COMPUTER EXERCISE – Blue Zuma Project

The ARC Company specializes in developing and selling a wide range of high quality
scooters. Sales representatives report that there is a growing demand for racing scooters.
ARC’s president, Robin Lane, is excited about the possibilities and predicts that one day
these kinds of razor scooters will be featured in X-Game events. ARC is a small company
and uses a strong matrix to optimally utilize limited manpower.

The Project Priority Matrix for the Blue Zuma Project is:

Time Scope Cost

Constrain X
Enhance X
Accept X

You are a member of a project team assigned to develop the new razor scooter code
named “Blue Zuma.” Table 1 contains information necessary to create a project schedule.
For the purpose of this case assume the following:

1. The project begins January 2, 2008

2. The following holidays are observed: January 1, Memorial Day (last Monday in
May), 4th of July, Labor Day (first Monday in September), Thanksgiving Day (4 th
Thursday in November), December 25 and 26.
3. If a holiday falls on a Saturday then Friday will be given as an extra day off, and if it
falls on Sunday, then Monday will be given as a day off.
4. The project team works eight-hours days, Monday through Friday.

Part 1

Construct a network schedule for this project and prepare a memo that answers the
following questions:

1. When is the project estimated to be completed? How long will the project take?
2. What is the critical path for the project?
3. Which activity has the greatest amount of slack?
4. How sensitive is the network?
5. Identify two sensible milestones and explain your choices.
6. Compare the advantages/disadvantages of displaying the schedule as a network
versus Gantt chart.

Include the following printouts:

- A Gantt Chart
- A network diagram highlighting the critical path
- A schedule table reporting ES, LS, EF, LF, and slack for each activity

Table 1

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ID Task Name Duration Predecessors Resources
1 Product development
project
2 Market analysis 25 days Marketing (4)
3 Product design 40 days 2 Marketing (1),
Design (4)
Development (2),
Industrial (1),
Purchasing (1)
4 Manufacturing study 20 days 2 Industrial (4),
Development (2)
5 Product design selection 10 days 3;4 Marketing (2),
Design (3),
Development (2),
Industrial (2),
Purchasing (0,25)
6 Detailed marketing plans 15 days 5 Marketing (4)
7 Manufacturing process 30 days 5 Design (1),
Development (2),
Industrial (4)
8 Detailed product design 50 days 5 Marketing (2),
Design (4),
Development (2),
Industrial (2),
Purchasing (0,25)
9 Test prototype 10 days 8 Design (3),
Development (2)
10 Finalized product design 25 days 7;9 Marketing (2),
Design (3),
Development (3),
Industrial (2),
11 Order components 7 days 10 Purchasing (1)
12 Order production 14 days 10 Purchasing (1)
equipment
13 Install production 35 days 11 FS +20 days, Development (3),
equipment 12 FS +40 days Industrial (4),
Design (1)
14 Celebrate 1 day 6;13 Development (4),
Industrial (4),
Design (4),
Marketing (4),
Purchasing (1)

BA 4618/5618 Project Management Page : 2 Spring 2017-2018

 Part 2

The following personnel have been assigned to the Blue Zuma project team:

4 marketing specialists
4 design engineers
4 development engineers
4 industrial engineers
1 purchasing agent

Use the file from Part1 and the information contained in Tables 1 and 2 to assign
resources to the project schedule.

Table 2

Resource Cost per Hour ($/hr) Number Available

Marketing specialists 60 4
Design engineers 90 4
Development engineers 80 4
Industrial engineers 70 4
Purchasing agent 50 1

Part A

Prepare a memo that addresses the following questions:

1. Which if any of the resources are over-allocated?

2. Which activities involve over-allocated resources?
3. Assume that the project is time constrained and try to resolve any over-allocation
problems by leveling within slack on the sensitivity of the network?
4. 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.

Part B

Prepare a memo that addresses the following questions:

1. Assume that the project is resource constrained and no additional personnel are
available. How long will the project take given the resources assigned (Do not
forget to undo leveling performed in Part A before answering the question. No
splitting of activities is allowed)
2. 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 depicting the resource constrained schedule.

Part 3

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 Top management is not happy with the resource-constrained generated at the end of
Part 2. Robin Lane, the president, has promised retailers that production of the new
scooters would start on February 1, 2009.
1. What options are available to meet this new deadline if the project is not resource
constrained?
2. What options are available to meet this deadline if the project is resource
constrained?
Dewey Martin, director of product development, has managed to make the following
personnel available to work on specific activities on the project. Since there is an acute
shortage of personnel at ARC, and the cost of the additional employees is 10 $/hr higher
than the current ones, he requests that you only use manpower that will help meet the
deadline. Your objective is to develop a schedule which will satisfy the deadline with
minimum additional resource usage. The available personnel and impact on activity
duration are presented in Table 3.

Table 3
Revised Duration
Activity Additional Resource
Estimates
Detailed marketing plan Marketing (2) 10 days
Detailed product design Design (1), Development (1) 42 days
Install production equipment Industrial (1), Development (1) 27 days

Prepare a memo that addresses the following questions:

1. Which additional personnel assignments would you choose to complete the
project within original deadline? Explain your choices as well as the reasons for
not choosing other options.
2. How have these changes affected the sensitivity of the network?
Include a Gantt chart with a schedule table presenting the new schedule. (You can not go
back and reveal resources. These new resources are only available for the stated specific
tasks according to the schedule created at the end of Part 2.)

Part 4

Robin Lane and top management have approved the schedule generated at the end of Part
3. Save the file containing this schedule as a baseline schedule. Prepare a memo that
addresses the following questions:

1. How much is the project estimated to cost?

2. What activity is estimated to cost the most to complete?
3. What resource commands the greatest total cost?
4. During which month of the project are the highest and lowest cost expected to
occur? What are these costs?
5. What likely costs are not contained in this budget?

Include a table containing the estimated costs for each activity and a cash flow schedule
for each month of the project.

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Part 5

Today’s date is August 16, 2008. Table 4 summarizes the information regarding activities
accomplished to date.

Table 4 – Blue Zuma Update

Activity Start date Finish date Actual Remaining

duration Duration
Market analysis 02.01.2008 01.02.2008 23
Product design 04.02.2008 20.03.2008 34
Manufacturing study 21.03.2008 22.04.2008 23
Product design 23.04.2008 13.05.2008 15
selection
Manufacturing process 01.08.2008 11 25
Detailed product design 14.05.2008 31.07.2008 55
Test prototype 01.08.2008 15.08.2008 11

Robin Lane has requested a written status report for the Zuma project.

1. Your status report should include a table containing the PV, EV, AC, BAC, EAC,
SV, CV, and CPI for each activity and the whole project. The report should also
address the following questions:
a. How is the project progressing in terms of cost and schedule?
b. What activities have gone well? What activities have not gone well?
c. What do the PCIB and PCIC indicate in terms of how much of the project has been
accomplished to date?
d. What is forecasted cost at completion (FAC)? What is the predicted VACf?
e. Report and interpret the TCIP for the project at this point in time.
f. What is the estimated date of completion?
g. How well is the project doing in terms of its priorities?

Try to present the above information in a form worthy of consideration by top

management. Include a Tracking Chart with your report.
Note: August 15 as the status report date since you are preparing your report on the 16 th.

2. While preparing your report you receive a phone call from Jim Keltner, a fellow
project manager. He is calling to see if one of the industrial engineers assigned to
your project would be available to work on his project from August 22-27, 2008.
What would you tell him?

BA 4618/5618 Project Management Page : 5 Spring 2017-2018

Part 6

Robin Lane has authorizes using Management Reserves to expedite the shipping of
components at an additional cost of $ 50.000. She has asked you to update completion and
cost estimates for the Zuma project. Table 5 presents the revised estimates generated by
the Zuma project team.

Based on this new information prepare a memo that answers the following questions:

1. When will the project be completed? How does this compare with the baseline
completion date?
2. What is the new estimated cost completion (EAC)? What is the new VAC? How
does this compare with the VAC based on the FAC generated in Part 5? Which of
the two VACs would you have the greatest confidence in and why?
3. How do you think Robin will react given the priorities for this project?

Include a Tracking Gantt with a cost table for the estimated completion schedule.

Table 5 – Blue Zuma Estimate to Completion

Activity Start date Finish date Actual duration

Market analysis 02.01.2008 01.02.2008 23
Product design 04.02.2008 20.03.2008 34
Manufacturing study 21.03.2008 22.04.2008 23
Product design selection 23.04.2008 13.05.2008 15
Detailed marketing plan 28.10.2008 24.11.2008 20
Manufacturing process 01.08.2008 18.09.2008 34
Detailed product design 14.05.2008 31.07.2008 55
Test prototype 01.08.2008 15.08.2008 11
Finalize product design 19.09.2008 16.10.2008 20
Order components 31.10.2008 06.11.2008 5
Order product equipment 17.10.2008 03.11.2008 12
Install production 09.12.2008 22.01.2009 30
equipment
Celebrate 23.01.2009 23.01.2009 1

BA 4618/5618 Project Management Page : 6 Spring 2017-2018