Business Analysis & Decision Making Assignment

Table

of

Contents

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0

Introduction of the Packaging Company ............................................... Objectives of the New Project ...................................................................... Planning ....................................................................................................................... Schedule ...................................................................................................................... Implementation ........................................................................................................ Monitor and Control ............................................................................................. Conclusion.................................................................................................................. References .................................................................................................................

Business Analysis & Decision Making Assignment

1.0 Introduction of the Packaging Company

Teng company engages in fresh fruit juice packaging and distribution in Malaysia. Usually, they get the raw material outside and distribute the finished products to the supermarket in Singapore. The assembling line is putting the fruit juice into a type of paper box and stick their own logoTeng. Recently, to meet the market requirements, they want to change the paper box container to a type of plastic bottle. The raw material is unchanged. So they need to introduce a new packaging line.

2.0 Objectives of the New Project

The objectives of this project are as below: 1. They plan to start this project on 21st November 2002. The project must be finished before 20 December 2002. Therefore, the duration of the whole assembling line must be within 17 days because there are four weekends and two days public holiday 2. The production must be up to the sanitary standard. 3. Be with high quality. 4. To control the cost lowest.

3.0 Planning

To finish the new project, they need to purchase the new packaging machine,

Business Analysis & Decision Making Assignment

purchase the new plastic containers and redesign the price marks, etc. The Figure1. shows the activities related to this project and their shortest durations:
Tasks Purchase the new machine Purchase the raw materials fresh fruit juice Purchase the new containers--bottles Pricing Machine debugging Raw materials checking out sterilizing Printing new price marks Training stuff Filling bottles with fresh fruit juice Price marking Encasement & Delivery
Figure 1.

Activities

Predecessor(s)

Duration (days)

A B C D E F G H I J K L

None None None B None DE CF G AH I I K

3 2 3 4 4 1 2 4 5 2 1 2

The AOA diagram (Figure 2.) shows the activities on arrows. Teng company just arranges the processes according to this diagram.

Figure 2.

According to this diagram, there are four paths totally in this project. The critical

Business Analysis & Decision Making Assignment

path is A.E.I.J.K.L. and its duration is 17 days.

As long as Teng company

controls this paths strictly, the whole project will be finished on time. Therefore, the other three paths can be delay or put off for a certain days in order to share some resources. The following figure 3. shows all the paths and the total float in each path:
Paths AETJKL BFJKL CGJKL DHKL Duration 17 8 9 11 Figure 3. The total float Total Float 0 9 8 6

According to Figure 3., Teng company can delay path BFJKL by 9 days, delay path CGJKL for 8 days and path DHKL can be delayed by 6 days. (see appendix )
Activity B C D F G H Duration 2 3 4 1 2 4
Figure 4. The free float

Free Float 9 7 6 9 7 6

Figure 4. shows the free float of each activity besides the critical activities. Its obviously that B.C.D.F.G.H can be delayed quite long. Thus, the company should consider the usage of resources in order to control the lowest cost.

All the calculations in this assignment are attached in appendix

Business Analysis & Decision Making Assignment

4.0 Schedule

Based on the planning, they are going to schedule the dates of the project. There are four weekends (26th 27th November,3rd 4th, 10th 11th and 17th 18th December ) and two days public holiday(23rd November and 7th December) during this project period. The Gantt Chart shows the schedule. (See Appendix) In order to save resource, they can delay the activities by a certain days, as below:
Activity B C D F G H Duration (days) 2 3 4 1 2 4 Delay (days) 8 0 0 9 4 0

Figure 5. Delay of each activity

According to this plan, the company can save much man power. In another words, they can use the same work team to finish several activities, such as activity B, it can be done by the same persons as activity C. After they purchasing the new machine, they can go to purchase the raw materials.

Meanwhile, the raw materials -- fresh fruit juice cannot be stored for a long time. They should purchase it just-in-time in order to keep it fresh and ensure their production with high quality.

Business Analysis & Decision Making Assignment

5.0 Implementation

To finish this project, there are 6 departments related. Purchasing the new machine and machine debugging should be done by the T echnology Department. To purchasing the new bottles and raw materials (include checking) are the job of Stock Department. Considering to keep the raw material fresh, stock department should purchase the containers first, purchase the raw material just-In-time. Pricing must be done by Financial Department. Training and the new price mark making usually can be completed by Administration Department. According to the schedule, the administration department just can do the stuff training after they print the new price mark. The sterilizing and filling the bottle can be done by Workshop. Price marking, encasement and delivery are always the job of Production Department.

6.0 Monitor and Control

The key of this project is to control the critical path strictly in order to deliver the finished production on 20th December. Meanwhile, as stuff training and new price mark making are done by the same department, the path D.E is also changed to the critical path. (Stuff training must be start on 1st December, according to the schedule, pricing and new price mark just can be finished on 30th November.) . So the company should control the pricing and new price mark making period strictly, too.

Business Analysis & Decision Making Assignment

7.0 Conclusion

The new project needs Teng company to purchase new machine and new containers. They are also required to retrain stuff and make the new price marks, etc. If they control the duration strictly, the whole project can be completed within 17 days. If the relevant departments can perform well, Teng company can achieve the objective of the project efficiency and effectively.

Business Analysis & Decision Making Assignment

8.0 References

[1]

T. Lucey, Quantitative Techniques, An Instructional Manual, the 3 rd edition. Printed in Great Britain by The Guernsey Press Co.Ltd.vale. Guerney C.I.

Business Analysis & Decision Making Assignment

9.0 Appendix 1.

1. Total float in each paths:

AETJKL (critical patj): TF=0 BFJKL: TF=17-0-9=8

(TF=LFT-EST-Duration)

CGJKL: TF=17-0-9=8 DHKL: TF= 17-0-11=6

2. Free float at each activity: (FF=EST next job EST present job - Duration) A.E.I.J.K.L are the in the critical path, so they do not have free float. B:FF=11-0-2=9 D:FF=10-0-4=6 G:FF=12-3-2=7 C:FF=10-0-3=7 F:FF=12-2-1=9 H:FF=14-4-4=6