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Operations Management

Introduction

I: The Campus Wedding (A) & (B)
In the case of the Adams-Jackson wedding, the concern was being able to put together a wedding with such limited time (approximately 3 weeks). In operations management, coordinating activities to come together is one thing; another aspect is finding how long this will take is another. In project management, the planning, directing and controlling resources to meet the technical, cost, and time constraints of a project are crucial to success! Some of the tools used to determine these constraints include networking and determining the critical path of a project, which is the sequence of activities that forms the longest chain in terms of time to complete. Not until these sequences have been determined can analysts and managers see the effect of various elements on an entire project as seen in the Campus Wedding cases.
Network diagram:



Case questions:
Case A:
1. Given the activities and precedence relationships described in the (A) case, develop a network diagram for the wedding plans.
(SEE ABOVE)

2. Identify the paths. Which are critical?
The main pathways have been identified in the diagram above. The critical pathways are as follows:
· Start à choose pattern of dress à order and receive lace à sewing the dress à cleaning & pressing à fitting à finish
· Start à choosing invitation à printing by Bob à addressing à mailing à postal time à finish
(In both the cases the time taken is 21 days, which is exactly the maximum time available for the wedding).
3. What is the minimum-cost plan that meets the April 22 date?
The minimum cost plan is $100 church donation, ordering and receiving the lace by airfreight $25, Sewing the dress (one day’s charges only) $120, cleaning and pressing in one day $30, express printing by Bob in 5 days $35 and addressing $50. This gives a total minimum cost of $360. Any other combination will cost more money or will not meet the deadline in time for the wedding.
Case B:...