CONSTRUCTION PLANNING, Chapter PERT, CPM lL. INTRODUCTION Effective and efficient utilization of resources (materials, machinery, manpower, money andi time) in an optimal manner is essential for the implementation of any project which is composed of many activities or tasks, The interrelationships among various activities of the project arise out of physical, technological, financial and managerial considerations. Good project management should consider these interrelationships correctly during the planning, scheduling and controlling phases of the project, Bar charts was probably one of the earliest techniques of project management. This technique was developed by Henry Gantt around 1900 A.D. In a bar chart each activity is represented as a bar, the length of bar being proportional to the me required for the completion of the activity. All the bars are drawn parallel and the time is counted from left to right. Each bar is divided into two halves longitudinally. The progress of the completion of the activity is shown by hatching the top: half. The concurrent activities are represented by the appropriate overlap timewise. Though itis easy ta draw a bar chart and compare the peogress of the completed work with the original schedule it has certain inherent disadvantages. The bar chart cannot depict the interrelationships among the activities chearly. It is difficult to incorporate the uncertainities im the time schedules. Milestone chart is a modification over the bar chart where in the main activity is subdivided into subactivities. The beginning and end of these sub-divided activities are called milestones. Network techniques such as critical path method (CPM) and the programme evaluatian and review technique (PERT) have been found to be very useful in accounting for the complex inter-relationships that exist among the activities.A well-defined job ar task is-called an activity. The beginning or end of each such activity is. called an event. A network is a pictorial representation of activities and events, The activities are denoted by arrows while the events are denoted by circles. Events are numbered for identification. ‘The beginning of an activity is called a tail event. IF the tail event happens to represent the commencement of the project, then it is called the initial event. A tail event representing the beginning of more than one activity is said to occur when the first activity starts from it. An event denoting the completion of an ae! called head event. If the head event happens ta represent the completion of the project, then it is called the final event or end event, When a head event vuccurs at the end of more than one activily, the event is said to have occurred when all activities leading to it are completed. An event which is a head event for some activity and at the same time tail event for some other activity is called a dual role event. In a network all events except initial and final events are dual role events. The two conventions followed in drawing a network are: (1) the time flows from, left to right and (2) the head events always have a number larger than that of a tail event. The aclivities which can be performed simultaneously and independently of each other are called the parallel activities. The activities which can be performed one after another in succession are known as serial activities. Activity or activities that are to be necessat completed before another activity commences are called predecessor activities to that activity, Similarly, the activity oractivities which can be performed after the completion of other activities are called the successor activities. Anactivity which does not require any time or resource is called adummy activity. A dummy is used as a device to identify a dependence among activities. Itis usually denoted by a broken line arrow, ‘Two errors in logic may occur while drawing a network. They are looping and dangling. In allooping the path of aclivities leads back into ilself. In dangling an activity is drawn with no inter- commecton, An event into which a number of activities enter and from which one or several activities leave is called a Merge node, Similarly, events which have one or several entering activities generating a number of emerging activities are known as Burst nodes. Once the network of the project is drawn it can be analysed by using either PERT or CPM techniques. In PERT the time required for completion of any activity is treated as.a random variable. In other words PERT uses the probabilistic approach. [tis event oriented. In CPM the time required for the completion of the activity is estimated with fair degree of accuracy. That means CPM uses determinisitic approach and it is activity oriented, The shortest possible time in which an activity can be completed under ideal conditions is known as the optimistic time estimate (f,). The maximum time that would be required to complete the activity under adverse conditions is known as the pessimistic time estimate (t,), The time required to complete the activity under normal con likely time estimate (F,). ons is knowin as the mostThe probability distribution used to describe the time estimate in PERT analysis is Beta distribution. According to this distribution the expected time (also known as the average time or the mean time) of completion of the activity t, is given by ip tN, + pay ft, The variance of the time of completion is given by o = I and thestandard deviation ois the square root of variance. The expected time for the path consisting of number of activities in series is obtained as the arithmetic mean of the expected times of the activities in the path. That is te tp, te tt (t,) for the path = : : Similarly, the standard devi, is given by ‘ion of the time of completion for the network ending event c,, Ina network, the critical path is one for which ¢, is maximum. The earliest expected time (T,) is the time when an event can beexpected to occur. This may be indicated above or below the node (that is the event circle) in a network. If more than one parth lead toan event, then the earliest expected time of that event is taken as maximum of t;’s computed along various paths. The latest time by which an event must occur, to keep the project ‘on schedule is known as the latest allowable occurrence time (T,) Slack is defined as the difference between the latest allowable time and the earliest expected time of an event. §=T,-T, Positive, zero and negative slacks respectively represent the time of completion ahead of schedule, on schedule and behined schedule. Acctitical path is the path which connects the initial and final events through those events for which the slack is either zero or minimum. It represents the path for which the earliest expected time is maximum. Alll events along, the critical path are considered to be critical since any delay in their occurence will lead to delay in the completion of the project. Since the expected time of completion of the project is the sum of the individual expected times of all the activities along the critical path, it is supposed to follow the normal distribution, according to central limit theorem. Therefore, the chances for completing, the project any time between (t,—o,,) and (f, +6,,) are 68% and for (1, ~2o,,) and (I; +26, pitis 95%. As already pointed out CPM is activity oriented and it uses the deterministic approach.The earliest event time (7',) is the earlist time at which an event can occur. This term is analogous to the earliest expected time used in the PERT analysis except that the degree of uncertainity associated with the word “expected” is now not present. The latest allowable occurrence time (T,) of am event in CPM is defined in the same way as in PERT. The earliest time by which an activity can commence is known as the earliest start time (EST) of that activity, So we have EST of an activity = Earliest event time {T,) at its tail. ‘The earliest time by which an activity can be completed is known as the earliest finish time (EFT) of that activity. That means EFT = EST ¢ activity duration ‘The latest time by which the activity can be completed is known as the latest finish time (LET), In other words, LFT = Lastest event time at the head event of the activity. The latest start time (LST) of an activity is the latest time by which it can be started without delaying the completion of the project. For ne delay condition to be satisfied, it should be obviously equal to the latest finish time minus the activity of the duration. That means LST = LFT - activity duration. ‘The term float in CPM is analogous to the term slack in PERT, Float is the range in which the start time or finish time of an activity can fluctuate without affecting the completion time of the Project. Total float (F,) is the difference between the maximum time available and the actual time required to complete an acitivity. Free float (F,) is that portion of the total float that can be consumed by any activity without delaying any succeeding activity. It can also be expressed as the difference between total float and the slack of the head event. Independent float (F,,,) is defined as the minimum available time in excess of the activity duration. It is alsa equal to difference between free float and slack of the tail event. Interfering float (F,,) 4s the diffe slack of the head event. Total float of an a is an important concept in CPM. If the total float is negative, the activily becomes supercritical and it requires very special attention and action. If the total float is zero, the activity becomes critical and it demands above normal attention with no freedom of action, When the float is positive, the activity becomes sub-critical allowing some freedom of action. ‘The critical path consists of those activities tar which the total float is zero and which form a continuous chain starting at the first node and ending with the last node. CPM can make use of cost estimates along, with the time estimates and provides a schedule for completing the activities at the minimum total cost. ence between total float and free float. It is also equal ta ‘The standard time that is usually allowed to an estimater to complete an activity is known as the normal time.‘The minimum possible time in which an activity can be completed by employing extra resources is called the crash time, It is not possible to complete the activity earlier than crash time by any amount of increase in resources. Normal cost is the direct cast required to complete the activity in normal time duration, Crash cost is the direct cost required to complete the activity in crash time, Crash cost — normal cost Th t of direct cost: . om Rea Ae a an ar Wine = coca nd The minimum time the project takes for its completion will be the sum of the crash times of all the activities along the critical path. The crashing of critical activities may result in some of the non-critical activities becoming critical. It is better to start with crashing that critical activity tirst which has the lowest cost slope. Sometimes it may not be advisable to crash the critical activities fully: Then they may be crashed in stages. I. OBJECTIVE TYPE QUESTIONS 1. A project is (a) a lange dam constructed actoss a river for a single or multi-purpose o (0) any ob involving many people and large money o fc) a work of major importance inwolving huge men and material oD (d) an organised team work toachieve a set task within the time limit, 6 2 Technology is the a) study of techniques o {D) study of machines and their operation oD fc) study of industrial relations bo Uf) study of behaviour of men and machines. o 3. Anactivity is (a) an element of work entailed in the project Do {bj the movement of heavy vehicles frum one place to another o {c) the beginning or the end of a specified jab o {if} the progress of work upto centrain limit, o 4. Aneventis fa). dummy activity o (6) the useful criterion o {c) the start and /or finish of an activity or the group of activities o Gf) a definite time interval. Oo 5. The pictorial representation of activities and events of a project is known as the (a) Flow chart OD (hh Flew net o te) Algorithm Bt) Net work, ofs 1. i 12 B mW The flow of time in a net work is generally (a) Frown left tu right (6) from right to left (c) both ways D(a) of no importance. Bar chart is also known as (a) Histogram chart Db) Flow chart (c) Time chart O (d) Gantt chart. Bar chart is drawn for (a) time versus activity Dib activity versus resources (c} resources versus progress Did) progress versus time: Policy is (a) a rule ora set of rules never to be violated (ta definite route along which one has to proceed. (ca procedure for preparing the project report (i). a set of broad guidelines stipulated by management An activity requires (a) events D (hy resources {c} time and resources Did) energy and vigour, A drawback of the bar chart is that (a) itis difficult to judge whether an activity is completed or not (8) all the activities represented are independent of each other (c} sequence of activities is not clearly defined (a) itis not possible tn judge whether the activity is ahead or behined schedule. Milestones are (a) the events specifying the beginning and/or the ene of subdivided activities (B) the stones indicating the distance along a highway (c) dates.of important happenings in the history of any nation (d) none of the above, Henry Gantt developed the bar chart technique around (a) 1800 DO ih 1900 (c) 1850 D(a) 1950. Milestone charts are developed around (ay 1800 OB it 1840 (ey 1900) D(a) 1940. The earliest method used for planning of projects was (a) PERT Oo ihcrm (e) Bar chart 0 (a) Milestone chart. Bar charts are suitable only for (a] minor projects, OO (b) medium projects (c) major projects DB (a)all the above. og oooo oooo aoogo ooPERT isan abbreviation for (a) pertinent equation related to a task o (B) performance, evaluation, rating and timing, o (c) programme evaluation and review technige o (d) periodical estimation of resmrce treasure. o CPM stands for (a) computer programming, mode 0 {Bj critical project management o (c) controtting, planning and maintenace (if) critical path method o PERT is (a) activity oriented Dit) event oriented o (c) time oriented 6 id) resource oriented. o CPM is (a) activity oriented 0 [b) event oriented o (c) time oriented O (f)resource oriented, o PERT adopts (a) deterministic approach O (b) probabilistic approach o (c) stochastic approach Ot) nome of the above, o CPM adopts (a) deterministic approach tb) probabilistic approach o (c) stochastic approach iit) nome of the above, o Which of the following statements is true ? (a) PERT is activity oriented and adopts deterministic approach, o (0) CPM is event oriented and adopts probabilistic approach, o (c) CPM is activity oriented and adopts probabilistic approach. o (1) PERT is event oriented and adopts probabilistic approach. o When the events are numbered in a network then the number of the head event of an activity is (a) always linger than the number of the tail event of the same act o (b) always smaller than the number of the tail event of the same activity o (c) always eqpual to the number of the tail event of the same activity o Ud) none of the above. o Which of the following is an example of parallel activities ? (a) construction of walls and casting of roof o (8) construction of walls and carpentry work of doors and windows o (c) casting of roof and construction of parapet wall o (@) digging. of well and construction of septic tank, o The occurrence of the completion of an activity is called its (a) head event OD tb) tail event o (c) dual role event 0 td) none of the above, o2 a, The occurrence of the starting of an activity is called its la) head event Db) tail event o {c) dual role event 1D iat) none of the above. 5 A dual role event (a) is the head event as well asa tail event Oo (6) consumes no time Oo {c)is the beginning of one event and the end of another o ul) is any event other than the initial and final events. o Pick up the correct statement from the following : to) Ina network activities are represented by arrows and events are circled, o {b) Events into which a number of activities enter and from which one or several activities emerge are called the merge nodes, o fc) Events into which one of several activities enter and from which a number of emerging activities are generated are called burst nodes. o (d) all the above, a An important principle in drawing a network is (a) no activity can start until all the previous activities in the same chain are completed o (6) parallel activities should begin and end at the same time o (c) between two events there should not be more than two activities Oo (a the number af dummy activities ina network should not exceed 4. o Adummy activity (a) has no tail event but only a head event a (b) hasonly head event but no tail event o (c) does not roquire any resources or any time Q {d) has no beating on the network and can appear anywhere. o At an event other than final event if no activity emerges, it results in an error called {a} looping Db) dangling o {c) interfacing DD tfysplicing. o If the path of activities leads back into itself, the resulting error in the network is knew as {a} looping D (b)dangling Oo (c) interfacing, Dit} splicing. o In the figure given below, identify the network with the error looping (8) @) (a) oO tbh ofe a. In the figure of the problem 34 Identify the network with dangling. Which of the following denotes a dummy activity P ? 0) @}- 4) 2 MG@p-2--@ a i @)-"- Gg) 5 @@y-= o In the network shown in the figure aside, which of the following statement is true. (a) activities A and B should be completed before C commences Oo (6) activities A and & should be completed before D commences: a (c) activities A and B should be completed before £ commences o (#) the sequence of the activities is A + B+ C+ DE. o If the activity A preceeds B but succeeds C, then netwark is ') O~+D A+) ® a © @F+Q+OA+® a 0@ HQ -*~+O) a ©) (2) 5 ‘The correct numbering of the events is given by , i ° ° i ©) (8) a +e) +) +8)0. 4. In which of the following are the arrows correctly indicated 7 ta) Bib 3 (2) te) By ‘The following figure indicates a) a merge D th abuest ic} an activity 0 it} none of the above, A a & 5 aa Qaz What does the figure question 42 indicate ? laja merge OB (bla burst fc) an activity Ot) none of the above, In PERT, the critical path represents the n) shortest path for the earliest completion of the project (6) longent path of the netwark from the initial to final event (ec) ideal path by proceeding along whieh the project cant be completed as per sehedule a) path which takes into- account the completion of the parallel activities, ‘The optimistic time estimate represents la) the shortest time required to complete the activity under favourable conditions (6) the maximum time required to complete the activity under adverse conditions (c) the time the activity would most after eequire if noemal conditions prevail ul) none of the above. In problem 44 which would represent the most likely Lime estimale. In problem 44 which would represent the pessimistic time estimate, nooo oo obooo TfJ,.dpand |, represent the optimistic, pessimistic and most likely time estimates, the expected time of completion of the activity is given by tip Skye, O itt athetl tie Bette Dye Det o48. A job consists of five activities A, B,C, Dand E. Activities A and & can start concurrently, Activity Ccan start only after A and B are completed, D starts after B is finished, and E can start only after C and D are finished. The correct network for the project is 49. The probability distribution taken to represent the completion time in PERT analysis is (a) Gamma distribution D(H) Normal distribution o (c) Beta distribution (a) Log-normal distribution. o 3. According to Beta distribution, the standard deviation of the time of completion is given by i} (lo Oo th 4 pro byte to 3 OW — a 51. The optimistic, most likely and pessimistic time estimates of an activity are 5, 10, 21 days, What are the expected time and standard deviation ? (a) 12,3 Oo hie o (cy 11, 267 OD td) 10, 14, o 52 Higher standard deviations means (a) higher uncertainity Dib) lower uncertainity o (ey nothing, to do with uncertainity Gd) none of the abeve, a 3B. Lf), 6y on 0, are the standard deviations of time of completion for the activities along the critical path, the standard deviations of the time of completion of the project is given by (a) ,,= SLi o a, = | Sae aoe o " F z i es fo? #a,? +. 4 0 ai + or +..+ fo (oo, = fe D Wo, = 3 o NE : if a6 What is the standard deviation for the network given belaw : ue se a7 =8 (1 DB tb a2 B tere O wz. o Slack is given as the difference between (a) latest allowable time and earliest expocted time o (0) latest allowable time and the pessiniistic time estimate o {c} earliest expected time and latest allowable time oD (d) final event time and initial event time. o Negative slack indicates (a) ahead of schedule condition DO (hb) behind the schedule condition o {c) on schedule condition Ot) none of the above. o Forall the events along, the critical path, the slack is (a) maximum DP) negative o {c) minimum or zero 6 td) none of the above. 6 The probability factor 2 im PERT is given by a scheduled time - earliest expected time o standard deviation scheduled time - latest allowable time Oa o {cy est allowable time — schecfuled time D standard deviation ‘a Btest alleys Nene earliest experted dine o If the probability factor is zero, the chances of completing the project in scheduled time are tayo OD esos o fc) P5% D(a) 100%. o Float may be defined as the difference between (a) latest start time and the earliest start time o (b) latest finish time and the earliest {i time o {c) time available and the time required to complete the activity oD (d) all the above, o Interfering float is the difference between (a) Total float and independent float 1 (b) Total float and free float o ic) Free float and independent float 0 id) Independent float and free float. o2 Negative float for any activity means that the activity is ta) supercritical Db) sub-critical fc) critical OD if} none of the above, Zero float for any activity means that the activity is fa) supercritical Oth) sub-critical ie) critical td) none of the aboue. Positive float for any activity means that the activity is (a) super-critical OD tb) sub-critical tc) critical 0 fd) none of the above, ‘The total float for any activity along the critical path in CPM is {a} positive OO (by) negative fe) zero OD tdyany value, Direct cost of a project is due to (a) establishment charges as salaries to administrative staff {h) loss or gain of revenue fe) penalty imposed id} cost of materials and wages af labour, Total project cost {a} increases with increase in time (0) reduces with increase in time (c) initially reduces and then increases with increase in time G7} initially increases and then reduces with increase in time, ‘The total cost versus time curve is (a) a straight line 0 th) shaped curve fc) a parabola 0 fd) o-shaped curve. Crashing to the project means {a} reducing the time of completion by spending more resources [b) reducing the cost of project by delaying the time of completion ic) reducing the project size to save the resources (i) alll the above. Resource smoothening means (a) gradual increase in resources (b) adjustment of resources to have the least variations {c) complete revamping of resources to suit the requirement (0) optimisation and economical utilisation of resources, Cost slope of the direct cost curve is given by fa) Ltt. cast — narmal cost Cp Stastucost —noemal east ‘normal tine — crash time crash Hine crash cost = mormal cost normal cost = crash cost (q So 0 ee normal time crash time. og O000 of ODOOO oooa oooa222 In the time-cost optimization using CPM, the crashing of the activities along the critical path és done starting, with the activity having ta} least cost slope OB ib highest cost slope o [e} moderate cost slope Did) none of the above. ao When all the paths are arranged according to the descending order of the float, the path which is next to critical path is known as fa) undercritteal path Db) sub-eritical path a (e) semi-critical path D(a) secondary critical path ao Which of the following isa dummy activity 7 (a) Excavyate the foundations (hb) Await the arrival of concrete material o (c) Lay the foundation concrete Ota) Cure the foundation concrete, a The time by which the completion of an activity can be delayed without affecting the start of succeeding activities is called (a) total out CO (dh interfering Boat o {c) independent float Dd) free float. ao Fulkerson’s rule is used for numbering the (a) events D1 (bh activities a ic} initial events 0 td) dummies. o Which of the following is a sequential ? i) CE ow & o E A ? a Dw A------O- Oo a Inthe problem 77, which is converging In the problem 77, which is diverging Total cost is fa) direct cost Ott) direct cost + indirect cost a {c) overheads Did) outage loss. a Outage loss plus overheads is equal to (a) direct cost OD (M indirect cost oO te) total cost 1D ia)penalty. a82. Identify the odd man out (a) Mix concrete (bj Excavate trench (c) Assemble parts 0 (d) Design completed. 83. Which of the following is the correct form of representation of an event ? my Oo tthe to a wl) $4. Which of the following is not related to cust slope ? (a) erash ease 1D (b) normal cost (ch crash time Ota) slack 85, Use of dummies js required for (a) grammatical purpose only (6) logical purpose only (cy oth (a) arc (8) DO (dl) none-of the above. ANSWERS Objective Type Questions 1 ta) 2b) 3. (al 4 fe 5d) 7 ld) 8. fa) 9% (a) 10, fc) 1 (ch 13. (B) 14, tal 15. (ch 16. {a} 17. (cd 19. (6) 20. (a) 7. (b) 22. fa) BB. (il) 25, (b) 26. (a) 27. (0) 2B. (ety 2. (al) a1 tc 32, (0) 33, (a) 34, (0) 3B. (ch 37. (BD 3B ic) 38. (ch 40. id) 41. (a) 43. (0) 44. (a) 45. (0 46, (01 47. (a) 49 (ch 50. (a) 51. (ch 52, (a) 5B. (ch 55 (a) 56. (by 57 (ch 58. (a) 58. (HD 61 (b 62. fa) 3. (c) 64. (1 65. (c) 67. (ch 68, (0 9. (al 70, (0 71 lal 73. (cy 74. (b) 75. (d) 76. (al 77. (a) 79. (b) 80. (b) 1. (al 82. (aly 83. (a) aS. (ch. 6. ta} 12, fa} 18. (it) 2. (a) 30. (9) 36, fc) a2. (bh 48. (2) 34. (6) 60. (ith 66. (il) 7 ta) 78 fe) 8a. (ty