Toys City Inc.

Critical path analysis identifies the most efficient and cost effective way of completing a complex project. The various activities which together will make up the project are identified, and the order of these activities are identified. Then, the duration of each activity is estimated and these factors are then arranged as a network or graph, showing the whole project from start to finish, and showing which tasks can happen at the same time. The sequence of tasks which have to be done one after another with no gaps in between is called the Critical Path.

The purpose of this memo is to document and evaluate the business risks faced by Toy Central Corporation (TCC), as well as audit risks, accounting issues identified, and management assertions affected.

Analyzing the critical path, there is a high level risk as it runs parallel to itself, more than one task at a particular time could delay project. Some other tasks run parallel to the critical path and have same duration; a delay in one of these tasks will change the critical path and delay the whole project.

(b) Which activities should be crashed to meet a project deadline of 12 days at minimum cost?

Organizational Hierarchy Structure- Toys R Us was a decentralized organization, which had a leadership type setting from country to country. This type of structure was difficult because all the leaders from different countries were not communicating effectively. The company knew they had to make some changes to the system, if they wanted to be successful. Therefore, after careful consideration, the company decided to move to a more centralized structure. This change was needed to strengthen their business with regards to their compatibility amongst countries and creating a more efficient workplace in the United States and abroad. In the company’s business in Europe, instead of their being different leaders across the continent, there will

In almost every business, project management is critically important. The critical path method (CPM) will provide a timeline for the project manager for when tasks should be completed. In addition, providing a deadline and the negative effects it will have on the following successors if not completed on time. These many task are interdepended. Therefore, the CPM provides the start and finishes times of the tasks, and identifies the few tasks on the critical path that the project manager should observe to determine which task needs the most attention. Already discovering and incorporating the details the task or assignments may require, CPM calculates all task times, which can be measured in hours, days, weeks, and months. For any unintended manually input errors, a warning message will be provided. Including an automatic successor generator, task numbering comment, and data validation, makes it easier on the project manager.

Critical Path: The sequence of activities that represents the longest path through a project, which determines the shortest possible duration.

Problem 12 (page 82) Table 2.5 on page 82 contains information about an environmental clean-up project. Shorten the project three weeks by finding the minimum-cost schedule. Assume that project indirect costs and penalty consts are negligible. Identify activities to crash while minimizing the additional crash costs. Solution: AON Diagram for the environmental project:

Through my experience in the toy department of Wal-Mart I have learned that no toy is manufactured unintentionally but that each has a purpose and a targeted audience. This conclusion was made through my critical analysis of marketing, colour choices, layout, and cost in regards to the toys. As I strolled through the three aisles, sections of toys began to blend together as it was organized in an orderly manner; separated by colour choices and characteristics. As a result, it was made evidently clear which toys were being targeted to which specific sex. Moreover, from the flyer to the bright, over-the-top graphics, the marketing methods were very persuasive and convincing to children and parents alike. In addition, Wal-Mart used sale methods to draw customers to their products. These sales worked to promote the product to parents as well as reach families of different socio-economic backgrounds. However, despite their effort, the products within Wal-Mart do not achieve the reduction of the economic gap due to the separation of one product set, which increases overall cost of that whole product. In conclusion, Wal-Mart’s Toy Department worked to convince children and parents alike to need and want their product in addition to instilling societal gender stereotypes and sustaining economic inequalities.

Before deciding which activities should be crashed, Bjorn and his team first need to have a clear understanding of the project's priorities. To do this the team has first defined the project's scope and decided to develop a project priority matrix.

Analyzing crash times and costs we see that if each activity were crashed the project could be finished in 42 weeks, however, the budget would skyrocket to $4.952 million. Therefore, the team will need to analyze the project network and its critical path to determine which individual activities can be crashed while maintaining the integrity of the budget and the duration of the project.

To arrive at the optimal schedule, Bjorn and his team must consider which activities to accomplish using normal conditions and which activities to crash that keeps the budget to a minimum. To accomplish this, using table 2 we first notice that activities C, E, G, H, N, O, and P cannot be crashed and therefore,

The theoretical flow time of each path is determined by adding the work contents of the activities along that path. Thus the theoretical flow time of path 1 is 100 minutes and that of path 2 is 127 minutes. Path 2 is then the critical path and the theoretical flow time for the Deluxe model is 127 minutes.

Having 3 days of delay in electrical can affect the whole project. Therefore, the negotiation of 15 working days would exceed up to 18 days, which could cause the penalty of $300 ($100 per extra day). In order to minimise a project’s critical path, sequencing of tasks should be changed. On the off chance that one can do a project’s tasks in alternate grouping to that initially proposed, one might have the capacity to shorten the critical path. A level of intricacy by striving for shortening the critical path, which is primarily hazardous, is unavoidably acquainted with the task. (Aydar, 2014) With a specific end goal to convey this shorter timescale, the critical path should be controlled

In 1991, the entry of Toys “R” Us would displace more people from jobs than the opportunities it would create. The displaced people also include old people above 60 for whom this is a safety net post retirement. Japanese economy was in a state of virtual full employment with qualified male graduates preferring local employers to foreign establishments. Yet it will give employment opportunities for Japanese women