Question

The home office billing department of a chain of department stores prepares monthly inventory reports for use by the stores’ purchasing agents. Given the following information, use the critical path method to determine:

a. How long the total process will take.

b. Which jobs can be delayed without delaying the early start of any subsequent activity?

	Job and Description	Immediate Predecessors	Time (Hours)
A	Start	_	0
B	Get computer printouts of customer purchases	A	10
C	Get stock records for the month	A	20
D	Reconcile purchase printouts and stock records	B, C	30
E	Total stock records by department	B, C	20
F	Determine reorder quantities for coming period	E	40
G	Prepare stock reports for purchasing agents	D,F	20
H	Finish	G	0

Short answer

Department stores are huge retail facilities that provide a wide range of items in a singular location.

Step-by-step solution

The total long process will take

A billing department at a home office stores stock as well as provides a monthly stock record for the buying agent. Check out the following data on the direct predecessors as well as times of certain activities:

Create the project structure by utilizing the predecessor connection.

Determine the ES, EF, LS, as well as LF for slack using the formulas given below:

ES = newest EF for every direct predecessor…… (1)

EF = ES + task timing…… (2)

LF = early LS for every direct predecessor…… (3)

LS = LF + task timing…… (4)

Given below,

ES = Earliest beginning duration for a project task

EF = Earliest ending duration for a project task

LF = Newest ending duration for a project task

LS = Newest beginning duration for a project task

To determine the values of ES, LS, EF, LF, as well as slack as given below,

Inactivity A, C, E, F, G, as well as H have slack worth zero would be considered task critical. Therefore, the critical path is A, C, E, F, G, H as well as project timing

(0+20+20+40+20+0) = 100 Hours.

Jobs can be delayed without delaying the early start of any subsequent activity

In the image shown, activities B, as well as D, are not on the critical path. Their early start time can be forced back without affecting the beginning of any following events. As a result, activity B can be postponed for 10 hours as well as activity D can be postponed for 30 hours without affecting the project's finishing timeline.