Alwal Project India Ltd. was started by Sudhakar Alwal in 1980. The company successfully implemented several turnkey projects. Recently, the company was given a project of constructing a fertilizer-manufacturing unit on turnkey basis by Omega Fertilizers Ltd., near Nalgonda, Andhra Pradesh. Jaya Sankar was appointed as the project manager by Alwal to execute this project.

Venkat Vishnu, the senior manager at Omega Fertilizers Ltd., and Sankar prepared the project schedule together. Both identify the activities:

* Site development and construction of a factory building is the activity (activity A) to be started first and the expected time of this activity is 16 months.

* Since Alwal Project India Ltd., fabricates some of the items of machinery and procures the remaining items from outside, the activity of fabrication and procurement (activity B) is started simultaneously with the site development and construction of the factory building. This activity is expected to be completed in 12 months.

* Once the process of fabrication and procurement is over, the machinery is aligned and installed. This is activity C and it is expected to be completed in 8 months.

* After completion of activity A, the entire electricity and plumbing work (activity D) is expected to be completed in 6 months. This activity is done along with the alignment and installation of the machinery.

* The finishing work of the building (activity E) can be started as soon as the construction is over. This activity can be carried out without having to wait for alignment and installation of machinery. The expected time period for this activity is 6 months.

* The interior work (activity F) of the factory is likely to take 3 months and it can be started only after the completion of machinery alignment and installation, and electricity and plumbing work.

Questions for Discussion:

1.