Talroth Construction Co. is a large engineering and construction firm that speci

Question

Talroth Construction Co. is a large engineering and construction firm that specializes in the design and construction of airports, refineries, and power plants on a worldwide basis. The company maintains an engineering and design staff of approximately 1000 professionals at their home plant in Dallas.

Talroth’s engineering computer requirements are provided by a single mainframe system. This computer was the envy of the industry when it was installed five years age, but some of the staff engineers believe that the computer is showing its age. Complaints about slow response time have become commonplace. The computer center manager agrees that system performance is worse now than last year, but claims that it is all due to a new contract that added 100 staff members. The result was an increase in response time from 6 minutes to 13.5 minutes per job. The center now handles 500 jobs per day instead of the 450 jobs per day last year. Each job requires one minute of computer processing time. The center is open nine hours per day.

Everyone agrees that the new staff will add workload to the computer in direct proportion to their numbers. The computer center manager says that the existing computer cannot handle this increased load, and recommends the purchase of a new computer that is made by the manufacturer of the existing machine. This new machine is twice as fast as the old computer and will cost $750,000. It is compatible with the old machine; therefore, no additional resources will be needed to convert programs.

The vice president in charge of facilities and services would prefer to keep the old computer, and has suggested hiring an additional operator to speed up the response time. With a second operator the computer facility could remain open for 15 hours per day. This operator will cost $25,000 per year.

Most of the design staff wants the company to get microcomputers. Their recommendation is to purchase 10 microcomputers at a cost of $10,000 each to replace the current computer. Ten micros are needed to match the processing capacity of the proposed new mainframe. The computer center manager doesn’t like this solution and has pointed out that converting programs to these new machines will cost $150,000.

Which solution will provide the fastest response time. Explain.

Explanation / Answer

the idea with 10 microcomputers is best, as it would reduce the workload and match it to the new proposed main fame, plus at max, it would cost $2,50,000 with the conversion of the software, plus the old mainframe is ageing, hence the response time would grow hence idea of VP to get another operator although would cost less but the response time is likely to be same, it would be reduced just by a fraction because processing speed of the main frame would be the same. The last option of introducing the new mainframe at $750,000 is the costliest option, plus there is a chance that it might be redundant in another 5 years.

Hence the option with 10 microcomputers is the best option as it could be modified to add more terminals in future to enhance the speed of the response time according to the need, so it is the best option for the company to look in to invest for.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse T
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.