Chapter Two

FUNDAMENTAL SCHEDULING

Lecture#4 PROCEDURES
 Relevance of Schedules
 CPM
 Analysis in CPM
 Calculation for critical path scheduling
 RELEVANCE OF SCHEDULING
 Purpose
 To activities;
• Assigning dates
• Match the resources: equipment, materials and labor with project work tasks
over time

• Good scheduling can eliminate problems due to production bottlenecks,

facilitate the timely procurement and delivery of necessary materials,

• poor scheduling can result in considerable waste as laborers and

equipment wait for the availability of needed resources or the
completion of preceding tasks
 RELEVANCE OF SCHEDULING (Cont’d)
 Many owners require detailed construction schedules to be
submitted by contractors as a means of monitoring the work
progress.
 Comparisons between the planned schedule and the actual
accomplishments may be performed to allocate the liability
for project delays due to changes requested by the owner,
worker strikes or other unforeseen circumstances.
 Refer FPPA 2011 Clause 41 Program of Implementation of Tasks (41.1-41.6)
 RELEVANCE OF SCHEDULING (Cont’d)
 Formal scheduling procedures;

• Easy-to-use software programs

• Sharing schedule information via the Internet

 Construction supervisors often carry schedule and budget information

with their computers.

 For resource oriented scheduling the focus is on scheduling and using

particular resources in an effective fashion (Resource Allocation Problem).

 For time oriented scheduling the emphasis is on determining the completion

time of the project given the necessary precedence relationships among activities
 Project Networks Analysis
 The term project networks analysis is a generic term that covers all the
network techniques used for planning, scheduling, and controlling
of projects.
 The three such commonly used project networks analysis techniques
are;
 Critical Path Method (CPM)
 Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and

 Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM), (Precedence Network

Analysis, PNA) .
These network techniques generate time-oriented diagram having
activities organized into a logical order.
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 Project Networks Analysis

 Common features are that they make use of the network

model for depicting the time plan of the project, apply the
critical path concept for determining project duration and
identifying critical activities, and, employ network analysis
techniques for controlling the project-time objectives.
But each of these techniques has a distinct model with a varying
field of application.
6
 THE CRITICAL PATH METHOD
 The critical path method (CPM) is the most widely used scheduling
technique (often referred to as critical path scheduling).
This method calculates the minimum completion time for a project along
with the possible start and finish times for the project activities.
 The critical path set the sequence of predecessor/successor activities which
will take the longest time to complete.
There may be more than one critical path among all the project activities

 Completion of the entire project could be delayed by delaying

activities along any one of the critical paths.
THE CRITICAL PATH METHOD (Cont’d)
 Critical path scheduling assumes that a project has been divided into
activities of fixed duration and well defined predecessor
relationships.

 No resource constraints other than those implied by precedence

relationships

 To use critical path scheduling in practice, construction planners often

represent a resource constraint by a precedence relation

 Construction plan can be represented by a network plan in which

activities appear as nodes in a network, (AoN)
THE CRITICAL PATH METHOD (Cont’d)

purposes of providing unique activity designations and

maintaining the correct sequence of activities.
 A dummy activity is assumed to have no time duration
and can be graphically represented by a dashed line in a
network.
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)

Activity-on-branch/Arrow(AOA)

 Assume that all precedence are of a finish-to-start nature

 Suppose that our project network has n+1 nodes, the initial event being 0

and the last event being n.

 Let the time at which node events occur be x1, x2,...., xn, respectively.

 The start of the project at x0 will be defined as time 0.

 Nodal event times must be consistent with activity durations, so that an

activity's successor node event time must be larger than an activity's

predecessor node event time plus its duration.
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)

• For an activity defined as starting from event i and

ending at event j, this relationship can be expressed
as the inequality constraint,

xj= xi + Dij

where Dij is the duration of activity (i,j).

Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)

Event Numbering Algorithm

Step 1: Give the starting event number 0.

Step 2: Give the next number to any unnumbered

event whose predecessor events are each
already numbered.
Step 3: Repeat Step 2 until all events are numbered.
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)
Earliest Event Time Algorithm (Forward Pass)

Step 1: Let E(0) = 0.

Step 2: For j = 1,2,3,...,n (where n is the last event),

Let E(j) = maximum {E(i) + Dij}

 where the maximum is computed over all activities (i,j)
that have j as the ending event.
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)

Latest Event Time Algorithm (Backward Pass)

Step 1: Let L(n) equal the required completion time of the project.

Note: L(n) must equal or exceed E(n)

Step 2: For i = n-1, n-2, ..., 0, let L(i) = minimum {L(j) - Dij}
 where the minimum is computed over all activities (i,j) that have i
as the starting event.

 The earliest event time algorithm computes the earliest possible time,
E(i), at which each event, i, in the network can occur.
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)

 The latest event time algorithm computes the latest possible time,
L(j), at which each event j in the network can occur, given the
desired completion time of the project, L(n) for the last event n.

 Usually, the desired completion time will be equal to the

earliest possible completion time, so that E(n) = L(n) for the
final node n.
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)

 The latest finish time consistent with completion of

the project in the desired time frame of L(n) for each
activity (i,j) is equal to the latest possible time L(j) for
the succeeding event:
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)
 The earliest start and latest finish times for each
event are useful pieces of information in developing a
project schedule.
 Events which have equal earliest and latest times,
E(i) = L(i), lie on the critical path or paths.
An activity (i,j) is a critical activity if it satisfies all of
the following conditions:
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)

 Hence, activities between critical events are also on a

critical path as long as the activity's earliest start time
equals its latest start time, ES(i,j) = LS(i,j).
 To avoid delaying the project, all the activities on a
critical path should begin as soon as possible, so
each critical activity (i,j) must be scheduled to begin at
the earliest possible start time, E(i).
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)
Precedence Relations and Durations for a Nine Activity
Project Example
Activity Predecessors Duration
A Site clearing -------- 4
B Removal of trees ---------- 3
C General excavation A 8
D Grading general area A 7
E Excavation for trenches B,C 9
F Placing formwork and reinforcement for concrete B,C 12
G Installing sewer lines D,E 2
H Installing other utilities D,E 5
I Pouring concrete F,G 6
Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)
Step 1: E(0) = 0
Step 2: j = 1
E(1) = Max{E(0) + D01} = Max{ 0 + 4 } = 4
j=2
E(2) = Max{E(0) + D02; E(1) + D12} = Max{0 + 3; 4 + 8} = 12
j=3
E(3) = Max{E(1) + D13; E(2) + D23} = Max{4 + 7; 12 + 9} = 21
j=4
E(4) = Max{E(2) + D24; E(3) + D34} = Max{12 + 12; 21 + 2} =
24
j=5
E(5) = Max{E(3) + D35; E(4) + D45} = Max{21 + 5; 24 + 6} = 30
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)
Step 1: L(5) = E(5) = 30
Step 2: j = 4
L(4) = Min {L(5) - D45} = Min {30 - 6} = 24
j=3
L(3) = Min {L(5) - D35; L(4) - D34} = Min {30 -5; 24 - 2} = 22
j=2
L(2) = Min {L(4) - D24; L(3) - D23} = Min {24 - 12; 22 - 9} = 12
j=1
L(1) = Min {L(3) - D13; L(2) - D12} = Min {22 - 7; 12 - 8} = 4
j=0
L(0) = Min {L(2) - D02; L(1) - D01} = Min {12 - 3; 4 - 4} = 0
 Calculation of Critical Path Method (Cont’d)
Precedence Relations and Durations for a Nine Activity
Project
Activity Example
DURATION E(i)=ES(I,j) L(j)=LF(i,j) LS(I,j)

A(0,1) 4 0 4 0
B(0,2) 3 0 12 9

C(1,2) 8 4 12 4
D(1,3) 7 4 22 15
E(2,3) 9 12 22 13
F(2,4) 12 12 24 12

G(3,4) 2 21 24 22
H(3,5) 5 21 30 25
I(4,5) 6 24 30 24
 Class Exercise
Task ID Duration Dependency
A 7 -
B 3 -
C 6 A
D 3 B
E 3 D,F
F 2 B
G 3 C
H 2 E,G
 Network of the example

C
2 6
3
G
A 3
7
H
A
B D 6 E 7 8
1
4
3
4 2
3 3
F
2
5 ES EF

LS LF

EF=ES+D
LS=LF-D
25
 Computations
Act. Duration EST EFT LST LFT TF
A 7 0 7 0 7 0
B 3 0 3 7 10 7
C 6 7 13 7 13 0
D 3 3 6 10 13 7
E 3 6 9 13 16 7
F 2 3 5 11 13 8
G 3 13 16 13 16 0
H 2 16 18 16 18 0
THANK YOU!