1. Discuss the Push and Pull Supply Chain Management systems and talk to the boundaries between the two. Ensure that you give examples.
2. Explain the principles and logic of the Theory of Constraints.
Discussion Questions
1. Identify at least five additional examples of projects that are not cited in this chapter.
2. Exhibit 18.2 lists a number of impediments to project success. How might you minimize or eliminate these impediments?
3. The local chapter of the Project Management Institute is planning a dinner meeting with a nationally known speaker, and you are responsible for organizing it. How could the methodology discussed in this chapter help you?
4. The calculations in PERT allow you to determine the probability that as project will be completed. Suppose you calculate that the probability a project will be completed by a target deadline is only 0.25. What steps might you take if you were the project manager? Would your decisions be different if the probability was calculated as 0.75? Would you be willing to take a 25% risk of failing to complete the project on time?
5. Crashing in the Critical Path Method assumes that the cost of crashing an activity is linearly proportional to the amount of time the activity is crashed; that is, the rate of cost increase is constant. Is this a reasonable assumption? Why or why not? How might the concepts of economies and diseconomies of scale help to address this issue?