Decision Mathematics 1

Critical Path Analysis Section 1: Critical Paths

Notes and Examples
These notes contain subsections on A simple example of an activity network Float Using dummy activities A harder example

In these notes several different examples are used to demonstrate the drawing of an activity network, including the use of dummy activities where required. To help you understand how each network is built up, there are PowerPoint presentations for the three shorter examples and video clips for the longer example. For each example we will look at critical activities and float. The same examples will be used in section 2 to look at resource allocation. The first three examples are given without any context, so that you can concentrate on dealing with the network. The fourth example deals with a practical situation.

A simple example of an activity network

Example 1 shows a very simple network, in which no dummy activities are required. You can look at the PowerPoint presentation which shows how the network is built up and the EETs (early event times) and LETs (late event times) are calculated. Notice that it is sometimes helpful to redraw a network part way through, if you realise that you can avoid activities crossing by drawing it differently.

Example 1 The table below shows the activities required to complete a project, with their durations and immediate predecessors. Activity A B C D E F G Duration (hours) 3 4 6 5 1 6 7 Immediate predecessors A B B C, D, E

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Draw an activity network and use it to find the critical activities and the shortest time in which the project can be completed. Solution 3 A(3) C(6) 1 0 0 B(4) 3 4 7 F(6) E(1) 5 15 15 4 3
The critical activities are activities (i, j) for which the difference between the LET for j and the EET for i is equal to the duration of the activity.

2 D(5) 8 8 G(7)

The critical activities are A, D and G. The minimum time for the project is 15 hours.

Float
Float is the spare time associated with an activity. It is important as it gives us information about the impact that a delay on one activity will have on the whole project. Float becomes very important in the next section, when we consider resource allocation. The spare time on non-critical activities can be used to delay the start of some activities. This can enable one resource (such as a person or a machine) to carry out more than one activity without affecting the critical path. The method of calculating total float, independent float and interfering float is given on page 106 of the textbook. For example 1 above, the floats for each activity are as follows: Activity A B C D E F G Total float 303=0 704=3 806=2 835=0 841=3 15 4 6 = 5 15 8 7 = 0 Independent float 303=0 404=0 806=2 835=0 871=0 15 7 6 = 2 0 Interfering float 0 30=3 22=0 0 30=3 52=3 0

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Notice: The critical activities, C, E and G have zero float. Any delay in these activities will delay the whole project. All the float on activity C is independent float. By looking at the network, you can see that C can take two extra hours without any impact on the whole project or on any other activities. All the float on activities B and E is interfering float. B and E together take up 5 hours, and they need to be complete after 8 hours. So between them they can take an extra 3 hours, but this 3 hours of float is shared between them. If for example B takes an extra 3 hours, E must not take any extra time. So you must be careful when considering interfering float. The float on activity F is partly independent and partly interfering. F has 2 hours of independent float it can take an extra 2 hours without affecting any other activity or the total duration. However, if F takes its maximum possible extra time of 5 hours, then you can see from the activity network that B must not take any extra time. The 3 hours of interfering float belonging to F is therefore shared with B if B takes an extra 3 hours (the maximum allowed by Bs float) then F can take only the extra 2 hours of independent float.

Dummy activities
Many networks require dummy activities in order to make them fit the requirements. A dummy activity has zero duration. There are two types of dummy activity. These are shown in the two next examples. You will see that when dealing with a dummy activity you need to be careful when considering float. In Example 2, a dummy activity is introduced because two activities would otherwise start at the same event and finish at the same event. This means that both activities would be described by the same number pair (i, j). When doing a network by hand, this would not really matter, but when programming a computer it is important that each activity is described by a unique number pair. The dummy activity ensures that this is the case. Even when doing networks by hand you must follow this rule, or you will lose marks in an examination. You can also look at the PowerPoint presentation which shows how the network is built up and the EETs and LETs are calculated.

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Example 2 The table below shows the activities required to complete a project, with their durations and immediate predecessors. Activity A B C D E F G (i) (ii) (iii) Duration (days) 2 3 5 6 8 2 4 Immediate predecessors A, B C C D, E

Draw an activity network and use it to find the critical activities and the shortest time in which the project can be completed. Calculate the total float and independent float on each activity. What effect do each of the following delays have on the duration of the whole project and the critical activities? (a) C is delayed by 2 days (b) F is delayed by 3 days (c) D is delayed by 5 days (d) A is delayed by 5 days

Solution (i) 2 7

Activities A and B both start at the same event and need to end at the same event, since D depends on them both. The dummy activity is introduced to ensure unique numbering.

2 A(2)

D(6) 1 0 0 B(3) 3 3 7 E(8) C(5) 4

13 13 5

G(4) 6 17 17 F(2)

The critical activities are C, E and G. The total duration of the project is 17 days.

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(ii) The float for each activity is as follows: Activity A B C D E F G Total float 5 4 0 4 0 10 0 Independent float 1 0 0 0 0 10 0 Interfering float 4 4 0 4 0 0 0

In calculating the float for A, you must include the dummy activity with A, so that A goes from event 1 to event 3.

(iii)

(a) C is a critical activity, so a delay of 2 days results in the whole project being delayed by 2 days. The critical activities remain the same. (b) F is not a critical activity, and it has independent float of 10 days, so it can be delayed by 3 days without affecting the overall duration of the project or the critical activities. (c) D has only 4 days of float available, so a delay of 5 days means that the whole project is delayed by 1 day. D and B now become critical activities, and C and E are no longer critical. (d) A has 1 day of independent float available, so it can be delayed by 1 day without affecting any other activities. It also has 4 days of interfering float, shared with D. So a delay of 5 days makes no difference to the overall duration of the project or the critical activities, but it reduces the float on D to zero. This means that A and D are now critical activities (taking 13 days between them to reach event 5), but C and E are still critical (since they also take 13 days to reach event 5). There are now two critical paths: ADG and CEG).

Notice that the dummy activity must be considered with activity A when calculating floats. If you dont do this, you will get A with an interfering float of 5, and the dummy activity with an interfering float of 5 and independent float of 1. A is considered as ending at event 3, so that it has an independent float of 1 and an interfering float of 4. (However, you will see in Example 3 that you cannot always do this with a dummy activity). A and B both have interfering floats of 4 these are shared with D which also has an interfering float of 4. So A can take 1 day longer without affecting any other activities or the duration of the whole project, and either D, or both A and B, can take up to 4 days longer (or the 4 days can be split between D and both A and B, e.g. D with an extra 3 days and each of A and B with one extra day). F has independent float of 10, so it can take up to 10 days longer without affecting any other activities or the duration of the whole project.

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Example 3 shows the second type of dummy activity. This is used when it is not otherwise possible to draw a network with the correct dependencies. You can also look at the PowerPoint presentation which shows how the network is built up and the EETs and LETs are calculated.

Example 3 The table below shows the activities required to complete a project, with their durations and immediate predecessors. Activity A B C D E F G H (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) Duration (days) 2 4 5 3 6 3 8 2 Immediate predecessors A, B B C C D D, F

Draw an activity network and use it to find the critical activities and the shortest time in which the project can be completed. Calculate the total float and independent float on each of the non-critical activities. Activity H is delayed by 3 days. What effect does this have on the duration of the project and the critical activities? Extra resources are available which can be used to shorten the duration of one of activities B, E or F (on the original network) by one day. Which of these activities should be shortened, and why?

Solution (i) 4
A dummy activity is needed here as C depends on both A and B but D depends on B only.

4 2

9 C(5) 4

A(2) F(3) 1 12 13 6

E(6)

H(2) 7 15 15 G(8)

0 B(4) 3 4 4 D(3) 5 7

The critical activities are B, C, D, E and G. The minimum total duration of the project is 15 days.

A dummy activity is needed here as G depends on D only but H depends on both F and D.

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(ii) The non-critical activities are A, F and H. The float for each of these activities is as follows: Independent Interfering Activity Total float float float A 2 2 0 F 1 0 1 H 1 0 1 H has float of 2, so delaying H by 3 days will increase the total duration of the project by 1 day. H will now be a critical activity, and C, E and G will no longer be critical. Shorten B by one day. F is not a critical activity, so reducing it would not shorten the project. Although E is a critical activity, there are two critical paths (BCE and BDG), so reducing E would not have any effect unless either D or G were reduced as well.

(iii)

(iv)

Notice that in this example there are two critical paths (BCE and BDG). This is an important consideration in part (iv). For this type of dummy activity, you cannot include the dummy as part of another activity as was done when calculating float in the previous example. In some cases a dummy activity may have float which cannot be allocated to any other activity. In Example 3, the first dummy activity has no float, but the second one (between events 5 and 6) has a float of 6 days, 5 of which are independent. The one day of interfering float associated with the dummy activity is shared with activity H, but the 5 days of independent float mean that there must be at least 5 days between events 5 and 6 it is not possible to H to start immediately after D finishes.

Part (iv) of Example 3 deals with using extra resources to reduce the duration of a project. This is known as crashing a network. This is a very simple case. Crashing a network will be covered in more depth in section 2.

A harder example
The next example is a larger network, dealing with a real-life situation - the project of preparing a simple breakfast. It involves the use of both types of dummy activity. You can watch video clips 1 and 2 to see how the network is built up and the early and late event times calculated in this more complicated situation. Video clip 1 focuses on how to draw the network. To follow the video clip you will find it useful to have the project activity table to hand - see below.

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Video clip 2 focuses on using the network from video clip 1 to analyse the project, including: Finding the earliest and latest event times Finding the minimum duration for the project Identifying the critical path Calculating the float on the non-critical activities.

Example 4 Each Saturday Jay makes himself and his wife, Gabriela, a light breakfast of black coffee, a slice of buttered toast, a boiled egg and a bowl of cereal. He then takes it upstairs on a tray to eat in bed. He has perfected an efficient technique for doing this. On Friday night he puts out a tray with two mugs, plates, egg-cups, cereal bowls, a milk jug and spoons and puts the saucepan for the eggs on the cooker, ready for the morning. In the morning he boils a kettle with enough water for the coffees and to boil the eggs, pouring some into the coffees and the rest into the saucepan for the eggs, which he then boils on the cooker (boiling the water in the kettle first saves time). To stop the eggs from cracking when they are put into boiling water, he first pricks their shells with a pin. He puts two slices of bread in the toaster to toast the bread and then butters the toast. He pours cereal into the cereal bowls and milk into the milk jug. List the activities, immediately preceding activities and activity durations in a table. Draw the precedence network, giving the early and late event times. Give the critical activities and the minimum completion time for the project. Analyse the float on each activity. Solution This is the activity table for the project:
Using letters to code the activities saves time and space when labelling the precedence network. The immediately preceding activities for each activity are the last activities that must be completed before that activity can begin.

Code A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O

Activity Fill kettle Boil kettle Put coffee in cups Put bread in toaster and toast Butter toast Pour boiled water into saucepan. Turn heat on under saucepan Put egg into pan and cook Pour boiled water into coffee cups Put eggs into egg cups Put toast onto plates on tray Prick eggs with a pin Pour cereal into cereal bowls Pour milk into milk jug Carry breakfast tray up to bed.

The order in which you list the activities does not matter. The logical structure of a project is determined only by the immediately preceding activities.

Immediately Preceding Activities A D B F G, L B, C H E I, J, K, M, N 8/10

Duration (seconds) 10 120 15 150 30 15 5 300 15 15 10 20 20 15 25

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The precedence network is shown below.
To see how to produce this diagram and how to use it to analyse the project, view video-clips 1 & 2. Note that this network is a second draft, equivalent to that constructed in video clip 1, but re-drawn to avoid having activities crossing over one another.

L(20)

10
2

10 B(120) C(15)

130 130
4

145 145 F(15)

5

H(300)
6

450 450
8

G(5)

A(10)
1 7

150 150

J(15)

I(15)

465 465
11

D(150)
3

130 450 E(30) M(20)

9

O(25) K(10)
12

150 425

180 455

490 490

N(15)
10

15

465

The critical activites for the task are A, B, F, G, H, J, O. The minimum completion time for the task is 490 seconds, or 8 minutes 10 seconds. The float for each activity is shown in the table below. Activity A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O Total float 0 0 435 275 275 0 0 0 320 0 275 130 445 450 0 Independent float 0 0 115 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 130 445 450 0 Interfering float 0 0 320 275 275 0 0 0 320 0 275 0 0 0 0 9/10

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Notice: As in Example 2, the dummy activity between events 10 and 11 is there only to preserve the unique numbering of the activities (without it, N and M would have the same start and finish nodes). Therefore the dummy activity is considered to be part of activity N when calculating float. Activities with only independent float (e.g. L, M, N) link directly between events on the critical path. Activities with interfering float are connected to other non-critical activities to form a string of two or more activities (e.g. D, E, K and C, I) which is linked between events on the critical path. Activities with both interfering and independent float (e.g. C) link between events on the critical path via a dummy activity, but also connect on to other activities.

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