Part B The RELIABLE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY has just made the winning bid of $5.4 million to construct a new plant for a major manufacturer. The manufacturer needs the plant to go into operation within a year. Therefore, the contract includes the following provisions: A penalty of $300,000 if Reliable has not completed construction by the deadline 47 weeks from now. To provide additional incentive for speedy construction, a bonus of $150,000 will be paid to Reliable if the plant is completed within 40 weeks. Reliable is assigning its best construction manager, David Perty, to this project to help ensure that it stays on schedule. He looks forward to the challenge of bringing the project in on schedule, and perhaps even finishing early. However, since he is doubtful that it will be feasible to finish within 40 weeks without incurring excessive costs, he has decided to focus his initial planning on meeting the deadline of 47 weeks. Mr. Perty will need to arrange for a number of crews to perform the various construction activities at different times. Table 1 shows his list of the various activities. The third column provides important additional information for coordinating the scheduling of the crews. Table 1 Activity list for the Reliable Construction Co. project Immediate Estimated Activity Activity Description Predecessors Duration Excavate 2 weeks Lay the foundation 4 weeks Put up the rough wall 10 weeks Put up the roof 6 weeks Install the exterior plumbing 4 weeks Install the Interior plumbing 5 weeks Put up the exterior siding 7 weeks Do the exterior painting weeks Do the electrical work 7 weeks Put up the wallboard 8 weeks Install the flooring 4 weeks Do the interior painting 5 weeks Install the exterior fixtures 2 weeks Install the interior fixtures KL 6 weeks In order to schedule the activities, Mr. Perty consults with each of the crew supervisors to develop an estimate of how long each activity should take when it is done in the normal way. Given all the information in Table 1, Mr. Perty now wants to develop answers to the following questions. 1. How can the project be displayed graphically to better visualize the flow of the activities? 2. What is the total time required to complete the project if no delays occur? 3. When do the individual activities need to start and finish (at the latest) to meet this project completion time? 4. When can the individual activities start and finish (at the earliest) if no delays occur? 5. Which are the critical bottleneck activities where any delays must be avoided to prevent delaying project completion