OPMAN120 Production & Operations Management Project Management Seatwork

1. A project consists of 10 activities, lettered A through J, as shown in the accompanying

precedence diagram, with the activities on the arrows. For each activity, the deterministic time
estimate in weeks is shown in the following table.
Activity Time Activity Time
A 2 F 3
B 4 G 4
C 3 H 4
D 5 I 3
E 6 J 1
a. List all of the paths through the network.
b. What is the duration of each of the paths?
c. What is the critical path?
e. What is the slack tine for each activity?
f. Calculate the ES, EF, LS and LF times for the network.

B C

I
A D
F
J
E

G H

List all Paths and Duration:

1. ABCIJ = 13
2. ADFIJ =14
3. ADGHJ = 16 is the CRITICAL PATH – which is the LONGEST path
4. EFIJ = 13
5. EGHJ =15

Slack Time and ES, EF, LS, LF

OPMAN120 Production & Operations Management Project Management Seatwork

Activity ES EF LS LF Slack Time

A 0 2 0 2 None
B 2 6 5 9 3 weeks
C 6 9 9 12 3 weeks
D 2 7 2 7 None
E 0 5 1 7 1 weeks
F 7 10 9 12 2 weeks
G 7 11 7 11 None
H 11 15 11 15 None
I 10 13 12 15 2 weeks
J 15 16 15 16 None

2. A project consists of 11 activities, lettered A through K, below. For each activity, the
preceding activity is given, and a deterministic estimate of the length of time required to complete
it in weeks..
Preceding Preceding
Activity Time Activity Activity Time Activity
A 1 week - G 4 weeks E
B 3 A H 6 F
C 2 A I 2 G
D 4 C J 1 H,I
E 2 - K 1 B,D,J
F 3 E

a. Draw the precedence network for this project, with the activities on the arrows.

b. List all of the paths through the network.

OPMAN120 Production & Operations Management Project Management Seatwork

c. What is the duration of each of the paths?

d. What is the critical path?

Paths:
ACDK = 8
ABK = 5
EFHJK = 13 --- CRITICAL PATH
EGHJK = 10

e. What is the slack time for each activity?

Activity Path Slack (wk.)

A 2 5
B 1 8
C 2 5
D 2 5
E 3 0
F 3 0
G 4 3
H 3 0
I 4 3
J 3 0
K 3 0
OPMAN120 Production & Operations Management Project Management Seatwork

f. The materials required to accomplish activity F have been delayed for two weeks by a
strike at the supplier's plant. What effect will this have on the length of time required
to complete the project? This will DELAY the entire project by 2 weeks.

g. An equipment breakdown has delayed activity B for one week. What effect will this
have on the length of time required to complete the project? NO EFFECT

CRASHING

Crashing means eliminating. There are some activities that can be crashed to free up time.
Crashing involves adding capacity.

For example: Assume Activity H is painting the house, which usually takes 4 weeks to
complete. But because rainy season is near and you want to complete the painting job faster, you
have to add capacity (painters) to help you finish the job faster. Adding capacity will also
increase cost.

From the given table:

1. Normal Time refers to the time of the activity.
2. Crash Time refers to the time LEFT after crashing. For example, you can crash B for 3
weeks. You can crash D also for 3 weeks.
3. Cost is the amount you pay everytime you crash an activity.
4. Incremental cost is the cost you pay for every week of crashing. For example Activity D.
Activity D can be crash for 3 weeks at a cost of 250 per week. So if we crash 3 weeks of
D, we pay 750.00
5. Bulk cost refer to cost we pay irregardless of how many weeks we crash. For example:
Activity B can be crash for 3 weeks. We pay 400 if we crash activity B for 1 week. We
pay 400 if we crash for 2 weeks. If we choose to crash activity B for 3 weeks, we also
pay 400. We pay just 400 if we crash 1, 2 or 3 weeks.

Objective: We need to also manage cost (compute lowest cost) and crash the activities so that
the critical path will match the requirement in the problem, which is 11 Weeks.

3. Crashing: Given the following data based from Problem # 1, crash the activity to be able to
reach 11 weeks.

Project Normal Crash Cost Incremental /

Time time Bulk
B 4 1 400 B
C 3 1 400 B
D 5 2 250 I
OPMAN120 Production & Operations Management Project Management Seatwork

E 6 3 550 B
F 3 1 400 I
G 4 2 150 I
H 4 2 350 B
I 3 2 120 B

Effects of Crashing
Paths Time 1 2 3 4 5 6
ABCIJ 13 13 12 12 12 9 9
ADFIJ 14 14 13 13 12 12 11
ADGHJ 16 14 14 12 11 11 11
EFIJ 13 13 12 12 12 12 11
EGHJ 15 13 13 11 11 11 11

Choices from Critical Final Choice How Many Cost Critical Path
Step Path Weeks? left
1 D, G, H G 2 300 14
2 D, F, I, H I 1 120 14
3 D, H H 2 350 13
4 D, F D 1 250 12
5 B, C, D, F, E B 1, 2 or 3 400 12
6 D, E, F F 1 400 11
Total = 1,820

Steps in the solution:

1. We need to choose activities from the critical, ADGHJ and choose the lowest cost is G
(300) over H and D. So we choose G. After choosing G, those paths with G will be
deducted by 2 weeks (red ink). So the new critical path is 14 – ADFIJ and ADGHJ.
2. We now choose activities from the 2 paths of 14: D,F,I,H. The lowest cost happens to be
I, so we choose I for 1 week. Those paths with I will be deducted by 1 week, making the
critical path still 14.
3. This time we choose from ADGHJ path – D or H. H is cheaper although bulk, for 2
weeks, H cost 350 compared to D’s 2 weeks =500. So we chose H over D. Then we
deduct all paths with H by 2 weeks. The resulting critical path is 13.
4. We now choose from ADFIJ – D or F. D is cheaper than F. So we go for D for 1 week
for 250.00. The resulting critical path is 12.
5. We target the first path, ABCIJ – choosing between B or C, having just the same bulk
cost at 400. We chose B for 1, 2 or 3 weeks and pay 400 irregardless of the number of
weeks, so we chose maximum of 3 weeks. This solves the first path.
6. We target then ADFIJ and EFIJ with choices of D,E,F. Although D is the cheapest,
choosing F will lessen already the 2 paths. So we chose F for 1 week. With the resulting
Critical Path of 11, we already solve the problem