Project Management

A Managerial Approach

Resource Allocation

Critical Path Method - Crashing a Project

CPM includes a way of relating the project schedule to the level of physical resources allocated to the project This allows the project manager to trade time for cost, or vice versa In CPM, two activity times and two costs are specified, if appropriate for each activity

Critical Path Method - Crashing a Project

The first time/cost combination is called normal, and the second set is referred to as crash Normal times are normal in the same sense as the m time estimate of the three times used in PERT Crash times result from an attempt to expedite the activity by the application of additional resources

Critical Path Method - Crashing a Project

Careful planning is critical when attempting to expedite (crash) a project Expediting tends to create problems; and the solution to one problem often creates several more problems that require solutions Some organizations have more than one level of crashing

Slope =( crash cost - normal cost)/ (crash time normal time) That is, the cost per day of crashing a project. Negative slope indicates that as the time required for a project task is decreased, the cost is increased.

Exercise 1
Given the following network, determine the first activity to be crashed by the following priority rules: a. Shortest task first b. Minimum slack first c. Most critical followers d. Most successors A4
1

D5
2

C7 B3
3

Shortest task is B B, C, or D have zero slack. Critical path is B-C-D. A has slack of 6 days. B has the most critical followers. B has the most successors, 2. Critical Time is 15 days.

Exercise 2
Using the previous network and the additional information below, find: The crash cost per day. Which activities should be crashed to meet a project deadline of 13 days at minimum cost. Assume partial crashing is allowed.

Activity

Crash time (days)

Crashed cost (total)

Normal Time (days)

Normal cost

A
B C

3
1 4

$500
325 550

4
3 7

$300
250 400

250

150

Crash cost per day

Activity A Crash days=normal time-crash time 1 Crash cost 200 Crash cost/day 200

B
C D

2
3 2

75
150 100

37.5
50 50

Task B is on the critical path and has the lowest crash cost per day. Hence crashing task B will imply additional crash cost of $75 only. Crashing B by 2 days reduces the duration to 13 days without making any other new tasks critical.

Exercise 3: Given the following network(time in days).

Find the lowest cost to complete the project in 10 days. 2 d a

1

c 3

e
Normal time,cost

Activity

Crash time,cost $

Partial crashing

a
b c

3, 60
6, 80 2, 90

3, $60
7, 30 5, 50

No
Yes No

d
e

5, 50
2, 100

6, 30
4, 40

No
Yes

Current time & cost: 12 days & $ 210.

a3 1 3 2

d 6

4 12 5 c e 4 b 7 3 8 Since the critical path is a-c-e, we initially need consider only these 3 activities:

Hence best solution: Cut e by 2 days at a cost of $60

a: cannot be crashed c: can cut 3days at an extra cost of $ 40 but only results in project completion by day 11, due to b. to reach 10 days, cut b by 1 day, total extra cost $90. e: can cut e by 2 days for an extra cost of $60 & results in project completion by day 10.