Reference no: EM13971315

The following personnel have been assigned full-time to the Red Zuma project team:

• 4 marketing specialists
• 4 design engineers
• 4 development engineers
• 4 industrial engineers
• 4 test riders
• 2 purchasing agent

Use the file from Part 1 and the information contained in Tables A and B to assign resources to the project schedule.

TABLE Red Zuma Project Resources

Note: MS Project considers resources in terms of percentages with one full-time worker being 100%.

TABLE Red Zuma Resource Assignments

Note: Resource assignments without brackets is 100%.

Part A

Prepare a memo that addresses the following questions:

1. Which if any of the resources are overallocated?

2. Assume that the project is time constrained and try to resolve any overallocation problems by leveling within slack. What happens?

3. What is the impact of leveling within slack on the sensitivity of the network?

Include a Gantt chart with the schedule table after leveling within slack.

4. Assume that the project is resource constrained and no additional personnel are available. How long will the project take given the resources assigned? (Hint: Undo leveling performed in Part A before answering this question.)

Note: No splitting of activities is allowed.

5. How does the new duration compare with the estimated completion date generated from Part 1? What does this tell you about the impact resources can have on a schedule?

Include a Gantt chart with a schedule table displaying free and total slack depicting the resource-constrained schedule.

Part B

Top management is not happy with the resource-constrained schedule. Robin Lane, the president, has promised retailers that ARC will begin production in time for the major trade show in Las Vegas on January 22, 2016, which means the project needs to be completed by January 17, 2016. She has authorized working the first available Saturday of each month to help the project get completed sooner. She realizes that this will only reduce the project duration by 12-13 days.

After talking to the engineers, everyone agrees that they do not have to wait for the Detailed Product Design to be 100% completed before starting to build the prototype. The consensus is that Building the Prototype can start 30 days after the start of the Detailed Product Design. Likewise the Final Manufacturing Process can start 15 days after the start of Finalized Product Design.

Dewey Martin, director of product development, is also willing to add personnel to the project. He is willing to make available at least one more Development, Design, and/or Industrial Engineer to the project as well as Marketing Specialist. Since there is an acute shortage of personnel at ARC he requests that you only use additional manpower that will help meet the deadline. Your objective is to develop a schedule which will satisfy the deadline with minimum additional resource usage.

Prepare a memo that addresses the following questions:

1. What was the impact of introducing Start-to-Start lags to the schedule and budget?

2. Which, if any additional personnel assignments, would you choose to complete the project before the January 17th deadline? Explain your choices as well as the reasons for not choosing other options.

3. How have these changes affected the sensitivity of the network and the critical path?

Include a Gantt chart with a schedule table displaying free and total slack for the new schedule.

Note: Do not assign new personnel to specific tasks, simply add them to the Resource Sheet. All new personnel are available full time (100%).