FUDMA Journal of Sciences (FJS)

APPLICATION OF CRITICAL PATH MET… ISSN Danfulani et2616-1370

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Vol. 7 No. 3, June (Special Issue), 2023, pp 186 - 192
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.33003/fjs-2023-0703-1860

APPLICATION OF CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM) TO OPTIMAL PROJECT SCHEDULING: A CASE OF

MOSUL BUILDING COMPANY, YOLA NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA
*1Danfulani, Usman Bitrus, 1Mohammed Mijinyawa, 2Reuben B. Z., 2Joshua Anche Yakubu, 3Shamsuddeen Iya Digil
1Modibbo Adama University, Yola Faculty of Physical Sciences Department of Operations Research
2Modibbo Adama University, Yola Faculty of Physical Sciences Department of Statistics
3Air Force University, Kaduna Department of Statistics

*Corresponding authors’ email: [email protected] Phone: +2347039708031

ABSTRACT
Project cannot be done without planning, scheduling and an estimation of its duration for completion. Every
project that has to be undertaken must have a deadline for it completion but not every project goes as schedule.
Hence, applications of scientific method such as CPM, PERT are often very useful in project management and
scheduling. This study was on the application of CPM in scheduling a building construction taking a case study
of Mosul Estate building construction. Analytical research design was adopted for the study as the design suit
the study at hand. Secondary data of the activities, their descriptions and predecessor as while as their duration
were obtained from the construction site. The network activities diagram, the forward and the backward pass
obtained by the temporary ordered routing algorithm (TORA) were drawn and the critical path represented in
bold arrow heads. The results show that if CPM is applied into the project, the project can be completed in 27
weeks compared to the initial duration of 32 proposed weeks by the company. This results if implemented by
the management of the firm will save cost of labour and time. We recommend that CPM should be used in a
building construction company before embarking on the building. The construction firm should devote more
resources, labour and equipment to the critical path in order to avoid unnecessary delay and high cost of labour.

Keywords: Critical Path Method (CPM), Project Management, Construction, Scheduling

INTRODUCTION project manager to monitor achievement of project goals. In

For every project that one has to be undertaken must have a fact, it is the mirror of any project, as it helps to indicate where
deadline for its completion, but not every project goes as necessary adjustments needs to be taken to get a project in a
scheduled. There are uncertainties and other factors that right way (Maduagu, 2022). In CPM, a project management
make the project not to run according to scheduled. Project consists of interrelated activities which are to be executed in a
management is vital for an organization or group to achieved certain order before the entire task is completed. The activities
set goals and meets the standards for success on its own time. are all related in a logical sequence known as precedence
For instance, every project manager always faces diverse relationship which indicates that one activity is always
systems which often include the application of scientific preceded by another activity. It is important to note that the
methods. However, because projects are usually more sequence of activities are all in precedence relationship and
difficult, it is often necessary to advance complex models that cannot overlap one another.
can cater for the complex needs of the project. Many at times, In today’s world, planning has become part and parcel of
a successful project management needs to ensure sufficient individual; hence, one has to plan before execution of a project
project schedule and cost plans (Adiyan, et al , 2020; Bashiru as failure to plan means plan to fail. The most important aspect
& Douglas, 2022). In Construction, there are needs that of a project management as while as the effective resource
involve unique environments, challenges, and project allocation is always carried out by the manager, as this is his
management needs not found in other industries (Halpin & statutory responsibilities. Because of these, managers are often
Woodhead, 2011). Some category of firms often experiences confronted with decision on how to carry out the task ahead of
the highest level of business failures (Davis, 2012). Factors them. These tasks ranges from how much resources are
contributing to failure includes: under bidding, insufficient needed in the project, what types of skills and un-skills labour
cash flow, external difficulties, and lack of experience in they will have to employ, when to start and when to end. Most
estimating and monitoring costs among other factors. These if importantly, extraneous unforeseen circumstances may also be
not properly handle, it will results to poor project and part of the planning process; this accommodates unnecessary
significant loss of resources and waste of time. delay that may occur if on the cause of project execution, an
The Critical path method (CPM) has been a powerful tool that unexpected happening crop in. How can this be done
enables managers to schedule and manage difficult projects. effectively without hitches? Uduaga (2022) reported that most
(CPM) was developed in the 50s in order to control large of the organizations we have now seemingly experienced
defense projects, since then, its use have been a routine process failure and poor flow in their project that is the project either
by organizations. CPM is one of various techniques for has slow pace of movement and or experienced abandonment.
undertaking project planning alongside Project Evaluation and Since the introduction of CPM and PERT, many
Review Technique (PERT). However, we only considered organizations especially in the developed world have been
CPM in this study. CPM is use for the projects that are made applying these two models in project management. The
up of a number of individual activities (Bashiru & Douglas, applications of CPM to project management has saved time,
2022). Hence, CPM enables project managers to plan all tasks cost and duration. It concepts has widely been in use and is
that must be completed as part of a project. It serves as the now common tool alongside PERT for effective
basis both for preparation of a schedule, and of resource managements of a project. For instance, (Bashiru & Douglas,
planning. During management of a project, it allows the 2021) applied CPM and PERT to project management in the

FUDMA Journal of Sciences (FJS) Vol. 7 No. 3, June (Special Issue), 2023, pp 186 - 192 186
APPLICATION OF CRITICAL PATH MET… Danfulani et al., FJS

scheduled of Ph D studies in the selected Northern University start schedule time. These processes aim at timing up the
of Ghana. A critical survey designed was adopted by them and duration of the completion of any project and the most widely
questionnaire was designed and distributed to a sampled of use tool is the CPM (Burger, 2013). Although CPM has been
188 respondents. The outcomes of their results shows that, all effective in project management but its use has not gain
Ph D students in the study area can applied CPM and PERT emphatic knowledge in the study area. This study therefore,
for effective study and guidance without stress and there will seek to apply CPM in Mosul building construction in order to
not be conflicting time for other activities. For instance Lu & optimize profit and minimize cost, time and the duration of
Lam (2008), study critical path method and introduced a the project execution and completion.
different way of joining the impact of multiple resource
calendars on CPM scheduling. They also suggested a different MATERIALS AND METHODS
technique to assess accurately, the effect of an activity on Network modelling is often done by putting all the activities
prolonging the total duration of the project, and the results are at par to give pictorial view of the task required in the
generated. Du Plessis, (2014) reported that for more than five execution of project using Critical path method (CPM) which
decades of the use of the Critical Path Method technique and provide analytic means for scheduling the activities. Hence,
its wide recognition and commendation worldwide; the the study adopted an analytical research because the study is
acceptance of CPM was rapid in the developed countries but specific for the type of modelled used (CPM). The second
the technique is yet to acquire any appreciable acceptance for reason for which analytical research was adopted was that it
the implementation of public and private projects in most of involves critical thinking in carrying out a study of this nature.
the developing countries which Nigeria and the study area is We employed three methods sequentially taking each step one
not an exception. He concludes that this could be as results of at a time: first, we defined the activities of the project, their
failures to adopt and implement the scientific systems analysis precedence relationship, and their time requirement. The
developed over the years by researchers and used in most second step was to translate the project into network that
advanced countries. Atin & Lubies (2019), studied the indicates the precedence relationships among the activities.
implementation of CPM in project planning and scheduling ; Finally, we carried out specific network computations that
they found out that CPM can save project time and produce a facilitate development of the time scheduled for the project.
critical path which can serve as a guide in implementating
project that can be completed on time, their results were Research Design
correlated to the study done by Putra and Hamzah whose The structural analytical research design was employed in the
results suggested that CPM can efficiently be applied to study. This was first done by listening the list of all the
project for effective minimization of time, cost and labour. activities, their predecessors as well as the estimation of the
Bashiru & Douglas (2021, in Chrzanowski & Johnston, 1986) duration for each activity. The relationship among the
asserts that the results of duo on the application of linear activities was then represented on the network diagram. Each
schedule and engineering have expressed tedious events as activity of the project was represented by a directional arc
constant or changing slope lines on two axes over time need (arrow) pointing in the direction of the project movement.
the application of CPM for effective time management and Nodes network (events) establish the different activities of the
minimum labour cost. They also found out that discrete projects with the rules for constructing the network as follows:
activities or events can conveniently be displayed at the Rule l: Each activity is represented by an arrow in the
suitable time and place in the linear schedule itself. Larry & network.
Richard (1997) reported that, there is a great performance and Rule 2: Each activity, which is normally depicted by a dashed
improvement by using critical chain project management; arrow consume no time or resources, they are used to keep
they also explained that critical chain project management the logic of the diagram consistent with that of the project
provides an important step for continuous improvement of herein refers to as dummy activity.
project organization and project management (Burger, 2015).. Rule3: the third rule asked questions in order to maintain the
For instance Zareei (2018), studied Critical chain project correct precedence relationships while activity is added to
management (CCPM) and asserts that planning often the network:
becomes optimal by making sure that it is possible and i. Which activity must precede the current activity after
protected from sensible prevalent cause limits. Chaou & its predecessor completion?
Wang –Li (2019), compared the traditional CPM against ii. Which activity follows the current activity?
CCPM. They employed two methods of buffer management iii. Which activity occurs together with the current
viz: SSQ method and CPM logic to analyse the project activity?
capability related to cost and duration. They first developed The last step we employed in the design was controlling the
networks without using mixture of resources and drew project by using row plot graph and time chart for steady
another network that resources were mixed together. They monitoring and time reporting. We also applied forward and
used 120 conjunctions of unplanned generated project backward pass computation as well as conditions for critical
networks and these were calculated and assessed by Critical path.
Path Method and Critical Chain Project Management. 1. Forward pass calculation
Significant results were achieved in which there was a 𝐸𝑠𝑗 = 𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖 (𝐸𝑠𝑖 + 𝐷𝑖,𝑗 ) (1)
considerable reduction in cost and duration indicating that the Where:
CPM aided the reductions (Chaou & Wang –Li 2019). 𝐸𝑠𝑗 = earliest start time of activity j;
Zhong & Zhang ( 2003) reported that project has to be planned 𝐷𝑖,𝑗 = duration of activity i to activity j;
and monitored, that is the aim of any project scheduling is to 𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖 = pick maximum from the calculation where the
construct a timeline indicating where individual activity activity has more than one precedence activity coming
receives a start time and a corresponding finish time with a to it.
predefined precedence relations and others predefined activity 2. Backward pass calculation
constraints at hand. These processes are based on the 𝐿𝐶𝑖 = 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑗 (𝐿𝐶𝑗 − 𝐷𝑖,𝑗 ) (2)
traditional critical path based forward by creating the earliest 𝐿𝐶𝑖 = latest completion time of activity i;
start schedule as while as the backward by creating the latest

FUDMA Journal of Sciences (FJS) Vol. 7 No. 3, June (Special Issue), 2023, pp 186 - 192 187
APPLICATION OF CRITICAL PATH MET… Danfulani et al., FJS

𝐷𝑖,𝑗 = duration of activity i to activity j; 𝐿𝐶𝑗 − 𝐸𝑠𝑖 − 𝐷𝑖,𝑗 (6)

3. critical path conditions to be made 5. Free Float: this is the time that the activity culmination
𝐸𝑠𝑖 = 𝐿𝐶𝑖 (3) time can be retarded without poignant to the earliest
𝐸𝑠𝑗 = 𝐿𝐶𝑗 (4) start time of the immediate successor activity in the
𝐸𝑠𝑗 − 𝐸𝑠𝑖𝑖 = LC j − LCi = Di , j (5)
network.
𝑇𝐹𝑖,𝑗 = 𝐸𝑠𝑗 − 𝐸𝑠𝑖 − 𝐷𝑖,𝑗 (7)
4. Calculation of total Float

Figure 1: A typical network diagram

The data for this study were obtained from the study area and was obtained. The second method was to calculate the
were presented in network flow first showing activities on backward pass using 𝐿𝐶𝑖 = 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑗 (𝐿𝐶𝑗 − 𝐷𝑖,𝑗 ), see figure 4.
node and the dummy activities from the start to sink. The solid The result of the backward pass were also put in the same
arrows head indicates activities while the broken arrows square bracket as the forward pass but after the forward pass
shows the dummy activities which has zero duration. The result separated by comers. The critical path was shown in
forward pass computations were done using the earliest start figure 5 with a bold arrows head which indicate the project to
time formula 𝐸𝑠𝑗 = 𝑀𝑎𝑥𝑖 (𝐸𝑠𝑖 + 𝐷𝑖,𝑗 ). The values obtained be done.
were put in a square bracket and the minimum duration time

Table1: Depicting Description and Predecessor of each Activity

Activity Description IMMEDIATE DURATION
PREDECESSOR (WEEKS)
1 A Site cleaning/ Setting out - 1.0
2 B Excavation A 2.0
3 C Column Base/ Reinf. In Foundation B 2.0
4 D Concrete work B 2.0
5 E Block Work C, D 4.0
6 F Fame E 1.0
7 G Roof Structure / Covering F 3.0
8 H Electrical and Mechanical work G 2.0
9 I Wall, floor and Ceiling finishes G 4.0
10 J Doors, window G 1.0
11 K Fittings and fixtures H, I, J 3.0
12 L Painting and Decorations K 3.0
13 M External works L 2.0
14 N Clearing/ carrying away Debris M 1.0
15 O Handing over site N 1.0

Figure 2: Network flow of the precedence activities and their duration

FUDMA Journal of Sciences (FJS) Vol. 7 No. 3, June (Special Issue), 2023, pp 186 - 192 188
APPLICATION OF CRITICAL PATH MET… Danfulani et al., FJS

The figure above shows the network of Table 1 for their completion. The arc (arrow) with a dash are the dummy
durations. Node with the 1 inside a circle is a starting node of activities and this have no duration, they are used to keep the
the project and the sink ( end node or activity) is node 16 logic of the arc flow from source to sink. These were
inscribed in a circle. The letters on the arc underneath them subjected to analyses using Temporary Ordered Routing
shows the activities while the figures on the nodes are the Algorithm (TORA) software. The output of the results was
durations in which the activity will be executed before its extracted and put in the table (see Table 2).

Figure 3: The network diagram showing the Forward Pass Computation (ES i and DF j ) times of activities.
Figure 3 above shows the forward pass computation of the Where two arcs or activities entered the node, the maximum
CPM using the earliest start formula ES𝑖 +DF𝑗. The figure on duration is picked as the completion time for that activity and
arc refers to the duration expected for each activity to placed in the rectangular bracket (see figure 3).
complete. The ones in rectangular brackets are the earliest
start of each activity after the forward passed computations.

Figure 4: The Optimal Results of the Analysis

The backward pass was computed using the 𝐿𝐶𝑖 = the forward pass results separated by a comma and placed in
𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑗 (𝐿𝐶𝑗 − 𝐷𝑖,𝑗 The minimum duration is considered optimal the right hand side of the bracket (see figure 4).
in a case where two activities end on a particular node. The
optimal results were placed in the same square bracket with

FUDMA Journal of Sciences (FJS) Vol. 7 No. 3, June (Special Issue), 2023, pp 186 - 192 189
APPLICATION OF CRITICAL PATH MET… Danfulani et al., FJS

Table 2: The Optimal Tableau from the TORA Output

Activity Duration Earliest Start Latest Total Float Free Float
Completion
A 1 0 1 0 0
B 2 1 3 0 0
C 2 3 5 0 0
D 2 3 5 0 0
DUMMY 0 5 5 0 0
E 4 5 9 0 0
F 1 9 10 0 0
G 3 10 13 0 0
I 4 13 17 0 0
H 2 13 17 2 0
J 1 13 17 3 0
DUMMY 0 15 17 2 2
DUMMY 0 14 17 3 3
K 3 17 20 0 0
L 3 20 23 0 0
M 2 23 25 0 0
N 1 25 26 0 0
O 1 26 27 0 0

The Table above shows the results obtained by TORA diagram and determining the critical path in a network. The
showing total float and free float. In CPM, the total float is the zeros (0) are the critical path which always is the longest path
amount of time duration that a task can be delayed or extended of the project scheduled activities which must always be made
without affecting the completion date of the project or before the project at hand is executed. They are the rout path
violating the constraints scheduled, whereas free Float on the that guide the manager and in which project is monitored,
other hand indicates the amount of time that a task can be communicated to the stakeholders and the project is being
retarded (delayed) without affecting the start date of its prioritized (see Table 2). These zeros were then followed and
subsequent tasks as well as a constraints scheduled. Total and drawn with a bold arcs indicating critical path of the project
free float are used when we are analysing the project network and the duration were then calculated (see figure 5).

Figure 5: The final network with the critical path in bold arcs.

Figure five above shows the critical path network diagram. These were obtained from Table 2 where zeros occurred as the
critical path. The (CPM) solution summary presented in table 2 reveals the following:
A) 12 out of the 15 activities of the network were found to be critical of the project.
B) These activities are;
A, B, C, E, F, G, I, K, L, M, N, O
C) The paths Are
A B C E F G H I K L M N O
1) The sum of the durations through the path was found as 27 weeks as illustrated in the path above.
1+2+2+4+1+3+4+3+3+2+1+1= 27 weeks.
2) The duration of the entire project was 32 weeks, hence there is an estimated reduction of 5 weeks when CPM was
applied
3) Figure 3, 4 and 5 shows clearly activity time, late activity time and the critical activity of the network respectively.

FUDMA Journal of Sciences (FJS) Vol. 7 No. 3, June (Special Issue), 2023, pp 186 - 192 190
APPLICATION OF CRITICAL PATH MET… Danfulani et al., FJS

DISCUSSION be made in order to make contingency plan for any anticipated

The project management has been the major brain to a upcoming uncertainties.
successful project in any organization. However, the time of
completion and execution are not always made as earlier
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FUDMA Journal of Sciences (FJS) Vol. 7 No. 3, June (Special Issue), 2023, pp 186 - 192 191
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APPENDIX

The above Appendix shows the output from TORA software

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