Comparative Study of Critical Resource Diagramming Versus PERT and CPM - Assignment Example

Comparative Study of Critical Resource Diagramming Versus PERT and CPM Agriculture problem. Frank Hurley is a farmer who plants wheat and corn. a. He has 250 acres on which he wishes to plant wheat and corn for the season. For crop rotation determinations he must plant at least 50 acres of each crop. b. He can participate in a federal program that will necessitate him to produce at least as much wheat as corn. Under this program, he is assured to earn $150 per acre of wheat planted and $200 per acre of corn planted. c. Alternatively he can opt not to take part in the program in which case he schemes he would make only $125 per acre of wheat planted and $184 per acre of corn planted, but there would be no requirement to produce at least as much wheat as corn. His objective is to maximize his total profit for the season. a. If Frank did take part in the program How many acres of wheat should he plant? How many acres of corn should he plant? What is his total expected profit? b. If Frank did not take part in the program How many acres of wheat should he plant? How many acres of corn should he plant? What is his total expected profit? What would you recommend to Frank? 2. PERT/CPM In the field of project learning and management, PERT is basically known to mean project evaluation and review technique. PERT is a statistical implement used in project management, it is designed to analyze and exemplify the task evaluation completing a given project (Delgado et al., 2004). It is normally used in conjunction with CPM which is known as critical path method in project scheduling and management technique. CPM is a tool used to evaluate and determine duration based on the proof of identity of “critical work” through an activity network (Delgado et al., 2004).Ultimately CPM and PERT can be merged into one to form a project scheduling technique known as CPM/PERT. The combination of both CPM and PERT makes it visually easier to view precedence relationships and gives an opportunity for an ideal large projects with several activities (Delgado et al., 2004). CPM/PERT contain two major key elements: activities and events. An activity embodies an action and consumption of resources such as time, money and energy needed to complete a quota of a given plan. The activity istypicallyepitomized by an arrow; this is due to the fact that it encompasses resources (Delgado et al., 2004). An event, normally taken to mean node will basically occur at the beginning and the end of an activity. The events have no resources and as a result are represented by a circle (Delgado et al., 2004). ASSUMPTIONS OF CPM/PERT a.A project can be sub-divided into a set of predicable and self-regulating activities. b. The precedence similarities of project activities can be absolutely represented by a non-cyclical graph in which each activity associates directly into its immediate successors. c. Activity times can be determined as either a single point estimates or three point’s estimates which include optimistic, pessimistic or most likely and they must be self-regulated to each other. d. Activity duration must follow the beta distribution and the standard deviation of the distribution is assumed to be 1/6th of its estimated range. e. The time taken by an activity is linearly related to the cost of resources used in the activity When working on a complicated project, it is normally very hard for business owner to envisage the schedule and risks. Applying the PERT/CPM can help play a major role in breaking the large efforts down into smaller tasks and show the relationships of different tasks. This can help in determining the expected outcome besides anticipating and alleviating scheduling bottlenecks (Delgado et al., 2004). 3. Project scheduling techniques. Using the just-in-time (JIT) philosophy as a standard project scheduling technique can help solve the implications of Ajax project management that includes the stratagem, fabrication and introduction of a firsthand microwave oven. The just-in-time is used to eliminate wastage by cutting unnecessary inventory and doing away with the delays in operations (Lawrence, 2002). Considering the implications of just-in-time system, corporate strategy centers on dramatic development in the inventory turnover and the labor productivity in whichthe just- in- time system qualifies to be the requisite solution. The just-in-time systems form an integral portion of corporate strategies besides emphasizing time-based competition since they completely focus on cutting cycle times. The JIT systems also improves inventory turnover besides increasing labor productivity (Lawrence, 2002). 4. Decision Analysis Decision making in several corporate investments has ever been a challenging undertaking for analysts. Traditionally Decision trees have been the most important tools for modeling investment opportunities (Lawrence, 2002). A cell phone company (Extel) qualifies to be the requisite scenario of a real world decision problem analysis. The company is assessing a project that would increase web-browsing features using a pointing device. Considering the future uncertainties concerning the acceptance of web-browsing technology, it is not clear if investing on a large amount of capital today is the right decision (Lawrence, 2002). Considering the critical factors in Decision tree type analysis in the Extel example which encompass the information technology field, the introduction of new technology normally involves considerable uncertainties. In addition, past investment methodologies and life cycle costing strategies can never adequately account for the value inherent in situations to abandon, contract, and modify a project as a result of future improvement such as trends in technology (Lawrence, 2002). Though decision trees can be beneficial when making several informed decisions, their subjectivity may result to their decreased application in the real world. Considering the Extel example, in as much as decision trees are suitable for the information technology field, analysts should take note of the risks involved; analysts should not overuse decision trees: they may degenerate into very complex models and as a result the purpose of their application in the real world may be defeated in the first place (Lawrence, 2002). 5. Forecasting approaches. Forecasting approaches refers to planning tools that assist the management in its efforts to cope up with the hesitations of the future, relying mainly on the communicable information from the past and present and the evaluation of trends (Delgado et al., 2004). Application of time series forecasting approach in financial representations produces an undependable and spurious result which ultimately leads to a meager understanding and forecasting. The stationary forecasting model approach thus qualifies to be selected as an alternative forecasting model approach (Delgado et al., 2004). The resolution for the problem is to transform time series communicable information so that it changes to stationary data. If the time series process is a random walk, it is converted to stationary process by differencing. However, if the analysis of data in time series shows a deterministic trend, the spurious outcome can be evaded by detrending (Lawrence, 2002). Another key factor that qualifies Stationary forecasting model approach for selection is due to the fact that it regresses around a constant long-term mean and has a constant variance self-determining of time (Delgado et al., 2004). 6. Queuing systems Considering the retail store like Wal-Mart, the elements of the queuing system can influence a customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. If the orders and supply of a given product will be in the queue then certainly there will be positive expectations about it and a customer having full knowledge that his order will be delivered at the stipulated time then this is satisfaction of delivery (Lawrence, 2002). However, when there will be high chances of queuing in the store then definitely there will be dissatisfaction of delivery since there may be high chances of the customer being impatient. There may also be dissatisfaction since the customer may not be happy to join the queue because of the long waiting line (Lawrence, 2002). Queuing process may have both positive and negative impact on the customer loyalty since different customers have different conducts. When the product will be delivered in a queuing process then a customer who likes rules will definitely feel good since he can commit himself for the time stipulated so as to receive the product(Delgado et al., 2004). When the customer confirms some discipline and in time delivery in the queuing process then the positive impact on the customer loyalty will be realized (Delgado et al., 2004). However, there may also be a negative influence on the customer loyalty incase a system fails or a store server fails to perform and consequently don’t serve the customer besides delivering the product at the expected time (Lawrence, 2002). 7. Simulation models. The application of simulation occurs in situations of designing systems in which the systems are expected to find and fix errors during the Passage of time. Simulation process encompasses designing a model of a system through series of experiments on it as it progresses overtime (Lawrence, 2002). Models give the best opportunity to view how a real –world event will perform under set of diverse conditions and we evaluate various hypotheses as a portion of the cost of performing the actual event (Delgado et al., 2004). Simulation is an exact copy of the operation of system overtime. Simulation is applied in several contexts such as simulation of technology for development optimization, training purposes, and safety reasons and for testing video games (Delgado et al., 2004). The pros and cons of the simulation model confirms that simulation model is beneficial in cases where mathematical models are not used and the implementation of mathematical model is necessary since the system to be modeled may be too complex and thus involves uncertainty (Lawrence, 2002). In both the cases, simulation can be applied as alternative to acquire information about the system(Delgado et al., 2004). References Delgado, V.G., Gunter, J.E., &Badiru, A.B. (2004). Comparative study of critical resource diagramming versus PERT and CPM. IIE Annual Conference. Proceedings, 1. Retrieved from ProQuest Database.      Lawrence, J., &Pasternack, B. (2002). Applied management science: Modeling, spreadsheet analysis, and communication for             decision making (2nd ed.) [with accompanying CD-ROM]. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 9780471391906 Read More