2024 BUS 370 Project Scheduling Assignment Help

Professor Al E Gator who has been teaching Management Science at the Swamproot University School of Business has decided 2023

Professor Al E. Gator, who has been teaching Management Science at the Swamproot University School of Business, has decided to publish his own textbook based on the materials that he has developed over the past 25 years. He expects his textbook to be a big hit, as does his publisher, John Smiley, & Sons, Inc. Professor Gator asked his graduate assistant, Amanda, to help him organize the schedule of core macro-level activities that constitute this project. She has estimated that it will take about 21 months (i.e., 452 business days) to complete the entire publishing process. After discussions with Smiley and Sons, Amanda determined that Al will lose about $10,000 per business day in book royalties from textbook sales if the project is not completed by the deadline. Table 1 shows the precedence relationships among the macro-level activities that constitute the upcoming project, as well as the optimistic(a), most likely(m), and pessimistic(b) activity times estimated in business days. Table 1 MACRO- ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION IMMEDIATE ESTIMATED ACTIVITY TIMES LEVEL PREDECESSOR (IN BUSINESS DAYS) ACTIVITY Optimistic Most Likely Pessimistic A Al arranges for a meeting with – 8 10 12 Smiley editor to discuss the project B Al prepares an outline for the text A 20 22 25 C Al prepares and sends editor two A 51 55 59 sample chapters D Al prepares and sends a formal B,C 4 5 5 proposal to Smiley E Editor engages faculty for review C 10 10 12 and compiles their suggested changes F Al implements editor’s changes on D, E 8 10 13 the two sample chapters G Al negotiates final contract details E 18 19 24 with Smiley H Al prepares and sends the E 172 185 197 remaining seven chapters to editor I Al drafts all figures and graphs F, H 51 56 65 J Editor reviews the preliminary I 9 10 13 figures and graphs K Editor reviews the entire text and J 53 55 61 makes final changes L Al reviews editor’s final changes K 8 9 11 M Smiley marketing department G 43 50 58 executes promotional program for text N Smiley prints copies of the text L 32 37 41 O Smiley distributes copies to M, N 11 12 14 warehouses P Smiley distributes copies from O 7 7 7 warehouses to campus bookstores Part A. Please use your understanding of project scheduling to help Amanda address the following: 1. Please identify the critical path using the activity letters provided, and explain the significance of the critical path. 2. With respect to the total project, what is your best estimate of: a. the expected project-completion time? b. the most-likely project-completion time? c. the variance of the project completion time? Also, one-by-one , please discuss briefly the specific statistical assumptions, if any, that you made in answering questions 2a., 2b., and 2c. 3. Please create the fully-labeled network diagram for the project using the activity letters provided as labels, and explain its usefulness in managing this project. What information and insights does the labeled network diagram provide? 4. Please create the Gantt chart and explain its potential incremental usefulness in managing this project. What additional information and insights does it provide above and beyond those provided by the network diagram in question 3? 5. Please calculate the free slack for activities F and M. What do they tell you about the risk of the critical path identified in question 1 being overtaken by another path when the project is actually conducted? 6. On which activity would you focus on most heavily to reduce the total-project-completion time? Please explain how you arrived at your answer. 7. How likely it is that the project will not meet the current deadline of 452 business days? Please explain how you arrived at your answer. Part B. Suppose that Professor Gator, who is extremely risk-adverse, feels that the probability of missing the 452-business-day deadline (from Q.A.7) is too high. As a consequence, he wants to have Amanda evaluate various activity-crashing scenarios that would reduce the likelihood of incurring a penalty cost for missing this completion time. Since the most-likely activity-time estimates (m’s) provided in Part A are frequently closer to their respective optimistic time estimates (a’s) than they are to their pessimistic estimates (b’s), Al wants to use a more conservative approach to estimating each activity’s normal time. He has decided to use the mid-point between a and b in estimating each activity’s normal time [i.e., NT=(a+b)/2] instead of using m or m . He feels that optimistic time estimates from Part A are good estimates for the crash times. The corresponding normal and crash direct costs for all 16 activities are presented in Table 2. 3 Table 2 Activity Normal Cost Crash Cost A $0 $0 B $16,500 $24,300 C $20,500 $48,700 D $5,000 $8,500 E $42,300 $73,700 F $23,300 $40,500 G $20,500 $30,500 H $57,500 $81,500 I $17,300 $25,500 J $4,500 $5,700 K $11,900 $14,500 L $3,000 $6,500 M $227,100 $285,500 N $118,300 $149,300 O $47,500 $93,300 P $42,900 $42,900 Please use your understanding of project scheduling to help Amanda address the following: 1. What is the normal project duration (i.e., without any crashing)? What is the associated total direct cost? What is the associated likelihood that the target completion time of 452 business days will be met? Please explain the rationale that you used in arriving at your probability estimate. 2. What is the minimum project duration? What is the associated all-crash total direct cost? What is the critical path associated with the all-crash scenario? 3. Which activities have been crashed without reducing the total project completion time? After accounting for activities that do not need to be crashed, what is the minimum total direct cost associated with the minimum project duration? What are the savings in total direct cost due to optimization of the crashing process? Does the critical path differ from your answer to B.2? Explain why or why not. 4. Provide the Crash Cost per Day for each activity. From a cost perspective, which activity should be crashed first? Which activity, or activities, should Amanda recommend crashing in order to reduce the project completion time by 10 business days for the minimum cost? What is the crash cost for those 10 days? 5. Professor Gator agrees with Amanda’s recommendation to crash by 10 business days, but wants to go even further and crash by a total of 20 business days. What is the difference in cost between crashing 20 days and 10 days? How can you explain this difference?

2024 FIN 534 Week 2 Chapter 3 Assignment Help

1 Which of the following statements is CORRECT a The ratio of 2023

1. Which of the following statements is CORRECT? a. The ratio of long-term debt to total capital is more likely to experience seasonal fluctuations than is either the DSO or the inventory turnover ratio. b. If two firms have the same ROA, the firm with the most debt can be expected to have the lower ROE. c. An increase in the DSO, other things held constant, could be expected to increase the total assets turnover ratio. d. An increase in the DSO, other things held constant, could be expected to increase the ROE. e. An increase in a firm’s debt ratio, with no changes in its sales or operating costs, could be expected to lower the profit margin. 2. Companies HD and LD have the same tax rate, sales, total assets, and basic earning power. Both companies have positive net incomes. Company HD has a higher debt ratio and, therefore, a higher interest expense. Which of the following statements is CORRECT? a. Company HD has a lower equity multiplier. b. Company HD has more net income. c. Company HD pays more in taxes. d. Company HD has a lower ROE. e. Company HD has a lower times interest earned (TIE) ratio. 3. Companies HD and LD have the same total assets, sales, operating costs, and tax rates, and they pay the same interest rate on their debt. However, company HD has a higher debt ratio. Which of the following statements is CORRECT? a. Given this information, LD must have the higher ROE. b. Company LD has a higher basic earning power ratio (BEP). c. Company HD has a higher basic earning power ratio (BEP). d. If the interest rate the companies pay on their debt is more than their basic earning power (BEP), then Company HD will have the higher ROE. e. If the interest rate the companies pay on their debt is less than their basic earning power (BEP), then Company HD will have the higher ROE. 4. Muscarella Inc. has the following balance sheet and income statement data: Cash $ 14,000 Accounts payable $ 42,000 Receivables 70,000 Other current liabilities 28,000 Inventories 210,000 Total CL $ 70,000 Total CA $294,000 Long-term debt 70,000 Net fixed assets 126,000 Common equity 280,000 Total assets $420,000 Total liab. and equity $420,000 Sales $280,000 Net income $ 21,000 The new CFO thinks that inventories are excessive and could be lowered sufficiently to cause the current ratio to equal the industry average, 2.70, without affecting either sales or net income. Assuming that inventories are sold off and not replaced to get the current ratio to the target level, and that the funds generated are used to buy back common stock at book value, by how much would the ROE change? a. 4.28% b. 4.50% c. 4.73% d. 4.96% e. 5.21% 5. Quigley Inc. is considering two financial plans for the coming year. Management expects sales to be $301,770, operating costs to be $266,545, assets to be $200,000, and its tax rate to be 35%. Under Plan A it would use 25% debt and 75% common equity. The interest rate on the debt would be 8.8%, but the TIE ratio would have to be kept at 4.00 or more. Under Plan B the maximum debt that met the TIE constraint would be employed. Assuming that sales, operating costs, assets, the interest rate, and the tax rate would all remain constant, by how much would the ROE change in response to the change in the capital structure? a. 3.83% b. 4.02% c. 4.22% d. 4.43% e. 4.65%

2024 Memo 1 Assignment Help

Review the case study Working as a Cross Cultural Team in your textbook Pg 2023

Review the case study “Working as a Cross-Cultural Team” in your textbook (Pg. 60-61). In a memo to me, explain how the team demonstrated characteristics that successful teams share. Underline your topic sentence for each paragraph. Preferably begin your paragraph with your topic sentence. In addition, you may use sub-headings as well. You need not have sub-headings; but you must have topic sentences. Review the additional reading material on topic sentences in the Course Materials folder. Prepare Memo #1 as a report in and of itself. In other words, begin the body of your report below the memo heading. Memo #1 will be one-two pages.

2024 finance diss Assignment Help

Assignment 1 Discussion Finance Organization and Long Term Planning Considering Genesis Energy s aggressive growth plan 2023

Assignment 1: Discussion—Finance Organization and Long-Term Planning Considering Genesis Energy’s aggressive growth plan, Sensible Essentials suggested that its client should broaden the scope of financing beyond short-term loans and consider long-term financing options. These options would greatly enhance the ability of the operations management team to fund the capital investments and growth in operating expenses. One option is selling more equity in the company. A public stock offering might be a possibility; however, a company as young and small as Genesis Energy might be hard to value. Sensible Essentials believes that another private investor might require preferred stock dividends in order to mitigate some of the financial risk. Another option is a long-term bank loan. Acting as the finance expert for Sensible Essentials, respond to the following: Determine the cost of debt and equity for Genesis Energy and its weighted average cost of capital. Go to www.yahoofinance.com and look under SEC filings. Use a US publicly traded company, such as Apple, Google, DuPont, etc. Identify the sources of long-term financing for Genesis Energy. Analyze the potential costs and benefits of each option. Explain how relative risk (from the investor’s perspective) impacts the cost of capital for Genesis Energy. Determine the cost of debt and equity for Genesis Energy and its weighted average cost of capital. Calculate the required rate of return for Genesis Energy using the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). What is the required return for Genesis Energy shareholders? By Saturday, September 12, 2015 , post your response to the appropriate Discussion Area . Through Wednesday, September 16, 2015 , review and comment on at least two peers’ responses. Write your initial response in 300–500 words. Your response should be thorough and address all components of the discussion question in detail, include citations of all sources, where needed, according to the APA Style, and demonstrate accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation Do the following when responding to your peers: Read your peers’ answers. Provide substantive comments by contributing new, relevant information from course readings, Web sites, or other sources; building on the remarks or questions of others; or sharing practical examples of key concepts from your professional or personal experiences Respond to feedback on your posting and provide feedback to other students on their ideas. Make sure your writing is clear, concise, and organized; demonstrates ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; and displays accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Grading Criteria Assignment Components Max Points Initial response was: Insightful, original, accurate, and timely. Substantive and demonstrated advanced understanding of concepts. Compiled/synthesized theories and concepts drawn from a variety of sources to support statements and conclusions. 16 Discussion Response and Participation: Responded to a minimum of two peers in a timely manner. Offered points of view supported by research. Asked challenging questions that promoted discussion. Drew relationships between one or more points in the discussion. 16 Writing: Wrote in a clear, concise, formal, and organized manner. Responses were error free. Information from sources, where applicable, was paraphrased appropriately and accurately cited. 8 Total: 40