19 Bill Edstrom, managing partner at a biomedical consulting firm, has requested your expert advice in devising the best schedule for him for the following consulting projects, starting on 2/2/05:

The consulting firm charges a flat rate of $4,000 per day. All four firms impose fines for late- ness. Reardon Biotoch charges a $500-per-day fine for each day that the completion of the con- sulting work is past the due date; Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, and OSI Pharmaceuticals all charge a fine of $1,500 per day for each day late. Prepare alternative schedules based on the following priority rules: SOT, FCFS, EDD, STR, and another rule-longest processing time (LPT), which orders jobs according to longest assigned first, second longest assigned second, and so on. For the sake of simplicity, assume that consulting work is performed seven days a week. Which rule provides Bill with the best schedule? Why?

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DESCRIPTION OF CONSULTATION CALL RECEIVED TASK LENGTH COMPANY DATE TIME DUE DATE (CLOSE OF BUSINESS) I 3 days Novartis Corp. February 1, 2005 9am. February 5, 2005 II 1 day Reardon Biotech Corp. February 1, 2005 10 am. February 7, 2005 2 days Vertex Pharmaceuticals February 1, 2005 11 am. February 7, 2005 IV 2 days OSI Pharmaceuticals February 1, 2005 1 p.m. February 7, 2005