ENGG ZC 242

Maintenance and Safety

Lecture #10
BITS Pilani Dr. Samir Kale
Pilani Campus

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Critical Path

• Is that the sequence of activities and events where there

is no “slack” i.e.. Zero slack

• Longest path through a network

• minimum project completion time

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Critical Path Method- Example

Immediate Duration
Activity Description
Predecessor (weeks)
A Develop product specifications None 4
B Design manufacturing process A 6
C Source & purchase materials A 3
D Source & purchase tooling & equipment B 6
E Receive & install tooling & equipment D 14
F Receive materials C 5
G Pilot production run E&F 2
H Evaluate product design G 2
I Evaluate process performance G 3
J Write documentation report H&I 4
K Transition to manufacturing J 2

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Critical Path Method

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Critical Path Method

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Critical Path Method

Paths Path duration

ABDEGHJK 40
ABDEGIJK 41
ACFGHJK 22
ACFGIJK 23
The longest path (ABDEGIJK) limits the
project’s duration (project cannot finish in
less time than its longest path)

ABDEGIJK is the project’s critical path

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Critical Path Method

 All activities on the critical path have zero slack

 Slack defines how long non-critical activities can be
delayed without delaying the project
 Slack = the activity’s late finish minus its early finish
(or its late start minus its early start)
 Earliest Start (ES) = the earliest finish of the immediately
preceding activity
 Earliest Finish (EF) = is the ES plus the activity time
 Latest Start (LS) and Latest Finish (LF) = the latest an
activity can start (LS) or finish (LF) without delaying the
project completion

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Critical Path Method

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Critical Path Method

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Critical Path Method

Late Early Slack

Activity
Finish Finish (weeks)
A 4 4 0
B 10 10 0
C 25 7 18
D 16 16 0
E 30 30 0
F 30 12 18
G 32 32 0
H 35 34 1
I 35 35 0
J 39 39 0
K 41 41 0
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• Event: Represents a point in time when an activity is
started or completed. It does not consume time

• Burst Event: Activity that has more than one activity

immediately following it

• Dummy : It shows only relationships between two jobs

and does not consume time or resources

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TWO APPROACHES

AOA DIAGRAM: ACTIVITY ON ARROW DIAGRAM

AON DIAGRAM: ACTIVITY ON NODE DIAGRAM

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TWO APPROACHES
• AOA DIAGRAM: ACTIVITY ON ARROW
DIAGRAM
• AON DIAGRAM: ACTIVITY ON NODE
DIAGRAM
EST NODE NUMBER EFT
SLACK ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION
LST DURATION LFT
EST OF START NODE IS TAKEN AS 0

EFT = EST + DURATION

LFT OF END NODE IS SAME AS Ej OF FINAL NODE

LST = LFT – DURATION

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• EARLIEST ACHIEVEMENT TIME = MAXIMUM OF EFTs
OF ALL MERGED ACTIVITIES

– MAXIMUM OF EFTs OF ALL MERGING ARROW HEADS

• LATEST ACHIEVEMENT TIME = MINIMUM OF LSTs OF

ALL BURST ACTIVITIES

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FOR ACTIVITY I  J

Ei = Earliest Achievement Time of node I

Ej = Earliest Achievement Time of node J

Li = Latest Achievement Time of node I

Lj = Latest Achievement Time of node J

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BASIC RULES IN DEVELOPING
PROJECT NETWORKS
• Networks flow typically from left to right

• An activity cannot begin until all preceding connected

activities have been completed

• Arrows on networks indicate precedence and flow

• Arrow can cross over each other

• Each activity should have a unique identification number

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• An activity identification number should be larger than
that of any activities that precede it
• Looping is not allowed: recycling through a set of
activities cannot take place
• When there are multiple starts, a common node can be
used to indicate a clear project beginning on the
network.
• A network should have a single start node and a single
end node

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AON DIAGRAM

• Activity is represented by a node (boxes)

• Node represented as a rectangle (box)

• Dependencies among activities are depicted by arrows

between the rectangles (boxes)

• Predecessor activity: activity that must be completed

immediately before the activity

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• Successor activity: activity that immediately follow the
said activity

• Concurrent or parallel activity: activities that can occur

while the activity is taking place

• Dummy jobs are not needed

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NETWORK COMPUTATION
PROCESS
• Forward Pass Calculation:
– Earliest Start Time (EST)
– Earliest Finish Time (EFT)
– Earliest Achievement Time
– Expected Time To Complete The Project
• Backward Pass Calculation
– Latest Start Time (LST)
– Latest Finish Time (LFT)
– Latest Achievement Time

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• Critical path: longest path in the network when delayed
will delay the project

• Slack or float time: duration for which an activity can be

delayed without affecting the project duration
–

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SLACK OR FLOAT

• Total Slack: It is the duration by which an activity can be

delayed without affecting the project duration

• TS = LST – EST OR LFT – EFT

• TS = Lj – (Ei + d ij)

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FREE SLACK

• It is the amount of time a job can be delayed without

affecting the early start time of succeeding activities.

• FS = Ej – (Ei + d ij)

• FS = TS – HEAD SLACK

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• INTERFERING SLACK

– It is the difference between its total slack and free

slack

– INTERFERING SLACK = TOTAL SLACK – FREE

SLACK

– INTERFERING SLACK = HEAD SLACK

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• INDEPENDENT SLACK
– It is the excess time between finishing and starting of
two successive activities if the preceding activity ends
as late as possible and the succeeding activity starts
as early as possible

– INDEPENDENT SLACK = FREE SLACK – TAIL

SLACK

– INDEPENDENT SLACK = ( Ej – Li ) – d ij

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SUPER-CRITICAL ACTIVITIES

• If the maximum available time for an activity is less than

the activity time then for this activity the total slack will
have negative value.

• Activity whose total slack is negative is known as

supercritical activity

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CRITICAL ACTIVITY

• If the maximum available time for an activity is equal to

the activity time then for this activity total slack is equal
to zero

• Activity for which the total slack is zero is called critical

activity

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SUB-CRITICAL ACTIVITY

• If the maximum available time for an activity is more than

the activity time then for this activity the total slack will
have positive value

• An activity for which total slack is positive is known as

sub-critical activity

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USE OF LAGS

• FINISH TO START (FS = n) : JOB B CANNOT START

UNTIL n DAYS AFTER JOB A IS FINISHED

• START TO START(SS = n): JOB B CANNOT START

UNTIL n DAYS AFTER JOB A IS STARTED

• FINISH TO FINISH (FF = n): JOB B CANNOT FINISH

UNTIL n DAYS AFTER JOB A IS FINISHED

• START TO FINISH (SF = n): JOB B CANNOT FINISH

UNTIL n DAYS AFTER JOB A IS STARTED

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PERT

• Programme Evaluation And Review Technique

– Used In Research & Development
– Technology Is Rapidly Changing
– Products Are Non-standard
• Use Of AON Diagram
• Uses Three Time Estimate
– Optimistic Time (to)
– Most Likely Time (tm)
– Pessimistic Time (tp)
• Variability Of Activity Times

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CALCULATIONS

• Calculate The Expected Activity Duration Using Three

Time Estimate
te = (to + 4tm + tp) / 6

1. Draw The Project Network Using Aon Diagram

2. Calculate The Critical Path And Expected Project Duration (Te)

Using Forward Pass And Backward Pass Calculations

3. Find The Variances Of Each Of The Activities In The Critical

Path
VARIANCE OF ACTIVITY = { ( tp - to) / 6 }2

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4. Find the sum of all the variances of the activities in
the critical path and take the square root to give the
standard deviation (st) for the project duration which
follows a normal probability distribution

5. FIND Z = (D – Te) / St
WHERE D IS THE DUE TIME OF COMPLETION
Using normal distribution table, find the
probability of completing the project by due date
using Z values.

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PROBLEM

i j to tm tp
1 2 3 6 15
1 6 2 5 14
2 3 6 12 30
2 4 2 5 8
3 5 5 11 17
4 5 3 6 15
6 7 3 9 27
5 8 1 4 7
7 8 4 19 28

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CALCULATE

• Expected project length and variance of the critical path

• Probability that jobs on the critical path will be completed
by the due date of 41 days
• Probability that the jobs on the next critical path will be
completed by the due date
• Estimate the probability that the entire project will be
completed by due date

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 4
5 7
7 2 14
3 5
11
11 4
6
8
18
11
6 7
SOLUTION

• LENGTH = 36 DAYS VARIANCE = 25

• CRITICAL PATH = 1-2-3-5-8

• 0.84

• 0.84 PATH 1-6-7-8

• 0.84 X 0.84 = 0.71

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PRACTICE LINK

(888) PERT Example Problem, Summary - YouTube

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TIME SCALE NETWORK
Thanks

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