You are Director of Projects for About Coffee, and you will be presenting your project plan for construction of this store to the company President and the project team.

With the land already purchased and detailed drawings complete, the first step of the project would be obtaining local building permits. Once the building permits were received, recruitment for the store's management team could begin, and temporary fencing could be setup along with clearing the site. With the site cleared, the store foundation could then be completed, which would then be followed by erecting the building exterior. Once the exterior is completed, parking lot construction could commence at the same time as the interior of the store is being completed.Once the management team is finalized, they can begin recruiting their employees for the eventual store opening.The installation of shelving, signage, and checkouts could not commence until a building safety inspection is completed to ensure exterior and interior construction has met provincial regulations.Once the parking lot is complete, the shopping cart corrals could be constructed and the shopping carts manufactured and shipped to the store. Employee training could occur once employees are fully recruited and the shelving, signage, and checkouts are installed. With the parking lot complete, landscaping and removal of the temporary fencing could occur. About Coffee wants to ensure things go smoothly with their opening so after employees are trained and the shopping carts arrive, they will stock all the shelves and conduct final testing via a simulated opening. The grand opening can only occur after the shelves are stocked and the simulated opening has taken place, as well as the landscaping completed and the temporary fencing removed.

Based on your experiences managing the construction of other About Coffee stores and information provided by potential subcontractors, you have developed the following chart with estimates for normal durations and normal costs, in addition to crash costs and crash times, in the event it would be necessary to accelerate a specific activity.

Normal Normal Crashed Crashed Time Costs Time Activity Description Costs* (weeks) (weeks) Building permits 3 $5,000 3 $5,000 2 Temp. fencing & clear site 5 $45,000 3 $55,000 3 Recruit management team 14 $70,000 10 $96,000 4 Complete foundation 8 $600,000 6 $700,000 5 Erect building exterior 7 $320,000 5 $390,000 6 Complete building interior J $400,000 4 $445,000 7 Complete parking lot $120,000 2 $145,000 8 Recruit employees $18,000 4 $32,000 9 Building inspection $4,000 $4,000 10 Shelving, signage & checkouts 4 $280,000 $340,000 11 Train employees 3 $55,000 2 $68,000 12 Shopping carts & corrals 8 $30,000 6 $38,000 13 Landscape & remove temp. fencing 4 $20,000 2 $35,000 14 Stock shelves & final testing 2 $22,000 $40,000 15 Grand Opening -- * Crashed costs are the total costs associated with the accelerated activity. The weekly increase in costs for a given act is assumed to be constant