When do you complete the project? How many penalties would you incur based on the estimated completion time?

Following the case study, the project will be completed after the painting of the whole building. Following the case scenario, each activity in the project requires different time duration for the completion. While most of these activities are linked with each other. Managers and workers are required to complete one activity prior to the start of the second activity. For instance, drainage cannot be installed until the completion of clearing the site activity. Similarly, walls need to be constructed before starting construction of the roof. Other than these, workers are also bound to work only on 5 days a week (from Monday to Friday). Considering all these conditions and requirements of this construction project estimation for the project completion date is 4 February 2022 if the project starts on 2 March 2020. See the following work plan with dates and required weeks.

Activities	Weeks	Start Date	End Date	Month	Penalty
Clearing the site,	8	2-Mar-20	24-Apr-20	April
Installing drainage	8	27-Apr-20	19-Jun-20	June
Earth-filling and levelling	14	22-Jun-20	25-Sep-20	September
Installing turf	12	28-Sep-20	18-Dec-20	December
Excavating	4	21-Dec-20	15-Jan-21	January	$        30,000
Pouring concrete for basement	4	18-Jan-21	12-Feb-21	Feb	$        40,000
Construction of the walls	12	15-Feb-21	7-May-21	May	$      120,000
Constructing the roof	13	10-May-21	6-Aug-21	August	$      130,000
Interior work	5	6-Aug-21	10-Sep-21	September	$        50,000
Approval	4	13-Sep-21	8-Oct-21	October	$        40,000
Power lines	8	11-Oct-21	3-Dec-21	December	$        80,000
Electrical work	5	6-Dec-21	7-Jan-22	January	$        50,000
Internal painting	4	10-Jan-22	4-Feb-22	Feb	$        40,000
					$      580,000

Based on the estimation (as presented by the above table) it can be said that the company would have to pay the penalty of $580.000. the penalty amount is calculated by multiplying the total working weeks with the penalty amount per week (58 weeks * $10000 = $580,000). This huge amount is required to be paid as a penalty because the company would not be able to complete its project in 8-month duration (Starting from March and Ending in December) as stated in the case study. Following the case study, the company will have time from march to December to complete these activities. However, these activities cannot be completed in this short time duration as the majority of activities are directly linked with the completion of relevant activities. For instance, workers cannot paint walls and building areas unless electricians have completed their task of installing wires in the whole building. In the above stated table, penalty schedule is presented in detail. However, this amount can be reduced by the following strategies:

1)      Increasing the total number of workers can reduce the time duration for the completion of each activity (Blocher, 2006).

2)      Working part-time on some projects can also reduce this time duration and penalty amount.

3)      Project management can also bring down this penalty amount by reducing the unnecessary time required by some activities. For instance, approval requires 4 weeks (as stated in the case study). Project managers can reduce this approval time.   

Question: 2

Analyze the three proposals. Indicate which, if any, you would apply and why.

There are three proposals suggested in a case study. Each proposal is stated below in brief detail.

Proposal One:

Reduce six-week duration by expediting overall construction work. It will require at least $20,000 additional amount. As a result of this proposal company would be able to save the following amount of penalty:

Thus, calculation represents that proposal one would generate the net profit of $40,000 for the company by reducing 6 weeks penalty at the cost of $20, 000.

Proposal Two: Now the second proposal available to the company is about the double shift. In case, the company avail this opportunity of double shift on filling the earth, as a result, they would be able to save 5 weeks duration. The reduction of 5 weeks activity will also require an additional cost of $10, 000. Now calculating its possible net profit for the company:

Now to calculate net benefit we will deduct the total cost amount from the possible benefit for the penalty. The total amount of saved penalty is around $50,000. From this amount, we will subtract the total cost of this proposal ($10,000 as stated in the case study).  After deducting additional cost required by this proposal the net profit would be around $40, 000.

The above calculations represent that proposal A and proposal B have almost the same net benefit for the company.

Proposal Three: The third proposal for a reduction in time duration is concerned with the roof construction activity. In this activity, the company was requiring 13 weeks. However, after employing additional labour at roof construction site company can complete this activity earlier than plan. Employing extra labour will cost $9,000 however it will reduce original roof activity duration by 6 weeks. As a result of this, the company would be able to save the following penalty amount.

Calculations suggest that proposal three will generate a net benefit of $51, 000 for the company.

Proposal Selection: Considering the above calculation work and other case scenario information, it can be said that the company will have more monetary benefits if they select the proposal three. By selecting this proposal company can save $11000 more than the other proposals (proposal A and Proposal B). Both of these proposals can save only $40,000 for the company after deducting the cost of the proposal. Conclusively, it can be said that after analyzing I would apply proposal 3 because of higher benefits associated with this proposal in comparison to other available proposals. The proposal 3 not only reduce the penalty amount by a higher percentage but also require cost lower than other available proposals. Thus, the selection of proposal 3 is a wise decision.  

Question: 3

How would your analysis change if the company factors in the possibility of a cold-weather no-work period in the month of December?

The project is a construction based project in which projects workers will start work from clearing the area of construction and end after the painting of the whole constructed building on 7^th January 2022. The analysis of time duration will get change in case company give official holidays to their employees in the month of December. According to the developed time plan, in the month of December, workers have to work on several activities including installation of turf and power lines installation in the constructed building. However, according to the case study, December will have cold weather in which employees would not be able to work properly and come to the workplace (Kloppenborg, 2014).

Thus, in such an extreme weather condition company would give off to their employees. While in the month of December, project management will hold on all project-related activities. In case, the company give official off and hold on all activities then all activities planned to be done in the month of December will be shifted on next month. Somehow, it would not generate impact one month activities. In fact, all activities after the month of December will have an impact. Each activity to be done in the month of December will be started in the month of January. Consequently, activities due in the month of January will be started in the month of February. Thus, the overall project will have delays and shifted one month ahead of pre-developed time schedule. The no-work period of December will generate a delay of 8.5 weeks for the overall project. See the following table in which possible delays for the activities are stated in the delay column.

Activities	Weeks	Start Date	End Date	Month	Delay
Installing turf	12	28-Sep-20	18-Dec-20	December	3 weeks
Excavating	4	21-Dec-20	15-Jan-21	January	1.5 weeks
Pouring concrete for basement	4	18-Jan-21	12-Feb-21	Feb
construction of the walls	12	15-Feb-21	7-May-21	May
Constructing the roof	13	10-May-21	6-Aug-21	August
Interior work	5	6-Aug-21	10-Sep-21	September
Approval	4	13-Sep-21	8-Oct-21	October
Power lines	8	11-Oct-21	3-Dec-21	December
electrical work	5	6-Dec-21	7-Jan-22	January	4 weeks

Thus, based on the above presented table it can be said that all activities after installing turf will be shifted to the next month respectively. The overall project completion date will be also changed from 7^th January 2022 to 8.5 weeks after it. However, the overall penalty amount will also rise for the company. See the following calculation for the increase in penalty:

Conclusively, it can be said that no work period in the month of December will not be beneficial for the company. In short, it will increase the total time duration for the project completion. While on the other hand, it will also increase the penalty cost for the company which is not desirable for the company. The overall analysis for the project time duration and cost is changed as a result of this little change of no-work period in the month of December.