Question

Glades County is a region on the Gulf Coast with a population of 600,000. About 90 percent of the population is located in and near the city of Sitkus. The main attractions of the area are its clean, sandy beaches and nearby fishing. Resorts, restaurants, hotels, retailers, and the Sitkus/Glades County economy in general rely on these attractions for tourist dollars. In the past decade, Glades County has expe- rienced a near doubling of population and indus- try. One result has been the noticeable increase in the level of water pollution along the coast due primarily to the increased raw sewage dumped by Glades County into the Gulf. Ordinarily, the Glades County sewer system directs effluent waste through filtration plants before pumping it into the Gulf. Although the Glades County Sani- tary District (GCSD) usually is able to handle the county’s sewage, during heavy rains the runoff from paved surfaces exceeds sewer capacity and must be diverted past filtration plants and directly into the Gulf. Following heavy rains, the beaches are cluttered with dead fish and debris. The Gulf fishing trade is also affected, since pollution drives away desirable fish. Recently, the water pollution level has become high enough to damage both the tourist and fishing trades. Besides coastal pollu- tion, there is concern that as the population contin- ues to increase, the county’s primary fresh water source, Glades River, will also become polluted. The GCSD has been mandated to prepare a comprehensive water waste management program that will reverse the trend in pollution along the Gulf Coast as well as handle the expected increase in effluent wastes over the next 20 years. Although not yet specified, it is known that the program will include new sewers, filtration plants, and stricter anti-pollution laws. As a first step, GCSD must establish the overall direction and mission of the program. Answer the following questions (given the limited information, it is okay to advance some logical guesses; if you are not able to answer a question for lack of information, indicate how and where, as a systems engineer, you would get it):

5. Define the criteria or measures of performance to be used to determine whether the objectives of the program are being met. Specify sev- eral criteria for each sub-objective. As much as possible, the criteria should be quantitative, although some qualitative measures should also be included. How will you know if the criteria that you define are the appropriate ones to use?

6. What are the resources and constraints?

7. Elaborate on the kinds of alternatives and range of solutions to solving the problem.

8. Discuss some techniques that could be used to help evaluate which alternatives are best.

Answer 1

SOLUTION- Define the criteria or measures of performance to be used to determine whether the objectives of the program are being met.

Before arriving at the solution,lets first discuss what is the main problem.On reading the case the major problems identified are-

• Increase in the level of water pollution along the coast due primarily to the increased raw sewage dumped by Glades County into the Gulf and also this happened mainly because of the doubling of the population and industry along the Glades County.

OBJECTIVES-

• To prepare a comprehensive water waste management program that will reverse the trend in pollution along the Gulf Coast.
• Handle the expected increase in effluent wastes over the next 20 years.

STEPS-

IDENTIFY THE PROJECT SIZE -In order to run any project successsfully the most critical factor is to the identify the project size.Once you have identified the size.This steps helps in identifying what would be the deliverables that includes the determining the scope of management,Gantt Chart,refining estimates etc..

WORKFORCE REQUIREMENT-Once project size is determined, one can easily know the requirement of workforce in different verticals for successful implementation of the project.It also helps in identifying how many shift per day are required so that project can be completed in the stipulated time.

Once the number of workforce is determined,proper staffing and training of workforce is next step so that during the course of any project their shouldn't be any error from the workforce.

GOVERNEMNT CONSENT ON PROJECT-It is important to keep government body in the loop for running the project because they are the deciding authority with regard to the execution of the project.Their consent is of utmost importance in the project.

PROJECT PHASE STARTS-Once everything is OK, now you can start with your project keeping in mind the do's & dont's so that project can be completed in the stipulated time without any mishappening.

Solution- resources and constraints

Resources-

• Workforce
• Labour
• Raw-Materials
• Equipments.

Constraints-

• Government Rules & Regulations
• Terms & conditions associated with the project
• Natural resources like water ,electricity etc.(they are available in limited quantity).
• Macro-Economic factor(Political,cultural ,demographic issues etc).

Solution-kinds of alternatives and range of solutions to solving the problem.

Alternatives depends upon the project completion time and amount of resources to be used.If project is to be completed in the long time then less numbe rof workforce,equipments,less clearances from the government can help in achieving the project deadlines but if project is to be completed in less amount of time then more workforce,more number of equipments, better technology will be used for the successful implementation of the project.

Since this place is regular tourist spot destiantion and also now it is densely populated it becomes imperative to run this project successfully on time as country's most of the GDP comes from this part of the country.

Solution-some techniques that could be used to help evaluate which alternatives are best

Technique-

• Forecasting techniques can be used.
• Project can be divided in phases and each phase shall be monitored carefully.
• Projection Techniques shall be used.