The mean critical path gives an estimate that the project will finish in 51 days. However, Sharon knows from the earlier analysis that some of the pessimistic estimates are far larger than the means, so the project duration might be considerably longer than 51 days. Therefore, to better ensure that the project will finish within 57 days, she has decided to require that the estimated project duration based on means (as used throughout the CPM analysis) must not exceed 47 days.

(a) Consider the lower path through the project network. Use marginal cost analysis to determine the most economical way of reducing the length of this path to 47 days.

(b) Repeat part

(a) for the upper path through the project network.

What is the total crashing cost for the optimal way of decreasing estimated project duration of 47 days?

C

(c) Use Excel to solve the problem.

C

(d) Use another software option to solve the problem.