JZ, Inc. is a leader in high-quality grill manufacturing. Recently, field representatives indicated that the
demand for wood pellet grills is increasing. JZ’s president, Rhett Johnson, thinks that wood pellet grills
will be the new direction of the company, since that increases the marketability of the company’s
products to countries that already use wood pellets for home heating. JZ, Inc. is a small company
focused on high-end products. They use a priority matrix to guide their projects, as seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Project Priority Matrix for Wood Pellet Grill Project:
Part 1
You are a project team member for JZ’s wood pellet grill development project. The project will
affectionately be known as the “Pellet Project”. The information necessary to create a project schedule
has been provided in Table 1 by the project manager.
Table 1. Pellet Project Schedule
The following assumptions will hold true for this project:
1. The project begins January 2, 2015
2. The holidays observed at JZ, Inc. are:
a. Martin Luther King Day (3rd Monday in January)
b. Memorial Day (last Monday in May)
c. July 4th
d. Labor Day (1st Monday in September)
e. Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday in November)
f. Christmas Day (December 25th)
3. If a holiday falls on a Saturday, then Friday will be given as the day of observance. If the holiday
falls on a Sunday, then Monday will be given as the day of observance.
4. The project team works eight-hour days, Monday through Friday.
Deliverables for Part 1
Construct a network for this project and prepare a memo that answers the following questions:
1. When is the project estimated to be completed?
2. How long will the project take?
3. What is the critical path for the project?
4. Which activity has the most slack?
5. How sensitive is the network?
6. Identify and justify two sensible milestones for the project.
