Operations Management Chapter 3 Flashcards
The management of projects involves three phases:
1) Planning - This phase includes goal setting, defining the project, and team organization.
2) Scheduling - This phase relates people, money, and supplies to specific activities and relates activities to each other.
3) Controlling - Here the firm monitors resources, costs, quality, and budgets. It also revises or changes plans and shifts resources to meet time and cost demands.
Project organization
An organization formed to ensure that programs (projects) receive the proper management and attention.
The project organization works best when:
1) Work can be defined with a specific goal and deadline.
2) The job is unique or somewhat unfamiliar to the existing organization.
3) The work contains complex interrelated tasks requiring specialized skills.
4) The project is temporary but critical to the organization.
5) The project cuts across organizational lines.
Project managers are responsible for making sure that:
1) all necessary activities are finished in proper sequence and on time
2) the project comes in within budget
3) the project meets its quality goals
4) the people assigned to the project receive the motivation, direction, and information needed to do their jobs
Project managers often deal with:
1) offers of gifts from contractors
2) pressure to alter status reports to mask the reality of delays
3) false reports for charges of time and expenses
4) pressures to compromise quality to meet bonus or penalty schedules
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Defines the project by dividing it into its major subcomponents (or tasks), which are then subdivided into more detailed components, and finally into a set of activities and their related costs
Gantt Charts
Planning charts used to schedule resources and allocate time. They are a low cost means of helping managers make sure that:
1) activities are planned
2) order of performance is documented
3) activity time estimates are recorded
4) overall project time is developedN
Project scheduling serves several purposes:
1) It shows the relationship of each activity to others and to the whole project
2) It identifies the precedence relationships among activities
3) It encourages the setting of realistic time and cost estimates for each activity
4) It helps make better use of people, money, and material resources by identifying critical bottlenecks in the project
Computerized PERT/CPM reports and charts produce a broad variety of reports including:
1) detailed cost breakdowns for each task
2) total program labor curves
3) cost distribution tables
4) functional cost and hour summaries
5) raw material and expenditure forecasts
6) variance reports
7) time analysis reports
8) work status reports
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
A program management technique that employs three time estimates for each activity
Critical Path Method (CPM)
A project management technique that uses only one time factor per activity
Critical path
The computerized longest time path(s) through a network
Starts at first activity in the project
Terminates at the last activity in the project
Includes only critical activities
PERT and CPM both follow six basic steps:
1) Define the project and prepare the work breakdown structure.
2) Develop the relationships among the activities. Decide which activities must precede and which must follow others.
3) Draw the network connecting all the activities.
4) Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity.
5) Compute the longest time path through the network.
6) Use the network to help plan, schedule, monitor, and control the project.
Activity-on-node (AON)
A network diagram in which nodes designate activities.
Activity-on-arrow (AOA)
A network diagram in which arrows designate activities.
Dummy activity
An activity having no time that is inserted into a network to maintain the logic of the network
Critical Path Analysis
A process that helps determine a project schedule
Earliest start (ES)
earliest time at which an activity can start, assuming all predecessors have been completed
Earliest finish (EF)
Earliest time at which an activity can be finished
Latest start (LS)
Latest time at which an activity can start so as to not delay the completion time of the entire project
Latest finish (LF)
Latest time by which an activity has to finish as to not delay the completion time of the entire project
Forward Pass
A process that identifies the ES and EF
Backward Pass
A process that identifies the LS and LF
Earliest Start Time Rule
The maximum of all EF values of its predecessors
