Construction Planning Management:

Critical Path Method

Dr. Shiv Shankar Kumar

Assistant Professor
(Geotechnical Engineering Division)
Department of Civil Engineering
National Institute of Technology Patna
Bihar– 800005

Introduction
 To plan any project, controlling the cost as well as time
 CPM and PERT was developed

 CPM
» It stands for Critical Path Method
» M. R. Walker and J. E. Kelly were involved in the construction of
chemical plant in USA in the late 1950s
» Initially, it was called Project, Planning and Scheduling (i.e. PPS)
 PERT

» It strands for Program Evaluation and Review Technique

» Developed for Polaris missile program for US Navy in 1950s by
L. Martin
» Suitable for RnD project
1

Difference between CPM & PERT

CPM PERT
It is an activity oriented program. It is an event oriented program.
It is based on the deterministic approach It is based on the probabilistic approach &
& used for repetitive type of projects. suitable for research and development
 Deterministic means only one outcome or type of projects.
their outcome is predetermined  The scheduling techniques involves same
 Estimation of deterministic scheduling activities as in deterministic scheduling
require past data  Estimation of probabilistic scheduling based
Note: In most of the civil engg. on the random variable
project, CPM is used because of the  The main difference from the deterministic
repetitive type is in the estimation of duration and statistical
tool used to develop the schedule
One time estimate are given for any Three time estimate are given for any
activity. activity.
It follows Normal frequency distribution. It follows β-distribution.
In this case, a time cost model is In this case, cost is assumed to be directly
developed in order to find minimum cost. proportional to time and therefore to
minimize the cost, the completion time
should be minimum.
CPM (i.e., Critical Path Method)
 This is a step-by-step project planning technique to define critical
path and critical activity
 Steps in CPM project planning
 Step -1: Specify the individual activities
» with the help of work breakdown structure
 Step -2: Find out the sequence of those activities
» how the dependency of each activity
 Step -3: Draw the network diagram
» using AOA or AON diagram
 Step -4: Estimate the activity completion time
» using Earliest start time of activity
 Step -5: Identify the critical path
 Step -6: Update the CPM network
» if required
Excavation started Excavation finished Building wall finished
Concreting finished
Excavate Concreting Building wall

3
Concreting started Building wall started

CPM (i.e., Critical Path Method)

 This is a step-by-step project planning technique to define critical
path and critical activity
 Critical path  the path of longest duration in the project
starting from initial event to final event
 Critical activity  the activity lying in the critical path
• Note (1):  Any delay in any critical activities will results in a
consequential delay in the entire project time, therefore any activity in the
critical path cannot be delayed
• Note (2):  Project can not be finished earlier than the project time
estimated by critical path
• Note (3): Therefore, the time taken by the critical path is the shortest
possible time to finish the project
5 8
1 2 3

11
3

2 6 4
4 5 6

CPM (i.e., Critical Path Method)

 In this case, the project time is calculated by the event time, for
each event, in the network

 Calculation of Event times

 (1) Earliest occurrence time (EOT ) of an event
» Time at which an event may occurs as early as possible

 EOT    EOT   te  B

j i i j
; for only one path
A j
i
If morethan one path then, tei j

 EOT 
j

  EOT    te 
i i j
 max

• Note (1):  Initial event has ZERO time that means (EOT)i = 0
• Note (2):  This is “Forward Pass Method”
i  j represents activity ; i and j aretail event and head event 5
CPM (i.e., Critical Path Method)
 (2) Latest occurrence time (LOT ) of an event
» Time by which an event may occur as late as possible without
delay in the project completion time

» LOT of the final event of the project is taken same as EOT of the
last event, which was calculated by the forward pass method

 LOT    EOT 
j j
i.e.,
» Calculation of LOT starts from the final event and move in
backward direction
• That’s why, it is called Backward pass method B

 LOT    LOT   te 

i j i j
A j
i
tei j
If more than one path then,
 LOT 
i

  LOT    te 
j i j
 min 6

How to Identify a Critical Path ?

 All nodes having same EOT and LOT value are identified as
critical node
 Path containing this critical nodes is known as critical path
 Number of critical path may be one or more than one

0 0 5 5 13 19 13 13
EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT
5 8
1 2 3
11
EOT LOT
3
24 24
30 30
2 6 EOT LOT
4 5 6
EOT LOT 18 24
16 22 EOT LOT

CPM
 Activity times
 (1) Earliest start time (EST) of an activity ( i j ) B
EOT j
EOT i
A
 EST  i j    EOT 
i
i j
tei j
LOT i LOT j
C

 (2) Earliest finishing time (EFT) of an activity ( i j )

 EFT (i  j )   EOT    te 

i i j

 
 EST (i  j ) activity time
Note: for the calculation of EFT of activity ( i j ), do not
use EOT j , because this EOT j might be depending
on some other activity 8
CPM
 Activity times
 (3) Latest finishing time (LFT) of an activity ( i j )

 LFT (i j )   LOT 

j

B
EOT j
EOT i
A
i j
tei j
LOT i LOT j
C

 (4) Latest start time (LST) of an activity ( i j )

 LST (i j )   LOT   te 

j i j

i  j represents activity ; i and j is tail event and head event

9

Question 1:
 Calculate EST, EFT, LFT and LST for the activity 4  5 in the
given network diagram ?
EOT = 13
EOT = 0 EOT = 5
5 8 LOT = 13
1 2 3
LOT = 0 LOT = 5
11
3
EOT = 30
2 6
4 5 6
EOT = 16 EOT = 24 LOT = 30
Answer: LOT = 22 LOT = 24
For activity 4 5
EST = 16
EFT = 16+2 = 18
LFT = 24
LST = 24-2 = 22 10

Question 2:
 Calculate EST, EFT, LFT and LST for each activity in the given
network diagram ?

H
4
A
G L
5 4 5
B F J
3 9 13
C D I 7
K
8 6
E
7

11
Float
 Time by which an activity can be delayed (starting or finishing)
without affecting the final completion time of the project
 It simply denotes the flexibility range of time within the starting
or finishing activity can fluctuate without affecting completion
of the project
 Types of floats
 Total float
» The amount of time that a scheduled activity can be delayed or extended
from its early start date without delaying the project finish date or
violating a schedule constraint.
 Free float
» The amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed without
delaying the early start date of any successor or violating a schedule
constraint.
 Independent float
 Interfering float
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EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT
EST EFT EST EFT EST EFT EST EFT
1 A 2 B 3 C 4 D 5
LST LFT LST LFT LST LFT LST LFT
 Total float
 It is the time by which starting and finishing of an activity can
be delayed without delay in the project schedule.
» The excess of maximum available time over the activity time
TF (i j )  LST  EST
 LFT  EFT
  LOT    EOT    te  
j i i j
 
  LOT    EOT   t e 
j i i j

• Note (1) Total float of an activity, constrains the finishing of preceding

activity and the starting of succeeding activity which means it effects both
succeeding as well as preceding activity
• Note (2) It is calculated at the path level of activities
• Note (3) Can come into existence if network diagram has multiple path and
there are activities which are not on critical path
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EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT
EST EFT EST EFT EST EFT EST EFT
1 A 2 B 3 C 4 D 5
LST LFT LST LFT LST LFT LST LFT
 Free float
 It is the portion of positive total float which can be used by an
activity without delay in any succeeding activity i.e., without
affecting the total float of succeeding activity.
 FF (i  j )  EST of the succeeding activity
 EFT of the activity under consideration
  EOT    EOT   te  
j i i j
 
  EOT    EOT    t e 
j i i j

• Note (1) In free float, the preceding activity is not allowed to occur at its
latest time and hence total float of preceding activity is affected. However, the
succeeding activity can start at its earliest start time (EST) and therefore, its
total float is not affected.
• Note (2) It is calculated at the particular activity level.
• Note (3) Can come into existence if successor is having more than one
activity converging on it or the successor activity is having a constraint
applied 14
  Independent float
 It is the excess time by which an activity can be delayed without
affecting the total float of succeeding or preceding activity

» It means preceding activity can finish as late as possible and

succeeding activity can start as early as possible

• It is the excess of minimum available time over activity time.

 IF (i j )   EOT    LOT   te 

j i i j

• Note: If the value of independent float is negative, it

is taken as Zero for all practical purposes.
EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT
EST EFT EST EFT EST EFT EST EFT
1 A 2 B
LST LFT
3 LST
C 4 D 5
LST LFT LFT LST LFT
15

 Interfering float
 Interfering float of an activity is the difference between the total
float and free float.
» It is equal to the head event slack.

 INT . F (i  j )   LOT    EOT 

j i

 TF    FF 
i j i j

• Note: (1) The confirmation of the critical path in a CPM

network is made only when the all above four floats of each
activity lying on the path are zero.
• Note: (2) For any critical activity, TF = Zero.
• Note: (3) For a super-critical activity, TF < Zero.
• Note: (4) For a sub-critical activity, TF > Zero.
16

Slack
 It represents the flexibility range within which an event can occur
Slack of an event   LOT  EOT  of the event
 In the CPM network, the minimum value of the slack is zero
» Which indicates that the project is on schedule and thereby
adequate resources. Zero slack event is called the critical event.
 Positive slack
 It indicates the project is ahead of schedule because of the excess
of resources
 Negative slack
 It indicates the project is behind schedule the because of the lack
of resources
 Scheduling
 Scheduling of a CPM network consists of the calculation of the
event times (i.e., EOT & LOT ), activity times (EST, EFT, LST &
LFT ) and the floats (TF, FF, IF & INT. F).
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Questions
Question (1) Find the critical path and project duration of the given CPM
project. Calculate (1) EST, EFT, LST and LFT (2) TF, FF, IF,
INT. F in a tabular form.

Solution:

0 0 2 2 4 12 14 14 20 20
EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT EOT LOT
A D E J
1 2 4 6 7
2 2 2 6
B C H I
7 F 1
3 5 4
3 G
5
3
EOT LOT EOT LOT
9 9 12 13
18

Project duration = 20 days

Critical path = 1  2  3  6  7
or , A  C  F  J 19

Question (2) Calculate all activity times and all floats of the following
CPM network. Also find the critical path and project
duration.

Solve it ???

20
Thank you

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