M.E.

(Civil) Examination November 2018

Project Planning, Scheduling & Controls: 510205

Time: Three Hours Max. Marks: 70

Note: Attempt all five questions. Part a, b, and c of each question is compulsory and carries 2, 2, and 3 marks
respectively. Out of parts d and e (7 marks each) any one of them is to be attempted. Missing data, if any, may be assumed
suitably.

1. (a) Why are Bar charts widely used? What are its weaknesses?
(b) Write a short note on budget of a construction project
(c) Briefly explain the project planning process, techniques and methods employed to develop the project plans
(d) Draw Work break down structure and identify the activities of construction of a residential building.
(e) State the salient features associated with each level in work break down structure of a project.

2. (a) Define critical path in a CPM network.

(b) State Fulkerson’s rule for numbering the nodes in a network.
(c) What is the difference between the time estimates of a PERT activity and a CPM activity?
(d) The Early occurrence time and the late occurrence time of the starting event of an activity are 10 and 12,
respectively. The early occurrence time and the late occurrence time of the finishing event of the same activity are
22 and 26, respectively. If the estimated duration for the activity is 10 time units, what is the total float available
for the activity?
(e) Draw the network for the data given in table, pertaining to a small construction project. Compute the event
times for all the activities. Find out the critical path. Also, calculate three floats for the non critical activities.

ACTIVITY DURATION(in weeks) DEPENDS UPON

A 4 -
B 2 A
C 2 A,B,F,
D 2 C,L
E 6 D,G,H
F 2 A
G 2 F
H 3 G,L
K 5 A
L 3 F,K

3. (a) What do you understand by Normal distribution of curve?

(b) What do you understand by PDM?
(c)Define slack. How is it computed?
(d) What are the advantages of the precedence network over the conventional arrow diagram network
representation for project schedules?
(e) Activity ‘A’ has estimated duration of 18 days as a predecessor to activity ‘B’, which has an estimated
duration of 25 days. Calculate the earliest start for activity B if the relationship between the two is: (i) FF+14 days
(ii) SS+10 days (iii) FS-7 days (iv) SF+32 days (v) FS+9 days

4. (a) What is resource leveling?

(b) Differentiate between resource smoothening and resource leveling.
(c) Define constrained and unconstrained resource scheduling.
 (d) Discuss in detail Burgess leveling Procedure for resource smoothening in a project.
(e) Prepare labor schedule based on early start and late start of activities, and by visual inspection indicate the
adjustments you would make in activities in order to perform resource scheduling.

Activities Durations No. of workers

1,2 4 2
2,3 6 3
2,5 9 4
2,4 2 4
3,4 3 3
3,7 8 3
5,6 10 2
6,7 4 2
4,7 2 1

5. (a) How is crashing used for optimizing project cost?

(b) Explain direct cost and indirect cost.
(c)Draw a curve for the direct cost, indirect cost and total cost of a project.
(d)The precedence requirements, normal and crash activity times, and normal and crash costs for a
construction project are given in table below. The overhead costs are Rs 4 lakh per week. Find the optimum
duration for the project to minimize the total project cost. What is the total project cost for the optimum
duration?

Activity Immediate Normal Crash Normal cost Crash cost

predecessor Duration duration
A 4 2 10 11
B A 3 2 6 9
C A 2 1 4 6
D B 5 3 14 1
E B,C 1 1 9 9
F C 3 2 8 8
G E,F 4 2 13 25
H D,E 4 1 12 18

(e) A construction company has been awarded a contract to construct a flyover in a city with a completion period of
18 months. The major activities in the project and the relationships among them, the normal and crash durations, and
the corresponding normal and crash costs are given in table below.
Activity Immediate Normal Crash Normal cost Crash cost
predecessor Duration duration
A 6 4 24000 34000
B 4 3 12000 22000
C A 5 3 20000 28000
D A 7 4 29000 47000
E B 6 5 26000 34000
F B 8 5 34000 52000
G C,E 10 6 27000 47000
H D,F 9 7 34000 48000