Case Study

Family Planning Research Center Nigeria

Dr. Adinombe Watage, deputy director of the Family Planning Research Center in Nigeria's Over-The-River Province, was assigned the task of organizing and training five teams of field workers to perform educational and outreach activities as part of a large project to demonstrate acceptance of a new method of birth control. These workers already had training in family planning in education but must receive specific training regarding the new method of contraception. Two types of materials must also be prepared: (1) those for use in training the workers, and (2) those for distribution in the field. Training faculty must be brought in and arrangement made for transportation and accommodations for the participants.

Dr. Watage first called a meeting of his office staff. Together they identified the activities that must be carried out, their necessary sequences, and the time they would require. Their results are displayed in the table below:

Letter	Activity	Must Follow	Time (Days)	Staffing
A	Identify faculty and their schedules	-	5	2
B	Arrange transport to base	-	7	3
C	Identify and collect training materials	-	5	2
D	Arrange accommodations	A	3	1
E	Identify team	A	7	4
F	Bring in team	B, E	2	1
G	Transport faculty to base	A, B	3	2
H	Print program materials	C	10	6
I	Have program materials delivered	H	7	3
J	Conduct training program	D, F, G, I	15	0
K	Perform fieldwork training	J	30	0

Louis Odaga, the chief clerk, noted that the project had to be completed in sixty days. Whipping out his solar-powered calculator, he added-up the time needed. It came to 94 days. "An impossible task, then," he noted. "No," Dr. Watage replied, "some of these tasks can go forward in parallel. "Be careful, though," warned Mr. Oglagadu, the chief nurse, "there are not that many of us to go around. There are only 10 of us in this office."

"I can check whether we have enough heads and hands once I have tentatively scheduled the activities," Dr. Watage responded. "If the schedule is too tight, I have permission from the Pathminder Fund to spend some funds to speed it up, just so long as I can prove that it can be done at the least cost necessary. Can you help me prove that? Here are the costs for the activities with the elapsed time that we planned and the costs and times if we shorten them to an absolute minimum." Those data are given in the table below:

Letter	Activity	Normal	Minimum	Average Cost/Day Saved ($)
		Time	Cost ($)	Time	Cost ($)
A	Identify faculty and their schedules	5	400	2	700	100
B	Arrange transport to base	7	1,000	4	1,450	150
C	Identify and collect training materials	5	400	3	500	50
D	Arrange accommodations	3	2,500	1	3,000	250
E	Identify team	7	400	4	850	150
F	Bring in team	2	1,000	1	2,000	1,000
G	Transport faculty to base	3	1,500	2	2,000	500
H	Print program materials	10	3,000	5	4,000	200
I	Have program materials delivered	7	200	2	600	80
J	Conduct training program	15	5,000	10	7,000	400
K	Perform fieldwork training	30	10,000	20	14,000	400

QUESTIONS/REQUIREMENTS:

1. What is your project communication plan or strategy?
2. Identify your resources (materials, financial, and manpower).