BBDM2153 - Operations Management

Tutorials 4

ANSWER

1) A company is considering using CPM to plan a new project with the following activities and their
precedence relationships, you are to draw an AOA diagram to demonstrate the answer.
Immediate Immediate
Activity Predecessors Activity Predecessors
a - f a,b
b - g a,b,c
c - h d,e
d a,b i f,g
e a

AOA

(a) How many possible paths are there in the network?

Possible paths in CPM network = 8

a-e-h b-d-h c-g-i
a-dummy-d-h b-f-i
a-dummy-f-i b-dummy-g-i
a-dummy-dummy-g-i

(b) How many paths is activity "a" as a part of the project?

Paths = 4
a-e-h
a-dummy-d-h
a-dummy-f-i
a-dummy-dummy-g-i

3) A manufacturing company is planning to use PERT to setup a project for a new

production line. For this project, they have established the following activities,
precedence relationships, and time estimates in days:

Activity Immediate Optimistic Most Likely Pessimistic

Prede to tm tp
cesso
rs
A -- 8 10 12
B -- 6 7 9
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C B 3 3 3
D A 10 15 20
E D 6 7 8
F C 9 10 11
G D 5 7 10
H E,F 14 15 16

(a) What is the expected duration for activity "b"?

7.17 days  te = (to + 4tm + tp)/6 = (6 + 4 * 7 + 9)/6 = 7.17

Most Expected
Optimist Likely Pessimist Duration Variance
Activity to tm tp te Vt
a 8 10 12 10.00 0.444
b 6 7 9 7.17 0.250
c 3 3 3 3.00 0.000
d 10 15 20 15.00 2.778
e 6 7 8 7.00 0.111
f 9 10 11 10.00 0.111
g 5 7 10 7.17 0.694
h 14 15 16 15.00 0.111

(b) What is the variance of activity "d"?

2.778  Vt = [(tp - to) /6]**2 = [(20-10)/6]**2 = 2.778

(c ) How many paths are there in the network?

3
a-d-g 10+15+7.17 = 32.17
a-d-e-h 10+15+7+15 = 47.00
b-c-f-h 7.17+3+10+15 = 35.17

AOA
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(d) What is the earliest finish (EF) time for activity “e”?

32.00 days

Activity Duration ES EF LS LF S
a 10.00 0.00 10.00 0.00 10.00 0.00*
b 7.17 0.00 7.17 11.83 19.00 11.83
c 3.00 7.17 10.17 19.00 22.00 11.83
d 15.00 10.00 25.00 10.00 25.00 0.00*
e 7.00 25.00 32.00 25.00 32.00 0.00*
f 10.00 10.17 20.17 22.00 32.00 11.83
g 7.17 25.00 32.17 39.83 47.00 14.83
h 15.00 32.00 47.00 32.00 47.00 0.00*

(e) What is the slack in days for activity “c”?

11.83  S = LS – ES
S = LF - EF

(f) What is the critical path?

The critical path is a-d-e-h

(g) What is the duration of the critical path in days?

47 days
The project duration is 47 days

4) A construction company wants to construct a warehouse by using Critical Path Method (CPM).
The activities are as shown below in the table, where the duration are indicated in “week”,
cost in Ringgit Malaysia (RM), precedence relationships, and the costs to accelerate the
activity.

Present Accelerated
Immediate
Activity Predecessors Duration RM Duration RM
a -- 3 3,200 2 3,400
b -- 5 4,000 3 4,150
c a 4 3,600 3 3,900
d b 6 5,800 4 6,000
e c,d 4 6,600 3 6,900
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f e 3 4,000 2 4,400
g f 4 9,000 3 9,100
h f 5 8,700 3 9,000
i g,h 4 2,700 3 3,000

(i) Construct the CPM network using Activity on node (AON) approach with the information
given in the table. (4 marks)

CPM network using AON approach

(ii) List the critical paths for this project. What is its duration in weeks?

Critical paths for this project BDEFHI

Duration in weeks : 27 weeks

(iii) What is the earliest finish (EF) time for activity "c"?

EF for activity ‘c’ = ES + activity time

= 3+4
= 7 weeks

(iv) What activity should be crashed first in order to accelerate the project?

Per week crashing costs for each activity: (* denotes falling in critical paths)

a: (3,400 – 3,200) / (3-2) = 200/1 = 200

b: (4,150 – 4,000) / (5-3) = 150/2 = 75*
c: (3,900 – 3,600) / (4-3) = 300/1 = 300
d: (6,000 – 5,800) / (6-4) = 200/2 = 100*
e: (6,900 – 6,600) / (4-3) = 300/1 = 300*
f: (4,400 – 4,000) / (3-2) = 400/1 = 400*
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g: (9,100 – 9,000) / (4-3) = 100/1 = 100

h: (9,000 – 8,700) / (5-3) = 300/2 = 150*
i: (3,000 – 2,700) / (4-3) = 300/1 = 300*

Activity to be crashed first in order to accelerate the project, answer is “activity b”

(v) Explain what is Gantt chart.

Visual aids that are useful in loading and scheduling or it is a planning charts used to
schedule resources and allocate time.

6) Although the PERT or CPM network or analysis is prepared, but you are required to
speed up the completion of the project. How do you decide on the activities so as to
complete the project sooner?

 Crash only critical activities  those on the critical path

i) Those with zero slack
 Crash activities with the lowest crashing cost per unit of time first
 Crash only non-parallel activities
i) Crash those not more than one critical path  Otherwise, each of the critical paths
must be reduced.
ii) When reduce an activity’s time, it may create a new critical path.
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7) A startup company is planning to use a CPM network to turn a promising new technology
into a product. They have established a project whose manager developed these activities,
precedence relationships, and activity durations (in days) for the effort:
Immediate
Activity Predecessors Duration
a -- 4
b -- 5
c -- 3
d a 2
e b 3
f c 1
g d,e,f 5
h d,e,f 4
i g 7
j h 3
k i 1
l j,k 2
m i 2

(a) How many paths are in the network?

Possible paths and durations in CPM network = 9

a-d-h-j-i 4+2+4+3+2 = 15
a-d-g-i-m 4+2+5+7+2 = 20
a-d-g-i-k-1 4+2+5+7+1+2 = 21
b-e-h-j-1 5+3+4+3+2 = 17
b-e-g-i-m 5+3+5+7+2 = 22
b-e-g-i-k-1 5+3+5+7+1+2 = 23
c-f-h-j-1 3+1+4+3+2 = 13
c-f-g-i-m 3+1+5+7+2 = 18
c-f-g-i-k-l 3+1+5+7+1+2 = 19

(b) What is the earliest finish (EF) time for activity "h"?
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EF = 12 days
Activity Duration ES EF LS LF S
a 4 0 4 2 6 2
b 5 0 5 0 5 0*
c 3 0 3 4 7 4
d 2 4 6 6 8 2
e 3 5 8 5 8 0*
f 1 3 4 7 8 4
g 5 8 13 8 13 0*
h 4 8 12 14 18 6
i 7 13 20 13 20 0*
j 3 12 15 18 21 6
k 1 20 21 20 21 0*
1 2 21 23 21 23 0*
m 2 20 22 21 23 1

(c) What is the slack in days for activity "k"?

Slack = 0 day

(d) What is the critical path?

Critical path is b-e-g-i-k-1

(e) What is the duration of the critical path in days?

The project duration is 23 days