the sales training program (1, 8 weeks) and select the salesmen to be trained (2, 2 weeks). These activities both begin at the start of the project you are to design. After their selection, the salesmen are relieved of their responsibilities in their territories and transported to the ADE home office training center (3, 4 weeks).

The salesmen should not arrive for the training program before Phase I is prepared. After it is prepared, and the salesmen have arrived, Phase I (training) is completed (4, 10 weeks). While the salesmen are completing Phase I, Phase II of the training program is prepared (5, 11 weeks). Training in Phase II cannot commence until it is prepared and approved. The marketing manager will not approve Phase II until the general marketing approach is determined.

After Phase I of the training program is complete, and Phase II is designed and approved, the salesmen can begin and complete Phase II (6, 12 weeks). At the conclusion of Phase II, the salesmen are issued copies of the customer instruction manuals on the new conveyor system, and Phase III of the program is then completed (7, 4 weeks). After the training program is complete, the salesmen return to their respective territories (8, 2 weeks), ready to begin their sales effort simultaneously with the national promotion campaign.

Marketing Staff Training

The first step in the project for the marketing staff is determining the general marketing approach (9, 10 weeks). When this is completed, the necessary marketing staff are selected (10, 4 weeks), and transported to the home office-training center (11, 2 weeks).

After the general marketing approach is determined, and while the marketing staff trainees are being selected and transported to the home office, specific training plans for the marketing personnel are consolidated (12, 2 weeks). After these plans are consolidated, a familiarization course for these staff members is designed (13, 8 weeks), and when the staff and the course are both ready, the staff is familiarized (14, 8 weeks).

Advertising Activities

After the general marketing approach is determined, advertising plans are firmed-up (15, 6 weeks). After advertising is firmed-up, a technical paper is prepared (16, 6 weeks) and printed in a professional journal (17, 8 weeks). Also following the firming-up of the advertising plans, national advertising is prepared (18, 13 weeks), approved (19, 5 weeks), and distributed to the proper media (20, 2 weeks).

Not until the marketing staff is trained, the professional paper is published, and the advertising distributed, is the national advertising to be released and printed by the media (21, 2 weeks). The national promotion campaign will not proceed further until the salesmen return to their territories.

Brochure and Manual Planning

After the advertising plans are firmed-up, a general brochure is drafted and approved (22, 4 weeks), following which, the layout of the brochure is designed (23, 5 weeks), and the brochure is printed (24, 3 weeks). As soon as the brochure is approved, the customer instruction manual is to be prepared (25, 3 weeks), approved (26, 1 week), and printed (27, 2 weeks).

Copies of the instruction manual alone are sent to the training center (28, 1 week) as soon as they are printed, for use in Phase III of the salesmen-training program. As soon as both the brochure and the manual are printed, they are packaged together and delivered to the marketing staff for general distribution (29, 8 weeks).

Your Job

Construct a network diagram for this marketing diagram, identifying the activity number for each arrow. Indicate on the diagram the activities on the critical path and the minimum duration required to complete the project.