Assignment title: Information
SIT101 Assignment 1 Page 1
16/03/2017
A/Prof Ekambaram Palaneeswaran | Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology, Swinburne University of
Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122
MME80001 RESOURCE PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
ASSIGNMENT – 1MME80001 Resource Planning and Management – Assignment 1 (Submission deadline: 07-04-2017, 5:00 PM)
Please submit your answers in the Assignment Collection Box 91 at 8th Floor of ATC Building. For further details, you
may contact: A/Prof. Ekambaram Palaneeswaran, ATC738, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne
University of Technology; email: [email protected]; Tel: +61 3 92148526
Page1
Important instructions:
(i) This assignment has two parts and you are required answer both parts. Carefully read the
instructions in each part.
(ii) This is an individual assignment and not a group work. Plagiarism should be strictly avoided.
(iii) You are suggested to use the Harvard System for citations, quotations and references.
(iv) Your assignment answers should be submitted in hardcopy format before the deadline. For late
submissions, penalties would be considered. In hardcopy submission, you are required to attach an
assignment coversheet (signed).
(v) Also, you are required to submit the softcopy of Part 1 (only) in Blackboard – Turnitin. You should not
upload coversheet in Blackboard – Turnitin!
PART 1
Answer any one question from Part 1. Your answer for a question (including subparts) in this part
may be around 1000 to 2000 words. In addition, you can include representative diagrams/
figures and tables (if so relevant).
[Hint: You may study various online journals from library, identify relevant research papers/ reports; also you
may consider hypothetical or practical contexts & data e.g. a specific role in relevant project-based or
manufacturing industry – to prepare your answers including diagrams, discussions and conclusions]
1. You are responsible to design the facility layout for: (i) a precast panel manufacturing
unit OR (ii) automobile remanufacturing unit in a suburb area near a large metropolitan
city. Hint: you shall choose either (i) or (ii) for your answer.
From the resource management perspectives for (a) one-off or less routine operations;
and (b) routine or frequent operations, outline your layout design with supporting
justifications and discussions.
2. You are responsible for obsolescence mitigation in a large international organisation.
Prepare a set of recommendations to your top management – i.e. with respect to (a)
stock of volatile materials, (b) equipment spare parts and (c) costly equipment.
3. Assume that you are working in an international organization which undertakes major
metro rail and other infrastructure projects in Australia, Asia and Europe. As a part of
your Australia division’s improvement initiative, you are assigned to prepare detailed
report on resource planning and management aspects for any two of the following:
a. Reliability centered maintenance management of key equipment resources
(you may assume one particular equipment);
b. Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) as an alternate material choice
c. Employing drones in project delivery OR asset management (you shall answer
either project delivery OR asset management aspect)
d. Use of autonomous (driverless) vehicles in large construction projects OR
mining industryMME80001 Resource Planning and Management – Assignment 1 (Submission deadline: 07-04-2017, 5:00 PM)
Please submit your answers in the Assignment Collection Box 91 at 8th Floor of ATC Building. For further details, you
may contact: A/Prof. Ekambaram Palaneeswaran, ATC738, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne
University of Technology; email: [email protected]; Tel: +61 3 92148526
Page2
PART 2
Answer any one question from Part 2. Your answer may include relevant representative
diagrams/ figures and tables.
1. After recent floods in Queensland, the road and rail infrastructure in some parts of the region
have been significantly damaged. Assume that you are a local construction contractor who
obtained a subcontract for repairing the bridges in this affected region. The AON (i.e. ‘activity
on node’) network for the project is shown in the Figure. Specific details of resource
requirements for various activities of this subcontract project are given in the Table.
Figure: AON Network Diagram for the project
Table: Activity details and resource information
Activity Duration
(days)
Key resource requirements per each day of project activities
Technical staff
(numbers)
Support
staff
(numbers)
Special Equipment
(numbers)
Epoxy
Material
(packets)
Fuel
(litres)
A 2 2 1 0 0 50
B 3 4 1 1 6 120
C 2 2 1 0 0 25
D 3 1 1 0 0 10
E 3 4 2 0 0 60
F 2 6 3 0 0 20
G 4 4 1 1 8 150
H 3 5 0 2 10 180
K 2 2 1 0 0 10
L 4 2 0 1 5 100
You are required to:
(i) Allocate requisite resources for all activities in this projects;
(ii) Carry our resource leveling and compare/ discuss options;
(iii) Discuss your strategies for allocating and levelling multiple resources (including
expendable and non-expendable categories)
(iv) Provide your suggestions regarding resource optimisationMME80001 Resource Planning and Management – Assignment 1 (Submission deadline: 07-04-2017, 5:00 PM)
Please submit your answers in the Assignment Collection Box 91 at 8th Floor of ATC Building. For further details, you
may contact: A/Prof. Ekambaram Palaneeswaran, ATC738, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne
University of Technology; email: [email protected]; Tel: +61 3 92148526
Page3
2. Assume that you are project manager of a renovation project and following information
regarding this project are available:
Activity Immediate
preceding
activity
Duration (days)
Optimistic (TO) Most Likely
(TM)
Pessimistic (TP)
A - 9 10 12
B A 4 6 10
C A 6 8 12
D B 3 6 8
E C 4 6 9
F D,E 3 3 3
G F 3 4 5
H G 1 2 3
I F,H 2 3 4
You are required to calculate expected time and variance for each activity in this project
and thereby:
(i) Determine expected completion time for this renovation project
(ii) Determine the probability that the project will finish at least 1 day late
(b) In an audit monitoring of a 8 billion dollars infrastructure development project, the
observation at a particular instance indicates that the project has been 78% complete
and the corresponding “To Complete Performance Index” (TCPI) is 1.295. You are
required to appraise the situation and briefly discuss your strategies from project
control perspectives.MME80001 Resource Planning and Management – Assignment 1 (Submission deadline: 07-04-2017, 5:00 PM)
Please submit your answers in the Assignment Collection Box 91 at 8th Floor of ATC Building. For further details, you
may contact: A/Prof. Ekambaram Palaneeswaran, ATC738, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne
University of Technology; email: [email protected]; Tel: +61 3 92148526
Page4
3. Your project team in XYZ gold mine was assigned to sink a 2.5 kilometers deep ventilation shaft
and excavating space for a station at the bottom. The plan was to sink the shaft within 24
months at a cost of $10,000 per meter of shaft depth. For the station at the bottom, 30,000
cubic meters of rock would have to be excavated within 3 months at a cost of $110 per cubic
meters. The plan assumed a uniform earned value over time. After the work had begun, the
scope of the project was changed to include excavation for a new station halfway down the
shaft (as shown in figure below) with a volume of 20,000 cubic meters.
It was agreed that the additional work would have to be done at the same excavation rate as
the bottom station, but since removal of the rock required hoisting only 1500 meters instead
of 2.5 kilometers for the bottom station, the team agreed on the cost of $80 per cubic meters
for the new station. Since limited working space and available resources would delimit the
amount of work that could be done simultaneously, everyone agreed that the new station
would delay the sinking of the shaft. After 15 months, the shaft had reached a depth of 1800
meters below surface and excavation for the halfway station was completed. The actual cost at
this time was 14 million dollars, which was more than was budgeted for the period. This
provoked a cash-flow issue at that stage and your executive management requested an earned
value report. Information on the relative amounts of time spent on excavating the new station
and sinking the shaft was not available.
(i) Calculate cost variance, schedule variance, time variance, and critical ratio
(ii) Prepare a graph showing initial plan and the changed plan and indicate earned value
and actual cost after 15 months.
(iii) Regarding the cash-flow problem that was aggravated by the high rate of spending,
discuss the desirability of performing projects faster than planned.
Ventilation shaft
New station
Station at shaft
bottom
l
.