d) the efficiency of the project can be increased by crashing other activities in addition to creating the guest list and purchasing the food. Annie can crash activities like buying decorations and planning the menu. By crashing the buying of decoration Annie reduces the costs of the project by $70 and its duration by 2 hours. It is also recommended to crash this activity because it does not depend on the number of guests and it does not influence other activities. By crashing of the planning of the menu activity, Annie reduces the cost of the project by $60 and its duration by one hour. This activity influences activities like purchasing of food, and preparing it. Therefore, the reduction of planning the menu can help increase the efficiency of purchasing and preparing the food.

In addition to this, Annie can also crash the sending of invitations activity. This can reduce the costs of the project by $25 and its duration by one hour. The activity regarding sending the invitations does not influence the following activities of the project. Therefore, it is recommended to crash this activity in order to reduce the financial resources that this project requires. The money saved using this strategy can be spent on improving other issues.

This strategy can be applied to most projects, regardless of their objectives or size. It is important that project managers try to reduce the costs associated to projects' activities, but also their duration. By crashing certain activities, project managers can save important resources (Meyer, 2002). However, it is recommended to thoroughly analyze the effects of this strategy. This is because some of projects' activities cannot be crashed because they have significant effects on the quality of the project. Therefore, it is important that managers have the ability of determining which activities can be crashed.

e) by crashing the activities of the project Annie can save $480. Annie saves 12 hours by crashing the project. If she saves $40 for every hour reduced from the project, than this leads to $480. Annie wants to use this money she saved by crashing the activities of the project for buying a better present for her sister Gwendolyn.

This is a good example of the importance...

The example reveals how important amounts of money can be saved by crashing these activities. In addition to this, by crashing some of projects' activities, the timing of the project can be reduced. There are also other objectives that can be reached by this strategy. For example, in certain cases where the financial resources do not suffice in order to develop the project according to its schedule, other activities can be crashed in order to save some money that can be allocated to activities that require it. There are also situations where different factors determine a series of delays of certain activities, causing a long duration of the project than established. The effects of these factors can be counteracted by crashing certain activities and saving important amounts of time. The crashing of certain project activities should be performed in accordance with time management principles.
f) the duration of the fully crashed project reaches 18 hours in comparison with the duration of the project at its normal duration that reaches 30 hours. Therefore, Annie can save 12 hours. The amount of time saved can be used for looking for a gift that Annie wants to buy her sister. This example can be used by project manages and by other individuals that want to learn how they can improve the scheduling of projects and how they can better use their resources. It is important that such practices are used in accordance with the objectives of the project in case. Therefore, project managers should develop strategies that focus on improving the efficiency and productivity.

Reference list:

1.Meyer, B. (2002). Project Costs and Crashing. Management of Operations. Retrieved February 11, 2012.

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