Reference no: EM132464355

Problem 1: Bling Bling International Bank and Green Backs Global Bank merged and now must undergo a complex process of integrating their financial processing software systems. Based on a preliminary analysis of the project, the tasks in Table 1 have been identified by the systems integration team. The predecessor information, activity time estimates in weeks, cost of each activity, and the crash cost per day are shown in the table as well.

Question a) Draw the project network. 

Question b) Use the forward and backward pass technique to identify the critical path. 

Question c) What is the estimated project completion time and total project cost? 

Question d) If the crash time is equal to the optimistic time, what is the lowest-cost solution if the bank wants to complete the project 3 weeks early (i.e., State which activities should be crashed, for how many weeks should each be crashed, and what the total project cost would be after crashing)? (Note: Crash the project by hand using a table similar in format to the one shown by Figure 1 below).

Table 1

Activity Predecessor(s) Optimistic Most likely Pessimistic Normal Cost Crash Cost/Day

A - 4 5 6 $400 $750

B A 10 12 14 $1,000 $2,200

C A 6 7 8 $800 $1,100

D - 5 6 7 $600 $1,000

E B, D, C 6 8 10 $1,200 $2,200

F D 2 3 4 $800 $1,000

G D 2 3 4 $500 $650

H E 3 4 5 $400 $600

I F, G, H 5 6 7 $900 $1,300

Problem 2: Cambridge National Bank is a small community bank located in a rural community on the outskirts of Raleigh, North Carolina. The bank has a single customer service representative on site during normal business hours. This individual is primarily responsible for assisting customers who desire to open new bank accounts, modifying existing accounts, and completing paperwork for products offered by the bank. Data were collected during the peak period on a Friday to determine if a single customer service representative is sufficient. The average time between the arrivals of customers needing to speak to the customer service representative was 20.2 minutes and the average time to complete their service was 15.2 minutes. Both times are exponentially distributed.

Question a) What is the average number of customers waiting for the customer service representative? 

Question b) Approximately how long will customers have to wait before being seen by a customer service representative? 

Question c) On average, how long will customers needing a customer service representative be in the bank (includes waiting and service)? 

Question d) What is the expected utilization of the customer service representative?