Crashing and Leveling

Class 5

Would you ever want to speed

up activities on a project?
Project is already delayed
If youre not ahead, youre behind

Completion Bonus is introduced

Early completion bonus was already part of the
original schedule

Contract timeframe is set first and schedule is

prepared later
You want to meet a new milestone
E.g. Sonia Gandhis birthday on the Delhi metro

More reasons for Speeding up

You want to plan for/avoid bad weather
periods
You want to plan for/avoid the holiday
season
You might want to free up workers and
resources for other projects
You might want to improve project
economics by accelerating cash flows
You might want to book profits in a given
financial year

So how do you Crash a

projects duration
Modify the job logic
New technologies or methods
Parallelizing or overlapping the schedule
Can often be done without increasing direct
costs

Reduce or crash durations of activities

Expediting individual activities can crash
the duration of the project as whole

Which Activities will you

expedite?
Common tendency is to expedite everything as
much as possible.
What you need to do is expedite critical path
items
Shortening activities on the critical path will reduce
floats and lead to new critical paths emerging.
All critical paths have to be simultaneously reduced
Each time a reduction is done, the network has to be
recalculated to see if a new critical path is formed

Practical ways to crash activity

times

Multiple-shift work
Extended workdays
Using larger or more productive equipment
Increasing the number of craftspeople
Using materials with faster installation methods
E.g. Doka formwork

Using alternate construction methods or

sequences

Activity Cost (Rs.)

Cost-Resource Trade-off
Realistic
Assumption

Simplistic
Assumption

2000

1000

10

20

No. of Resources

Number of Resources

Resource-Duration trade-off
Simplistic Assumption
8

Actual

Activity Duration (Days)

Cost-Duration Trade-off for an

activity Linear Variation

Activity Cost (Rs.)

Crash Point
Crash Cost
1,300

Normal Point
Normal Cost
1,000
12

13

14

15

Activity Duration (Days)

Cost Per Day of Crashing

S=

CC - NC
ND - CD

Where,
S Cost-Per-Day Slope
CC Crash Cost
NC Normal Cost
ND Normal Duration
CD Crash Duration

Cost-Duration Trade-off for an

activity Non -Linear Variation

Activity Cost (Rs.)

Crash Point
Crash Cost
1,300

Poor Assumption

1,150

1,050

Normal Point

Normal Cost
1,000
12

13

14

15

Activity Duration (Days)

Example - Crash this network to

its minimum duration
0

0
A 120

B 20

Start
0

C 40
0

D 30
0

0
F 60
0

E 50
0

0
Finish

Cost trade-offs

Activity

NC (Normal
CC (Crash
Cost) Rs.
Cost) Rs.

Duration (Days)

Normal

Crash

120

100

12000

14000

20

15

1800

2800

40

30

16000

22000

30

20

1400

2000

50

40

3600

4800

60

45

13500

18000

Crashing Algorithm
1. Choose task(s) to crash only from the critical
path(s)
2. When choosing tasks, ensure that all critical
paths will be affected and reduced equally
3. At any point, choose tasks with the least costper-day slope that can be crashed
1. When crashing tasks simultaneously choose tasks
such that the sum of their slopes is the least

4. Crash these tasks until the logical or physical

limits are reached
5. Recalculate start times for network activities
6. Reiterate from Step 1 until no more crashing is
possible

Crashing Limits
Physical Limit
The number of days an activity can be
reduced without making it impossible to
construct
E.g: Concrete pouring cannot be faster than
curing time

Logical Limit
The number of days a critical activity can be
crashed without a new critical path being
created.

Step 0 - Perform CPM

calculations
0

120

20
A 120

20

20

B 20

Start
0

20

60

60

C 40
20

40

140

20

90

D 30
60

20

60

10

80

F 60
30

10

90

140

90

140

E 50
90

90

140

Fi nish
140

140

140

Step 0 - Formulate Cost Table

Act

ND

CD

NC

CC

(000)

(000)

C/D D C

DA

CA

120

100 12

14

100

12

20

15

1.8

2.8

200

1.8

40

30

16

22

600

16

30

20

1.4

60

1.4

50

40

3.6

4.8

120

3.6

60

45

13.5 18

300

13.5

D
Left

Step 1 - BCDE is the only critical path. D has the

least slope on this path. D can be reduced by 10
days before physical and logical limits are reached
Act

ND

CD

NC

CC

(000)

(000)

C/D D C

DA

CA

120

100 12

14

100

12

20

15

1.8

2.8

200

1.8

40

30

16

22

600

16

30

20

1.4

60

50

40

3.6

4.8

120

3.6

60

45

13.5 18

300

13.5

10 600

20

D
Left

Update Network
0

120

10
A 120

10

20

B 20

Start
0

20

60

60

C 40
20

40

130

10

80

80

D 20
60

20

60

80

F 60
20

80

130

130

E 50
80

80

130

130

Finish
130

130

Step 2 - To reduce project duration, we can crash

Activity E; Activity B; or Activities C+F. E has the
lowest slope and can be crashed by 10 days
Act

ND

CD

NC

CC

(000)

(000)

C/D D C

DA

(000)

CA
(000)

D
Left

120

100 12

14

100

12

20

15

1.8

2.8

200

1.8

40

30

16

22

600

16

30

20

1.4

60

10 0.6

20

50

40

3.6

4.8

120

10 1.2

40

4.8

60

45

13.5 18

300

13.5

Update Network
120

0
A 120

120

20

B 20

Start
0

20

60

60

C 40
20

40

80

D 20
60

60

20

0
80

F 60
20

80

12
0

80

120

E 40
80

80

120

Finish
12
0

120

120

Step 3 - To reduce project duration, we can crash

Activity A+B; or Activities A+C+F. A+B combination
has the lowest slope and can be crashed by 5
days
Act

ND

CD

NC

CC

(000)

(000)

C/D D C

DA

(000)

CA
(000)

D
Left

120

100 12

14

100

0.5

115

12.5 15

20

15

1.8

2.8

200

15

2.8

40

30

16

22

600

30

20

1.4

60

10 0.6

20

50

40

3.6

4.8

120

10 1.2

40

4.8

60

45

13.5 18

300

16

13.5

Update Network
115

0
A 115

115

15

B 15

Start
0

15

55

55

C 40
15

15

75

D 20
55

55

15

0
75

F 60
15

75

11
5

75

115

E 40
75

75

115

Finish
11
5

115

115

Step 4 - To reduce project duration, we can crash

Activities A+C+F. These activities can be crashed
by 10 days
Act

ND

CD

NC

CC

(000)

(000)

C/D D C

DA

(000)

CA
(000)

D
Left

120

100 12

14

100

15 1.5

105

13.5 5

20

15

1.8

2.8

200

15

2.8

40

30

16

22

600

10 6

30

22

30

20

1.4

60

10 0.6

20

50

40

3.6

4.8

120

10 1.2

40

4.8

60

45

13.5 18

300

10 3

50

16.5

Final Network
105

0
A 105

105

15

B 15

Start
0

15

45

45

C 30
15

15

65

D 20
45

45

15

0
65

F 50
15

65

10
5

65

105

E 40
65

65

105

Finish
10
5

105

105

Cost-Profile
Direct Cost
(Rs.)
48,300

Project
Duration
(days)
140

Duration
Reduction
(days)
0

48,900

130

10

50,100

120

20

51,600

115

25

61,600

105

35

Cost Profile Graph

70000
60000
50000

Cost (Rs)

40000
Series1
30000
20000
10000
0
105

115

120

130

140

Duration (days)

Construction Costs

Direct Costs

Indirect Costs

Direct Costs
Labor, Material, Equipment, Subcontracts
Shortening durations normally increase
direct costs
overtime or extra shifts are more costly
more crews mean more supervision
more equipment might be needed
early delivery of resources might cost more

Indirect Costs
Costs incurred in direct support of field work, but
cannot be associated with any particular
physical portion of the job.
Two types
costs that are part of the contract like trailer
overheads
General costs to the company such as home office
overheads, paying marketing and secretarial staff

Shortening durations normally decreases direct

costs

Example for Indirect Costs

Indirect Cost Item
Project Manager
Project Superintendent
Utilities
Facilities (Tool shed,
toilets etc)
Travel
Photographs
Computer
Clean-up
First Aid

Cost (Rs.)
1,00,000
50,000
10,000
25,000
15,000
3,000
10,000
40,000
1,000

Project Indirect Cost (Rs.)

Indirect costs and duration

Set-up Cost

Project Duration (Days)

Project Cost-Duration Trade-off

Project Cost (Rs.)

Minimum Project
Cost
Total Direct
Cost

Total Project
Cost

Minimum Direct
Cost

Project Indirect
Cost
Minimum
Duration

Project Duration (Days)

Indirect Cost Example

Job overheads of Rs 400 per day
throughout the project
Additional support staff of Rs 100 from
Day 20 to Day 90
Bonus Clause of Rs 300 per day for
completing within 140 days

Direct Cost Table

Direct Cost
(Rs.)
48,300

Project
Duration
(days)
140

Duration
Reduction
(days)
0

48,900

130

10

50,100

120

20

51,600

115

25

61,600

105

35

Total Cost Table

Project
Duration
(days)

Direct
Cost
(Rs.)

Overheads
(Rs.)

Bonus
(Rs.)

Total
Cost (Rs.)

140

48,300

70,000

1,18,300

130

48,900

65,000

-3,000

1,10,900

120

50,100

60,000

-6,000

1,04,100

115

51,600

57,500

-7,500

1,01,600

105

61,600

52,500

-10,500 1,03,600

Total Cost Profile

Total Cost (Rs.)

120000
115000
110000
105000
100000
95000
90000
105

115

120

130

140

Duration (Days)

Optimal Crash Duration is 115 Days!

Practical Issues regarding

Resource Crashing
Mathematical method is unthinking
Might be more practical to crash a nearby
activity than a future activity even if it has lower
slope.
While crashing an activity can be done in
isolation, practical questions to be asked are
Are the extra resources available?
When can they be supplied?
Will there be space to use them?

Practical construction knowledge is

indispensable here

Summarizing Crashing:
Step 1 Attempt Crashing at no cost
Reevaluate activity times. See if you can shift
resources from critical to non-critical activities.
Restudy job logic and come up with ingenious
solutions
Parallelize or overlap critical activities strip
forms and painting can be overlapped for a
bridge
Subcontract so that you are not constrained by
your own resources

Step 2 Expedite at Cost

Change job logic by using more resources
E.g. Use two sets of forms

Use the crashing method described in

class earlier
Determine crash costs and crash durations for
activities
Systematically crash critical path activities
with the least slope, such that all critical path
durations are reduced

Thank You