Cee 5111 - Chapter 3

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CHAPTER 3 CRITICAL PATH METHODS IN

CONSTRUCTION
CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

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 The most widely used scheduling technique is the critical path method (CPM) for
scheduling, often referred to as critical path scheduling.
 This method calculates the minimum completion time for a project along with the
possible start and finish times for the project activities.
 Indeed, many texts and managers regard critical path scheduling as the only
usable and practical scheduling procedure.
 Computer programs and algorithms for critical path scheduling are widely
available and can efficiently handle projects with thousands of activities.

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 The critical path itself represents the set or sequence of predecessor/successor

activities which will take the longest time to complete.
 The duration of the critical path is the sum of the activities' durations along the path.
 Thus, the critical path can be defined as the longest possible path through the
"network" of project activities, as described in Chapter 2.
 The duration of the critical path represents the minimum time required to complete a
project.
 Any delays along the critical path would imply that additional time would be required
to complete the project.

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 There may be more than one critical path among all the project activities, so
completion of the entire project could be delayed by delaying activities along any
one of the critical paths.
 For example, a project consisting of two activities performed in parallel that each
require three days would have each activity critical for a completion in three days.
 Formally, critical path scheduling assumes that a project has been divided into
activities of fixed duration and well defined predecessor relationships.
 A predecessor relationship implies that one activity must come before another in the
schedule.
 No resource constraints other than those implied by precedence relationships are
recognized in the simplest form of critical path scheduling.
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 To use critical path scheduling in practice, construction planners often

represent a resource constraint by a precedence relation.
 A constraint is simply a restriction on the options available to a
manager, and a resource constraint is a constraint deriving from the
limited availability of some resource of equipment, material, space or
labor.
 For example, one of two activities requiring the same piece of
equipment might be arbitrarily assumed to precede the other activity.
 This artificial precedence constraint insures that the two activities
requiring the same resource will not be scheduled at the same time.

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 Also, most critical path scheduling algorithms impose restrictions on the

generality of the activity relationships or network geometries which are
used.
 In essence, these restrictions imply that the construction plan can be
represented by a network plan in which activities appear as nodes or
arrow in a network.
 Nodes or arrows are numbered, and no two nodes/arrows can have
the same number or designation.
 Two nodes are introduced to represent the start and completion of the
project itself.

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Network Analysis
 This analysis offers all the advantages of being able to manipulate the
planning data by holding the data in computer files. The planning
data in a network is linked through the logic that defines the
relationship between the activities i.e.
 duration
 resources, etc.
 OR changes can be made in the logical relationships between
activities and the consequences recalculated and represented.

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 Steps in producing a network are:

 Listing the operations
 Producing a network showing the logical relationship between the
activities.
 Assessing the duration of each activity, producing a schedule, and
determining the start and finish times of each activity and the float
available.
 Assessing the resources.

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 There are two popular forms of network analysis:

 Activity on the arrow
 Activity on the Node
 Both offer virtually the same facilities and it seems largely a
matter of preference which is used.

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Activity on the Arrow
 Preparing a network follows the steps listed below.

 Listing the activities
 Producing a logical network of activities

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Network logic
 An activity is represented by an arrow, the length of which is irrelevant

unless drawn to a time scale. The arrows are joined together in a
logical relationship.
 When drawing the network, three questions should be asked in order to
check that correct logic is being maintained.
1. Which activities must be complete before this activity starts?
2. Which activities cannot start until this activity is complete?
3. Which activities have no logical relationship with this activity and
can therefore take place at the same time?
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 Ignoring the restraints that will be placed upon the sequences of activities by resources (either
labour or plant), the network that satisfies the above questions will show the logical relationship
of all activities.
 Dummy arrows, drawn as broken lines, which do not represent any activity but are simply a
logical link, may be introduced. For example, if activity C was dependent on A and B being
completed, the network would require a dummy arrow to represent the logic as shown.
A C
B D

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Identifying activities
 Points were arrows start or finish are called events. The numbering of
these events provides a method of identifying the activities. E.g. ‘conc.
found Co’ activity in below network would be called (4) – (5).
 Numbering starts at the beginning of the network and progresses
through the events in numerical order until the end is reached, ensuring
that the number at the tail of an arrow is always smaller than that at
the head of the arrow.
 There may be situations where two arrows leave the same event and
arrive together at another event. In this case, the activities would have
the same identification numbers.

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8 8
3 waterproof
Exc. found lining to
and basement
basement 6
Co 1
Breakout 14 14 16 16
old sub-
6 2
structure 5 6
Exc. found
Concrete
and
basement walls
basement
0 0
St 2 3
3
1 2 Concrete
2 2 Concrete foundation
foundation Co
St 4
CEE 5111 Lecture Notes 9 11 Chapter 3

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 With an activity-on-arrow network, dummy activities may be

introduced for the purposes of providing unique activity designations
and maintaining the correct sequence of activities.
 A dummy activity is assumed to have no time duration and can be
graphically represented by a dashed line in a network.
16 17 16 18
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Two activities have Extra event and dummy

same reference arrow gives unique
CEE 5111 Lecture Notes identification Chapter 3
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Producing a schedule
 i) Duration and time analysis

 Time required for each activity needs to be estimated; the estimate
of duration will be based on knowledge of work, experience,
records and work study. Duration of each activity is then marked
against the arrow in the logic network.

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 ii) Calculating the Critical path

 (1) Forward pass [Earliest finish time]
 Calculate on the actual network diagram
 Start at the first activity; assume an earliest start of zero.
 Add duration to find earliest completion time
 When more than one activity enters an event, choose the longest
duration. [Allows longest activity to finish]

8 19 18
3
5 7
0 0 26 26 32 32
3 18 6
1 2 5 6
3 3
15 8
18 18
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 (2) Backward pass

 Start with the finish time of the latest event calculated from the
FORWARD PASS.
 Subtract the duration of the last activity to find the latest time the
activity should start.
 Continue along the network subtracting activity durations.
 When more than one activity enters an event, choose the
smallest calculated time. [This allows the longer duration to be
complete.]
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 The earliest possible time of each event is then calculated and

written in the left-hand square alongside each event. This has
determined the earliest possible start time of each activity.
 The results are shown in the diagram above. The calculation of the
earliest event times is known as the forward pass.
 The reverse process, the backward pass, determines the latest
possible time for the event, that is, the latest possible time for each
activity finishing without delaying the completion of the project.

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 The latest event time is calculated and written in the right-hand

square alongside each event.
 Event (3) has two activities leaving, and the latest time of event (3) is
determined by the earlier or smaller calculated latest time, i.e. one
calculation for event (3) from event (5) is 14-6=8 and the other is 11-
1=10, therefore the latest time of event (3) is 8. If event (3) was any
later than 8 the time to complete activities (3) - (5) and (5) - (6)
would extend beyond the project date of 16.
 From the earliest and latest times, the ‘float’ for each activity can be
calculated.
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 iii) Critical activities

 Those activities with no float, whose earliest and latest time of start event coincide, whose earliest and latest time
of finish events coincide and the time difference between the start event and finish event equals duration of the
activity.
 iv) Float
 A number of different activity schedules can be developed from the critical path scheduling procedure
described in the previous section. An earliest time schedule would be developed by starting each activity as soon
as possible, at ES(i,j).
 Similarly, a latest time schedule would delay the start of each activity as long as possible but still finish the project
in the minimum possible time. This late schedule can be developed by setting each activity's start time to LS(i,j).
 Activities that have different early and late start times (i.e., ES(i,j) < LS(i,j)) can be scheduled to start anytime
between ES(i,j) and LS(i,j) as shown in the Figure below.
 The concept of float is to use part or all of this allowable range to schedule an activity without delaying the
completion of the project. An activity that has the earliest time for its predecessor and successor nodes differing
by more than its duration possesses a window in which it can be scheduled. That is, if E(i) + Dij < L(j), then some
float is available in which to schedule this activity.
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Earliest time of Latest time of Earliest time of Latest time of
start event start event finish event finish event
2 2 9 11
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3 wks
2 4
Earliest & latest time Earliest time of Latest time of

of start event finish event finish event
2 9 11
Total time available for Activity

(2)-(4)
Activity 2-4
Latest
starting
time
Free float Interfering float
Activity 2-4
Earliest
finish time
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 Float is a very valuable concept since it represents the scheduling

flexibility or "maneuvering room" available to complete particular tasks.
 Activities on the critical path do not provide any flexibility for
scheduling nor leeway in case of problems.
 For activities with some float, the actual starting time might be chosen
to balance work loads over time, to correspond with material
deliveries, or to improve the project's cash flow.
 Of course, if one activity is allowed to float or change in the schedule,
then the amount of float available for other activities may decrease.
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Calculation of float
 Four separate categories of float are defined in critical path scheduling

i.e. Total Float, Free Float, Independent Float & Interfering Float
 Total Float
 …. is the maximum amount of delay which can be assigned to any
activity without delaying the entire project.
 The total float, TF(i,j), for any activity (i,j) is calculated as:
 𝑇𝐹 𝑖, 𝑗 = 𝐿 𝑗 − E 𝑖 − 𝐷𝑖𝑗
 This is the total time available for the activity less the duration
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 Free float
 … is the amount of delay which can be assigned to any one activity
without delaying subsequent activities.
 The free float, FF(i,j), associated with activity (i,j) is:
 𝐹𝐹 𝑖, 𝑗 = 𝐸 𝑗 − 𝐸 𝑖 − 𝐷𝑖𝑗

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 Independent float
 … is the amount of delay which can be assigned to any one activity
without delaying subsequent activities or restricting the scheduling of
preceding activities.
 Independent float, IF(i,j), for activity (i,j) is calculated as:
0
 𝐼𝐹 𝑖, 𝑗 = ቊ
𝐸 𝑗 − 𝐿 𝑖 − 𝐷𝑖𝑗

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 Interfering Float
 …is difference between total float and free float. It is the amount of
total float shared with the succeeding activity.

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Precedence Diagrams (Activity on
node)
 Network analysis by precedence

diagrams follows the same DEPENDENCY LIST
logical steps as the arrow ACTIVITY DURATION DEPENDENCY
diagram. 1 2 START
2 6 1
 The differences are as follows:
3 6 2
 Listing the activities 4 1 2
 The activity list can be extended to 5 3 1
show the dependency between 6 3 4&5
activities
7 2 3&6

Example: Precedence Diagram
8 (6) 14 31
8 3 4
2 (6) 8
2 2 8
14 (2) 16
14 7 16
0 (2) 2
0 1 2
8 (1) 9
10 4 11
2 (3) 5 9 (3) 12
8 5 11 0 1 14

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Earliest Start Duration Earliest Finish
0 (2) 2
0 1 2
Latest Start
Activity Latest Finish
Identification

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 Producing a logical network

 i) Logic
 The node represents the activity and the link represents only the logical
relationship. No dummies are needed to maintain correct logic or for
unique numbering of activities.
 ii) Identifying the activities
 Each node representing an activity can be given a single unique number.

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 iii) Duration & time analysis

 The duration of each activity is estimated and the forward and backward
passes are done and the earliest and latest start and finish times of each
activity are determined.
 These times calculated refer to the activity whereas the calculations for
arrows referred to event times. This is claimed by some to be an
advantage of the precedence diagram over the arrow diagram.
 Floats can be calculated as before. Total float of activity No.5 is latest finish
time less earliest starting time less duration = 11-2-3=6

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 iv) Relationships between activities

 The major advantage offered by precedence diagrams and the available
computer packages are that the number of relationships that can exist
between activities is more than the simple finish - start relationship offered
by arrow networks.
 The finish-start limitation means that if an activity is to start before the
completion of a preceding activity upon which the activity is dependent,
then the preceding activity must be divided into smaller parts see Fig (a);
 otherwise dummies with a time allowance as in Fig (b) must be used to
produce overlaps between activities.

A B
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‘B’cannot start until ‘A’ is complete
A part 2
A part1
B part 1
B part2
Fig (a)
A
4 4
B
Real time
dummy
4
4
Fig (b)
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 In precedence diagrams a number of different relationships exist

between activities, i.e.
 Finish – Start
 Finish – Finish
 Start – Start
 Part complete – Start
 Part complete – Finish
 Finish – Part complete

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 The particular selection of relationships which exist depend on the computer

package chosen.
 In practice, however, the use of many different relationships between activities has
proved in some cases to be disadvantageous. The users find the alternatives too
complicated. Also, when extensive overlapping of activities is used in planning, the
project duration tends to be underestimated.
 The main differences between precedence diagrams and activity-on-the-arrow
system are that precedence diagrams have no dummies, no change of reference
number when additional activities are added, and have complex relationships.
 The case as to which system to use is not as yet sufficiently clear and remains largely a
matter of preference in most construction projects.

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Example
Activity Description Predecessors Duration
A Preliminary design --- 6

B Evaluation of design A 1
C Contract negotiation --- 8
D Preparation of fabrication plant C 5
E Final design B, C 9
F Fabrication of Product D, E 12
G Shipment of Product to owner F 3

Activity Description Predecessors Duration
A Preliminary design --- 6
B Evaluation of design A 1 40
C Contract negotiation --- 8
D Preparation of fabrication plant C 5
E Final design B, C 9
F Fabrication of Product D, E 12
G Shipment of Product to owner F 3

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Line of Balance Analysis
 Line of Balance is a planning technique that has been developed for

the planning of repetitive construction work, e.g. house-building.
 The method is based upon establishing a required delivery programme
for the completed units and then determining the gangs or team of
labour resources necessary to meet the delivery schedule.
 The method for producing a line of Balance Schedule will now be
discussed together with an example.

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Procedure
1. Establish the logic for the construction
2. Estimate the person-hours to complete each operation
3. Select buffer times that do not result in the interference of one operation with
another.
4. Calculate the required output rate to meet the required completion date for the
work.
5. Complete the Table of Calculations (see Table 1)
6. Draw the Line of Balance Schedule
7. Review the schedule and assess alternatives.

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 When reviewing the schedule you may consider alternative approaches to

bring a more ‘balanced’ schedule.
 These may include:
 changing the output rate of one activity by increasing or reducing the
gang size part-way through the project.
 laying-off and recalling one gang.
 overlapping some activities; or
 scheduling every activity at the same work rate.

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 Network Analysis considered time and resource allocations separately. Line of

Balance is based on chosen resources and their anticipated output rates.
 The line of Balance Schedule may be used to monitor the construction progress.
 However, changing the schedule once work has commenced is difficult because
labour and other resources are usually committed to the project.
 The Line of Balance technique may also be used to monitor material orders and
deliveries.

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 The purpose of the Line-of-Balance analysis is to balance the rate of progress of the
construction activities and to schedule the activities to eliminate interference. This is
done by:-
 adjusting the rate of production for each activity so that it approximates to a
common rate of production for all activities.
 delaying the start of those activities that even after adjustment proceed faster
than those immediately proceeding them to maintain at least the minimum buffer
specified at all times.

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 The project plan is always based on a planned handover schedule. The line-of-
Balance schedule will show:
 when the construction of each unit starts
 when construction of each unit is completed
 the total duration of the project
 when each trade/gang should start and finish on site.

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Example
 Your company Civilbuild Ltd has been awarded the contract for the execution of 124
pylons for ZESCO. The required handover rate is 6 pylons per week. Prepare a Line of
Balance Schedule for the work. (Assume normal labour production rates and a
standard working week of 40 hours i.e. 5 days at 8 hours per day). The Logic Diagram
for the construction of each pylon is as shown below
EXC CONC ERECT FIX FIX
1 2 3 4 5 6
A B C D E

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The following parameters will be used in the calculations

M - Total number of person-hours for each of the operations
R - target rate of build
S/N Operation Person- Optimum
H - hours worked per week
hours gang size
h - hours worked per day
A Excavate 55 4
d - number of working days per week
B Concrete 64 4
B - Buffer time
C Erect Tower 145 8
Q - Optimum gang size
Fix Cantilever cable
g - actual gang size. D arms 90 8
E Fix insulators 25 5
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Operation Person Theoretical gang Men per Actual gang Natural rate Time per Elapsed time
(Man)-hours size operation size in of build operation between start on
[M] G=RxM (Q) multiples of Q U= g x R T= M x 1 the first unit and
(hours) H (persons) (g) G h Q start on the last unit
(persons) (persons) (pylons/ (days) S = (n-1)x d
week) U
(days)
A 55 8.25 4 8 5.8 1.72 106.03
B 64 9.6 4 8 5.0 2.0 123
C 145 21.75 8 24 6.6 2.26 93.2
D 90 13.5 8 16 7.1 1.41 86.62
E 25 3.75 5 5 8.0 0.62 76.88

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1

CHAPTER 3 CRITICAL PATH METHODS IN

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 The critical path itself represents the set or sequence of predecessor/successor

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 To use critical path scheduling in practice, construction planners often

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 Also, most critical path scheduling algorithms impose restrictions on the

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 Steps in producing a network are:

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 There are two popular forms of network analysis:

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 Preparing a network follows the steps listed below.

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 An activity is represented by an arrow, the length of which is irrelevant

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes 9 11 Chapter 3

 With an activity-on-arrow network, dummy activities may be

Two activities have Extra event and dummy

 i) Duration and time analysis

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 ii) Calculating the Critical path

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 (2) Backward pass

 The earliest possible time of each event is then calculated and

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 The latest event time is calculated and written in the right-hand

 iii) Critical activities

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

Earliest & latest time Earliest time of Latest time of

Total time available for Activity

 Float is a very valuable concept since it represents the scheduling

 Four separate categories of float are defined in critical path scheduling

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 Network analysis by precedence

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

Earliest Start Duration Earliest Finish

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 Producing a logical network

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 iii) Duration & time analysis

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 iv) Relationships between activities

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 In precedence diagrams a number of different relationships exist

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 The particular selection of relationships which exist depend on the computer

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

Activity Description Predecessors Duration

A Preliminary design --- 6

D Preparation of fabrication plant C 5

G Shipment of Product to owner F 3

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3

 Line of Balance is a planning technique that has been developed for

CEE 5111 Lecture Notes Chapter 3