Question

Dream Team Productions is in the final design phases of the new film, Killer Worms, to be released next summer. Market Wise, the firm hired to coordinate the release of the Killer Wormstoys, identified the following activities to be completed before the release of the film.

Activity           Immediate        Optimistic       Most likely      Pessimistic      Normal Crash Crash   

                        Predecessor     Time (weeks)  Time(weeks)   Time(weeks)   Cost       Cost   time

A                     ----                   1                      2                                  4          1000       1900   1

B                     ----                   3                      3.5                               4          1000       1800   2

C                     A,B                 10                    12                                13        1500        2700  8

D                     C                     4                      5                                  7          2000        3200  4

E                      C                     2                      4                                  5          5000        8000  3

F                      E                      6                      7                                  8          3000        4100  6

G                     C                     2                      4                                  5.5       8000        5000  2

H                     D,F,G              5                      7.7                               9          5000        6400  7

I                       D,F                  9.9                   10                                12        10000        ----- -

J                      H                     2                      4                                  5          4000          ----- -

K                     I,J                    2                      4                                  6          5000          ----- -

- - 1). Determine a crashing schedule.

Answer 1

Explanation :

Crashing Schedule means the Schedule which contains the details of how much time an activity can be crashed and what is the incremental cost associated with it. In the above case, there are activities from A- K. Of which, I,J,K Activities can not be crashed because the crash time is not given, which means that these activities are to be completed within the normal time. Since, there is no crash time and crash cost, these are not shown in Crashing Schedule. Even if those are shown, it does not have any impact. Whereas, for the other activities, the normal time, crash time and normal cost, crash cost are different.

Normal time means the average time with in which the activity is required to be completed.

Crash Time means the least time (i.e., minimum time) required to complete the Activity.

Since, the Activity is to be completed in less time, it needs to be employ more resources, workmen to complete, which requires an extra cost. This cost is called as Crash Cost. The Cost which is incurred to complete the Activity in Crash Time.

For E.g : For the Activity-A, the Average time required is 2.17 weeks. and if the Activity-A takes 2.17 weeks it will incur $ 1,000. It is said that the Activity-A can also be completed in 1 week. If so, then it will incur $ 1,900. Which means to decrease the Activity time by 1.17 weeks, it will incur an additional amount of $ 900. In other words, it costs $ 771.43 for 1 week of saving in time.

The Crashing Schedule specifies the same for all the Activities.