SCHEDULING TECHNIQUES

1) An established company has decided to add a new product to its line. It will buy the
product from a manufacturing concern, package it, and then sell it to a number of
distributors selected on a geographical basis. Market research has indicated the
volume expected and the size of sales force required. The steps shown in the
following table are to be planned:

Activity Description Predecessor Time

s (weeks)
A Organize sales office - 6
B Hire Salesmen A 4
C Train Salesmen C 7
D Select advertising agency A 2
E Plan advertising agency D 4
F Conduct advertising campaign E 10
G Design Package - 2
H Set up package facilities G 10
I Package initial stocks J,H 6
J Order stock from manufacturer - 13
K Select distributors A 9
L Sell to distributors C,K 3
M Ship stocks I,L 5

(i) Draw an arrow diagram for this project.

(ii) Indicate the critical path.
(iii) For each non-critical activity, find the total and free float.

2) A small maintenance project consists of the following twelve jobs whose precedence
relations are identified with their node numbers

Job (i, j) Duration (in

days)
(1,2) 10
(1,3) 4
(1,4) 6
(2,3) 5
(2,5) 12
(2,6) 9
(3,7) 12
(4,5) 15
(5,6) 6
(6,7) 5
(6,8) 4
(7,8) 7
 (i) Draw an arrow diagram representing the project.
(ii) Calculate earliest start, earliest finish, latest start and latest finish time for all
the jobs.
(iii) Find the critical path and project duration.
(iv) Tabulate total float, free float and independent float for each activity.

3)

Activity Preceding Activity a m b

(optimistic) (most likely) (pessimistic
)
A - 6 7 8
B - 1 2 9
C - 1 4 7
D A 1 2 3
E A, B 1 2 9
F C 1 5 9
G C 2 2 8
H E, F 4 4 4
I E, F 4 4 10
J D, H 2 5 14
K I, G 2 2 8
*(Time in weeks)

a) Draw the project network and find the critical path.

b) Find expected duration and variance of each activity.
c) Find expected project completion time.
d) If the probability of completing the project is 0.95, find expected project completion
time.
e) What is the probability of completing the project on or before 25 weeks?

4) A project consists of 8 activities with the following relevant information.

Activity Predecessor a m b
A - 1 1 7
B - 1 4 7
C - 2 2 8
D A 1 1 1
E B 2 5 14
F C 2 5 8
G D, E 3 6 15
H F, G 1 2 3
*Time in days

a) Draw the PERT network, determine the critical path and expected project
completion time.
 b) Find out the duration corresponding to 95% probability of project completion.
c) If average duration of activity F increases to 14 days, what will be its effect on the
expected project completion time which will have 95% confidence?
5) The following table gives the list of activities and other details for a project.

Activit Preceding Duration (In Crashed Duration and Cost per Day of
y Activity days) Crashing

A – 9 2 days; 10,000

B A 3 2 days; 12,000

C A 6 4 days; 9,000

D B, C 11 7 days; 15,000

E B, D 8 6 days; 11,000

F E 12 8 days; 10,000

G E, F 6 4 days; 12,000

H F 7 4 days; 18,000

The indirect cost is 50,000 per day.

a) Draw a project network of the project after checking/removing redundancy.
b) Calculate the time–cost optimal trade off project duration and corresponding
cost.
6) In planning a project to introduce a new product in the market, a company lists the
various activities, their normal times and costs, and their crash times and costs as
shown in the following table. If the indirect cost per week is 400, determine the
optimal project duration.
Activit Description Predecessor(s Normal Time Normal Crash Time Crash
y ) (weeks) Cost ( ) (weeks) Cost ( )

A Product design – 5 1,000 4 1,200

B Market – 2 600 2 600

research

C Product analysis A 4 800 3 1,000

D Product model A 4 1,000 3 1,500

E Sales brochure A 3 1,100 1 1,600

F Cost accounting C 1 700 1 700

G Product testing D 4 800 2 1,260

H Sales survey B, E 5 900 3 1,200

I Price and H 2 850 2 850
demand report

J Project report F, G, I 3 750 2 1,000

7) A company plans to fill sic positions. Since, the positions are known to vary
considerably with respect to skill and responsibility, different types of aptitude tests
and interviews are required for each. While the aptitude tests are conducted by
people from the clerical positions, the job interviews are held by the personnel from
the management cadre. The job interviews immediately follow the aptitude test. The
time required (in minutes) by each of the positions are given as follows:

Position
Aptitude test 140 180 150 200 170 100
Job Interview 70 120 110 80 100 90

In order to minimize the waiting time of the management personnel, what should be
the order of filling the positions? Also find the idle time.

8) Find the sequence that minimizes the total time (in hours) required in performing
the following jobs on three machines in the order ABC:

Job 1 2 3 4 5 6
Machine A 8 3 7 2 5 1
Machine B 3 4 5 2 1 6
Machine C 8 7 6 9 10 9
Also find the idle time for each machine.
9) Find the sequence for the following eight jobs, that will minimize the total elapsed
time for the completion of all the jobs. Each job is processed in the order CAB.
Entries give the time in hours on the machines A, B and C.

Job I II III IV V VI VII VIII

Machine 4 6 3 4 5 3 6 2
A
Machine 8 10 7 8 11 8 9 13
B
Machine 5 6 2 3 4 9 15 11
C
Also find the idle time for each machine.