CHAPTER V: Project Scheduling With PERT/CPM

CHAPTER V: Project Scheduling with PERT/CPM
5. Project Scheduling with PERT/CPM ..................................................................................................... 5.1

5.1. Precedence Constraints ................................................................................................................... 5.2
5.2. Network Representations................................................................................................................ 5.3
5.3. Critical Path Computations............................................................................................................. 5.8
5.3.1. Determining Activity Ranks ................................................................................................... 5.8
5.3.2. Determining the Critical Path of an Acyclic AON Network .................................................5.10
5.4. Construction of the Time Schedule ...............................................................................................5.15
5.5. The PERT Approach .....................................................................................................................5.18
5.6. Project Crashing ............................................................................................................................5.22
5. Project Scheduling with PERT/CPM
A project is defined as a collection of interrelated activities with each activity consuming time and
resources. We can give a vide variety of project examples:
1. Construction of plants, buildings, highways, and swimming pools.

2. Building a ship.
2. Research and development of new products and processes.
3. Maintenance of large and complex equipment.
4. Design and installation of new systems.
The successful management of large-scale projects requires careful planning, scheduling and
control of numerous interrelated activities:
Project planning: Project planning involves defining each elementary activity to be executed,
clarifying the precedence relationships regarding the order in which these activities must be
performed, and estimating the time and the resources required to execute each activity.
Project scheduling: Project scheduling involves developing a time schedule for these activities, i.e.,
determining the start time and the completion time of each activity in the project. The main aim of
the project scheduler is to find a compromise between the resource utilization levels and the
completion time of the project.
Control: During the actual execution of the project, things may not proceed as planned, as some
activities may be expedited or delayed. This is why the correspondence between the established
time schedule and the real-time situation of the project must be controlled and, in case of large
deviations, the time schedule must be revised to reflect the realities on the ground.
CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) are network-
based methods designed to assist in the planning, scheduling, and control of projects. The objective
of CPM and PERT is to provide analytic means to schedule the activities.
Operations Research – September 2018 5.1

Although PERT and CPM have the same general purpose and utilize much of the same
terminology, the techniques were developed independently. PERT was developed in the late 1950s
specifically for the Polaris missile project. Many activities associated with this project had never
been attempted previously, so PERT was developed to handle probabilistic activity durations. CPM
was developed primarily for industrial projects for which the activity durations generally were
known, i.e., CPM assumes deterministic activity durations. CPM offered the option of reducing
activity times by adding resources, usually at an increased cost. Thus, a distinguishing feature of
CPM was identifying tradeoffs between time and cost for various project activities. However,
today’s computer versions of PERT and CPM have combined the best features of both approaches
into what is usually referred to as PERT/CPM systems.
5.1. Precedence Constraints
For an activity , let
: start time of activity

: duration of activity
: completion time of activity , = +
The precedence relationships between the activities and also the activity localizations in time can be
expressed through precedence constraints having the following general structure:
− ≥
The four basic types of precedence constraints are the following:
1. Localization in time:
: an arbitrary reference date
a. − ≥ → ≥ +
 Activity can not start before the date + .

 + : earliest start time of activity

b. − ≥ − where > → ≤ +
 Activity can not start after the date + .

 + : latest start time of activity
2. Succession between activities:
a. Strict succession: − ≥ → ≥ +
 Activity j can not start before the completion of activity i.
b. Succession with overlapping: − ≥ where 0 ≤ ≤ 1 → ≥ +

c. Succession with minimum delay: − ≥ + where > 0 → ≥ + +
d. Succession with maximum delay: − ≥ − where >0 → ≤ +
3. Imposed start time:
− ≥
Activity has to start at the date + .
− ≥ −
− ≥
Activity ! has to start when activity is completed.
− ≥ −
5.2. Network Representations
All PERT/CPM systems use a project network to portray graphically the interrelationships among
the elements of a project. This network representation of the project shows all the precedence
relationships between the activities.
There are two basic types of project networks:

AON (Activity On Node) Project Network:
 Activities are represented using the nodes of the network.

 Directed arcs are used to represent the precedence constraints, i.e., the constraints of the
form − ≥ .

!
Figure 5.1. Representation of the precedence constraint − ≥ using an AON Network
AOA (Activity On Arc) Project Network:
 Activities are represented by directed arcs.

 Each node is used to represent an event that is usually defined as the point in time that a
set of activities are completed.
Start End
Figure 5.2. Representation of an activity using an AOA Network
An AON or an AOA network always contains two special nodes:
 Node “Start” represents the start of the project. This is the only node of the project network
with no entering arcs. An arc should lead from this node for each activity that has no
predecessors.
 Node “End” represents the completion of the project. This is the only node of the project
network with no outgoing arcs.
Example 5.1: Consider a project with 6 activities. The precedence constraints related to this project
are given as follows:
" − # ≥ #
$ − % ≥ %

' − " ≥ "
' − $ ≥ $
( − $ ≥ $
( − " ≥ "
Figure 5.3 gives the AON project network and Figure 5.4 gives the AOA project network of this
example problem.
# "
A C E '
0 "
Start $ (
End
0 % $ F
B D
Figure 5.3. AON Network of the project of Example 5.1
End A End C
Start C End D
End E
# "
Start E
End F
Start F ' End Project
Start Project
Start A
(
Start B
% $
End B
Start D
Figure 5.4. AOA Network of the project of Example 5.1
In AOA networks, it is sometimes necessary to utilize dummy activities that take zero time and
consume no resources. A dummy activity is normally depicted by a dashed arc.
The basic reason to use a dummy activity in an AOA network is to maintain the correct precedence
relationships when some of the immediate predecessors of an activity are also immediate
predecessors of some distinct activities. An example situation is given in Figure 5.5.

Constraints Activity On Node Network Activity On Arc Network
End A
#
% − # ≥ # A Start A #
Start D
$ End D
#
B
% − " ≥ "
$ − # ≥ # C " D
0
Start C " %
End B
End C
Start B
Figure 5.5. Use of dummy activity to ensure correct precedence relationships
Dummy arcs are also used in order to represent concurrent activities. Concurrent activities have the
same predecessors and successors and thus can be represented using parallel arcs. To be able to
distinguish better these activities, a dummy activity is usually inserted to the network. Note that this
convention is not really necessary for the mathematical treatment of the problem. However, it is very
useful for computer applications where each arc is coded as a pair of nodes, using the form (, !). By
inserting a dummy arc, the AOA network of Example 5.1 can be redefined as in Figure 5.6.
End A End C
Start C End D End E
# "
Start E '
Start F
Start Project
Start A
0
Start B % $ ( End F
End Project
End B
Start D
Figure 5.6. Redefined AOA Network of the project of Example 5.1
In AOA networks, an activity can be represented by more than one arc if there is succession with
overlapping between this activity and one of its immediate successors (See Figure 5.7).

Constraints Activity On Node Activity On Arc Network
Network
End A
% − # ≥ # # Start A Start C Start B End B
A B # (1 − )# ,
" − # ≥ #
# "
C
End C
Figure 5.7. Representation of an activity with more than one arc
We can observe that the AON network of a project is unique. Moreover, new constraints can be
inserted directly (without making additional modifications on the network) to an AON network. If we
analyze the characteristics of AOA networks, we can see that more than one AOA network can be
defined for the same project. An AOA network can rapidly become unreadable because of the dummy
activities. Moreover, in an AON network, the set of dummy activities must be modified when new
constraints are to be introduced. On the other hand, the AOA network of a project may contain fewer
nodes than the AON network and thus may facilitate the resolution of the project scheduling problem.
The AON and AOA networks are used to solve the project scheduling problem. However, the obtained
project schedule is generally illustrated using a Gantt chart. The Gantt chart is an excellent technique
for visualizing the phases and activities of a project but it does not provide a systematic procedure to
solve the project scheduling problem.
Activities
(
$ '
% "
#
time
Figure 5.8. A Gantt diagram example for the project of Example 5.1

5.3. Critical Path Computations
In PERT/CPM systems, the interrelationships among the elements of a project are represented using
an AOA network. MPM (Méthode des Potentiels Métra), which is a similar method proposed in
France, uses AON network representations. Whatever the type of the project network is, the concept
of a critical path is the same for all the proposed methods. This is the reason why all these methods
are known as critical path methods.
In the following, we study the critical path computations of AON networks.
5.3.1. Determining Activity Ranks
Consider a project having precedence constraints of the form − ≥ with > 0 for all and
!. The AON network of such a project can not contain a directed cycle. As mentioned in Chapter
IV, a directed network with no directed cycles is called a directed acyclic network. Then, the AON
network of a project that has only positive potentials (i.e., > 0 for all and !) is always an
acyclic network.
Example 5.2: Consider the two precedence constraints, − ≥ and − ≥ , that are
shown in Figure 5.9. These two constraints form a directed cycle and imply together that
≤ − ≤ − . However, this relation is not coherent if > 0 and > 0. This proves that
the AON network of a project that has only positive potentials can not contain directed cycles.
Constraints Activity On Node Network

− ≥
− ≥ !

Figure 5.9. Structure of a cycle in an AON network
The activities of a project that has only positive potentials can be ranked in a way that an activity
having the rank -./ ( ) = / has all its predecessors in ranks / − 1, / − 2, … , 0. As explained in
Chapter IV, this ranking of activities is called a topological ordering. The obtained ranking is then

used to construct the AON network by visualizing each rank as a vertical line and by placing the
activities with the same rank to the corresponding vertical line. Note that if all the activities of a
project can not be attributed to a rank, then there is a cycle in the network. Knowing that the
potentials of the project are all positive, this implies that some of the precedence constraints have
been improperly formulated.
Example 5.3: Consider a project having 8 distinct activities. The precedence relations between
these 8 actives are given in the table below:
Activity Duration (in days) Constraints (on the start time)

A 16 5 days after the start time of the project
B 14 1 day after the start time of the project
C 20 3 days after the start time of the project
D 8 Activities A and B are completed
E 18 Activity B is progressed to 6/7
F 25 Activity B is progressed to 5/7
Activity C is progressed to 7/20
G 15 Activities D, E, and F are completed
H 17 Activity C is completed
Activity E is progressed to 1/2
The ranks of these 8 activities are obtained as follows:
Activity Immediate Predecessors Rank

Start 0
A Start 1
B Start 1
C Start 1
D A, B 2
E B 2
F B, C 2
G D, E, F 3
H C, E 3
End G, H 4

The AON and the AOA network representations of this project are given in Figures 5.10 and 5.11,
respectively.
16 8
A D G
15
5 14 18
1 12 25
Start B E End
10 9
17
3 7 F
20
C H
Figure 5.10. AON network of the project of Example 5.3
End F
End B End E
End A End D
Start D Start G
Start A 16 8
5 2 9
Start E
15
1 Start B 10 2 9
Start 3 25
0 End
0 End G
0 Start F End H
17
7 13
Start C Start H
Fin C
Figure 5.11. AOA network of the project of Example 5.3
5.3.2. Determining the Critical Path of an Acyclic AON Network
The aim in a project scheduling problem is to determine the longest path from the “Start” node to
the “End” node of the corresponding project network. This is known as the critical path. The length
of the critical path determines the minimum time required to complete the project.

Suppose that the project starts at time “0” and let
2() : set of immediate predecessors of activity

3() : set of immediate successors of activity
4 : maximum rank number of the network
5 : earliest start time of activity , i.e., the (estimated) start time of activity if all the
preceding activities are started as early as possible
6 : latest start time of activity , i.e., the (estimated) start time of activity at which the
activity can start without delaying the completion of the project
The critical path computations are carried in two steps:
1. Compute the earliest start time of each activity by a forward pass through the network; that is,
the computations proceed from node “Start” to node “End”.
2. Compute the latest start time of each activity by a backward pass through the network; that is,
the computations proceed from node “End” to node “Start”.
The simplified version of the Bellman-Ford algorithm, seen in Chapter IV, can be easily modified
to process these two steps.
Forward Pass: Determine the earliest start time 5 of each activity .
5789:8 = 0
For / = 1 to 4

For each node ! of rank / !
5 = max∈?() @5 + A
This algorithm can be justified even intuitively: if we cannot start activity before the date 5 (for
some that precedes !), then we cannot start activity ! before the date 5 + .
The date E'CD is exactly the length of the critical path. In the following, we suppose that the project
scheduler wants to finish the project as early as possible, i.e., at the date E'CD .

We now continue the algorithm for finding the critical path by making a backward pass through the
network.
Backward Pass: Determine the latest start time 6 of each activity .
6'CD = E'CD
For / = 4 − 1 to 0
For each node of rank /

!
6 = min∈F() @6 − A
The fundamental observation that follows directly from the above definitions is the following: an
activity can start at any time in the interval G5 , 6 H, without delaying the completion of the project.
That is, after determining the earliest and latest start times of the activities, we can determine the
amount of total slack associated to each activity. The total slack of an activity is the length of time
an activity can be delayed without increasing the project completion time. The total slack I3 of an
activity is given as:
I3 = 6 − 5
5 6 5 12 21 28 36 36
16 8
A D G
15
5 14 18
0 0 1 1 13 18 51 51
1 12 25
Start B E End
10 9
17
3 7 F
C 20 H
3 4 11 11 23 34
Figure 5.12. Earliest and latest start times of the activities for the project of Example 5.3

Activities on the critical path are referred to as the critical activities of the project. We can observe
that the critical activities are the activities with zero total slack. Thus, these activities can not be
delayed without increasing the completion time for the entire project. During the actual execution of
the project, these activities have to be paid much more attention than the non-critical activities.
Note that a project may have more than one critical path. Thus, an activity is critical if it is on at
least one of the critical paths.
Example 5.3 (continuation): The temporal characteristics of the activities are given as follows:
Start A B C D E F G H End
L 0 5 1 3 21 13 11 36 23 51
M 0 12 1 4 28 18 11 36 34 51
NO 0 7 0 1 7 5 0 0 11 0
The critical path of the project is then Start – B – F – G – End.
Let J be the latest start time of activity at which the activity can start letting the succeeding
activities to start at their earliest start times. For an activity , J is calculated as:
J = min∈F() @5 − A
That is, an activity can start at any time in the interval G5 , J H without delaying the succeeding
activities. The free slack K3 of an activity is then obtained as:
K3 = J − 5 .
As can be guessed, the free slack of an activity is the length of time an activity can be delayed
without delaying the succeeding activities.

Activity
time
Total Slack
Free Slack
5 J 6
Figure 5.13. Schematization of total and free slack values
5 J 5 5 21 28 36 36
16 8
A D G
15
5 14 18
0 0 1 1 13 14 51 51
1 12 25
Start B E End
10 9
17
3 7 F
C 20 H
3 3 11 11 23 34
Figure 5.14. J values of the activities for the project of Example 5.3
Example 5.3 (continuation): The difference between the total slack and the free slack is evident in
our numerical example:
Start A B C D E F G H End
L 0 5 1 3 21 13 11 36 23 51
M 0 12 1 4 28 18 11 36 34 51
P 0 5 1 3 28 14 11 36 34 51
NO 0 7 0 1 7 5 0 0 11 0
QO 0 0 0 0 7 1 0 0 11 0

In conclusion, the information on earliest and latest times, slacks and critical path is invaluable for
the project manager. This information helps the manager to answer questions like:
 How long will the project take to complete?

 Which activities are critical and must be completed exactly as scheduled to keep the project
on schedule?
 How long non-critical activities can be delayed before they cause an increase in the
completion times of the succeeding activities?
 How long non-critical activities can be delayed without delaying the completion of the
project?
In the following, we study such questions that can be faced by the manger of the project given in
Example 5.3.
Question 1. Suppose that the project manager has realized that activity E cannot start before day 14.
What are the consequences of this delay?
Since the imposed delay (14 − 13 = 1) is not greater than the free slack of activity E (K3' = 1),
this additional constraint has an impact neither on the completion time of the project nor on the
completion times of the succeeding activities.
Question 2. The project manager has realized that activity E cannot start before day 15. What are
the consequences of this delay?
Since the imposed delay (15 − 13 = 2) is greater than the free slack of activity E (K3' = 1), the
succeeding activities will also be delayed. However, it does not change the completion time of the
project since 15 − 13 = 2 ≤ I3' = 5.
5.4. Construction of the Time Schedule
The information obtained from critical path calculations is very valuable but does not provide
directly a project schedule. In fact, many different schedules may be compatible with the calculated
earliest and latest start dates.

For the project of Example 5.3, Figure 5.15 gives the schedule obtained by starting all the activities
at their earliest start dates. Figure 5.16 gives the schedule obtained by starting all the activities at
their latest start dates.
Activities
End •
23
H
17
36
G
15
11
F
25
13
E
18
21
D
8
3
C
20
1
B
14
5
A
16
Start •
time
51
Figure 5.15. Earliest schedule for the project of Example 5.3

Activities
End •
H 34
17
36
G
15
11
F
25
E 18
18
D 28
8
C 4
20
B 1
14
A 12
16
Start •
time
51
Figure 5.16. Latest schedule for the project of Example 5.3
The final project schedule is preferred to be a schedule that satisfies the capacity constraints.
However, project scheduling problems with capacity constraints are very hard to solve. Heuristic
procedures are generally used to obtain good sub-optimal schedules for problems with capacity
constraints.

5.5. The PERT Approach
Once we have developed the network representation of a given project, we need information on the
time required to complete each activity. This information is used in the calculation of the total time
required to complete the project and in the scheduling of specific activities. For repeated projects, such
as construction and maintenance projects, managers may have the experience and historical data
necessary to provide accurate activity time estimates. However, for new or unique projects, estimating
the time for each activity may be quite difficult. Besides, in some situations, activity times are affected
by totally uncontrollable factors (meteorological conditions, strikes, etc.). In fact, in many cases,
activity times are uncertain and are best described by a range of possible values rather than by one
specific time estimate. In these instances, the uncertain activity times are treated as random variables.
As a result, the completion time of the project can not be fixed as a deterministic value. Rather,
probability statements are provided about the ability to meet a specific project completion date.
In the PERT approach, the duration of an activity is characterized using three estimates:
U : optimistic time,
the minimum activity time (unlikely but possible) if everything goes well
V : pessimistic time,
the maximum activity time (unlikely but possible) if everything goes badly
W : most likely time,
the most probable time under normal conditions
The range GU , V H encloses all possible estimates of the duration of an activity . The estimate W
lies somewhere in the range GU , V H, i.e., U ≤ W ≤ V .
Then, the duration is treated as a random variable that follows a beta distribution whose mean X
and variance YZ are determined as follows:
U + 4W + V
X =
6
V − U Z
YZ =\ ]
6

Because the durations of the activities are random variables, the duration of the project, 5End , must
also be a random variable. The probability distribution function of 5End is estimated using a set of
approximations. In the following, we analyze these approximations.
First of all, let _ be a critical path obtained by attributing a duration X to each activity . It is
assumed that the total duration of the project is equal to the sum of the durations of the critical
activities that are on the critical path _. That is, it is assumed that 5End = ∑∈a . This is an
approximation since the critical path _ is critical just for the deterministic problem. This
observation can be clarified considering for example the situations in which the deterministic
problem has more than one critical path (In this case, the path having the largest variance is selected
because it reflects the most uncertainty and, hence, leads to more conservative estimates of
probabilities.).
Using the above approximation, the studied random variable is now ∑∈a rather than 5End . The
next approximation is that the activity times are statistically independent. Then, assuming that the
durations of the critical activities on the critical path _ are statistically independent, we can
calculate the mean and the variance of the random variable ∑∈a as follows:
Mean of ∑∈a = ∑∈a X
Variance of ∑∈a = ∑∈a YZ
The third assumption is that the total project duration has a normal distribution with mean ∑∈a X
and variance ∑∈a YZ . The rational for this assumption is that this time is the sum of many
independent random variables, and the general version of the central limit theorem implies that the
probability distribution of such a sum is approximately normal under a wide range of conditions.
The PERT procedure can be summarized as follows:
Step 1: Given U , V , and W , calculate the mean X and the variance YZ of the duration of each
activity .
Step 2: Solve the deterministic project scheduling problem using the mean X as the duration of
each activity .
Step 3: Determine the critical path _, the earliest start times, etc.

Step 4: The duration of the project is a normally distributed random variable with mean
XEnd = ∑∈a X and variance YEnd
Z
= ∑∈a YZ .
We can eventually calculate the probability that the project will be completed before a given date.
Consider for example the probability that the project will be completed before the date 3:
5End − XEnd 3 − XEnd 3 − XEnd

2-b5End ≤ 3c = 2- d ≤ e = 2- df ≤ e
YEnd YEnd YEnd
where z is the standard normal random variable with mean 0 and variance 1.
Example 5.4: Consider a project with 5 activities having the following time estimates (in minutes):
Activities Constraints g h i
A - 30 60 78
B After A 4 5 9
C After A 6 8 10
D After A 6 7 11
E After B, C and D 4 5 6
The mean X and the variance YZ of each activity are calculated as follows:
g h i j k kl
A 30 60 78 58 8 64
B 4 5 9 5.5 5/6 25/36
C 6 8 10 8 2/3 4/9
D 6 7 11 7.5 5/6 25/36
E 4 5 6 5 1/3 1/9

The rank of each activity is given in the following table:
Activity Predecessors Rank

Start - 0
A Start 1
B A 2
C A 2
D A 2
E B, C, D 3
End E 4
Figure 5.17 gives the AON network representation of this project.
B
58 5.5
0 58 8 5
Start A C E End
58 7.5
D
The temporal characteristics of the activities are obtained as:
Start A B C D E End
L 0 0 58 58 58 66 71
M 0 0 60.5 58 58.5 66 71
NO 0 0 2.5 0 0.5 0 0
The critical path _ is then Start – A – C – E – End.
The duration of the project is a normally distributed random variable with
mean XEnd = 71 minutes
Z n p
and variance YEnd = 64 + + = 64.56 minutes.
o o

The standard deviation of the duration of the project is YEnd = 8.035 minutes.
What is the probability that the project can be completed in 1 hour and 20 minutes or less?
80 − 71
2-b5End ≤ 80c = 2- df ≤ e = 2-bf ≤ 1.12c = 0.8686
8.035
If we want a 95% probability of completing the project on time, what is the project
completion time that we have to declare?
3 − 71
2-b5End ≤ 3c = 2- df ≤ e = 0.95
8.035
3 − 71
2- df ≤ = 1.65e = 0.9505, S = 84.26
8.035
5.6. Project Crashing
Estimates of activity durations for projects usually are made for some given level of resources. In
many situations, it is possible to reduce the length of a project by assigning additional resources
(labor, material, equipment, etc.) to project activities. However additional resources cost money and
hence increase the overall project cost. Thus, the decision to reduce the project duration must be
based on an analysis of the tradeoff between time and cost. CPM is a method that was essentially
developed for analyzing such time-cost tradeoffs.
Assume that the time specified for completing an activity is the normal time. The minimum possible
time required is defined as the crash time. Furthermore assume that the costs of completing the
activity in each of these times are known. Then the CPM assumption is that the costs of completing
an activity at times between the normal and the crash times lie along a straight line, as pictured in
Figure 5.18. Assuming that the crashing cost function is linear should be reasonable in most
circumstances.

Crash Cost
Normal Cost
Crash Time Normal Time
Figure 5.18. The CPM time-cost linear model
In the CPM approach, the project duration is shortened by reducing the time of one or more of the
critical project activities to a time that is less than the normal activity time. This reduction in the
normal activity times is referred as crashing. As mentioned before, crashing is usually achieved by
using additional funds to support additional personnel or more efficient equipment. Hence, a project
manager may be able to shorten a project by increasing direct costs, which include costs of labor,
material, equipment, and so on. The impetus to shorten projects may reflect efforts to avoid late
penalties, to take advantage of monetary incentives for timely or early completion of a project, or to
free resources for use on other projects. That is, the desire to shorten the length of a project merely
reflects an attempt to reduce the indirect costs associated with running the project. Indirect costs
include costs of overhead such as rents, interest, utilities, and any other costs that increase with the
length of the project.
Indirect costs and direct costs are respectively increasing and decreasing functions of the project
completion time. When these functions are convex, the total cost function, which is their sum, also
will be convex. This means that there will be a value of the project time between the normal and the
crash times that is optimal in the sense of minimizing the total cost. Convex cost functions are
pictured in Figure 5.19. Assuming convex cost functions, the CPM method shortens the project
duration by one time unit at a time and calculates the corresponding value of the total cost function
until the optimal time is obtained.

Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Direct Cost
Crash Time Optimal Time Normal Time
Figure 5.19. Optimal project completion time
In practice, one needs the following information to carry out CPM calculations:
 Normal time and crash time estimates of each activity

 Normal cost and crash cost estimates of each activity
 Unit crashing cost of each activity, which is calculated as
Crash cost − Normal cost

Crashing cost per time unit =
Normal time − Crash time
 Indirect cost reduction (benefit) obtained by shortening the project by one time unit
Given this information, the general approach of CPM is to successively reduce the project time by
one time unit until no further reductions are possible or until an optimal solution is identified.
Activities on the critical path are potential candidates for crashing because shortening noncritical
activities wouldn’t have an impact on total project duration. When there are multiple critical paths,
the length of each path has to be shortened to be able to reduce the duration of the project. From an
economic standpoint, activities should be crashed according to crashing costs: crash those with the
lowest crash cost first. Crashing should continue as long as the cost to crash is less than the benefits
derived from crashing. The general procedure for crashing is:
1. If there is a single critical path, determine the critical activity that is the least expensive to
crash. Crash this activity by one time unit if the cost of crashing is less than the benefits
derived from crashing.
2. If there are multiple critical paths, compare the total cost of crashing the least expensive
activity on each critical path with the cost of crashing the least expensive common activity
shared by the critical paths. Choose the least cost option and crash necessary activities by
one time unit if the cost of crashing is less than the benefits derived from crashing.
3. Continue to crash the project one unit at a time until no further reductions are possible or
until the cost of crashing becomes greater than the benefits derived from crashing.
Example 5.5: Simon North and Irving Boner, computer consultants, are considering embarking on
a joint project that will involve the development of a relatively small commercial software package
for personal computers. The program involves scientific calculations for a specialized portion of the
engineering market. North and Bonner have broken down the project into nine parts. The list of
these tasks, the times required, and the precedence relationships are given in the table below:
Activity Duration (weeks) Constraints

A 3
B 4 After A
C 2 After A
D 6 After B and C
E 5 After C
F 3 After C
G 7 After E
H 5 After E and F
I 8 After D, G, H
The AON network of this project is given in Figure 5.20.
4
B D
3
0 2 6
Start A
3
2 5 7 8
C E G I End
2 5
5
3
F H

By carrying out the critical path computations, one can obtain that the two consultants can complete
their project in 25 weeks. Once they complete the project and place the program on the market, the
consultants anticipate that they will receive an average of $1,500 per week for the first three years
that the product is available. By completing the project earlier, they hope to be able to realize this
income earlier. They carefully consider each activity and the possibility of reducing the activity
time and the associated costs. They obtain the following estimates:
Activity Normal Time Crash Time Normal Cost Crash Cost Crashing Cost
(weeks) (weeks) ($) ($) per week ($)
A 3 1 1,000 3,000 1,000
B 4 3 4,000 6,000 2,000
C 2 2 2,000 2,000
D 6 4 3,000 6,000 1,500
E 5 4 2,500 3,800 1,300
F 3 2 1,500 3,000 1,500
G 7 4 4,500 8,100 1,200
H 5 4 3,000 3,600 600
I 8 5 8,000 12,800 1,600
The final column, crashing cost per week, shows the slope of the cost curve pictured in Figure 5.18.
Under normal conditions, the project can be completed in 25 weeks for a total cost of $29,500 (sum
of the normal costs of the activities). If we replace the normal times with the crash times, the project
completion time is reduced to 16 weeks. The total cost of this option is $48,300. The additional
income that the consultants realize by reducing the project completion time from 25 weeks to 16
weeks is 9 × $1,500 = $13,500 but the additional cost is $48,300 – 29,500 = $18,800. Hence, it is
not economical to reduce all the activities to their crash times. It is likely that there is a project time
between 16 and 25 weeks that is optimal. We will determine the optimal project time using the
CPM method.

Initially, we have the following:
Project Critical Critical Current Crash Crashing Cost

Time Path(s) Activities Time Time per week ($)
25 A–C–E–G–I A 3 1 1,000
C 2 2
E 5 4 1,300
G 7 4 1,200
I 8 5 1,600
The least expensive activity to reduce is A. We can reduce activity A to 1 week without introducing
any new critical paths. Because the cost of each weekly reduction is less than $1,500, it is
economical to reduce A to its minimum time. At that point we have the following:

23 A–C–E–G–I A 1 1
C 2 2
E 5 4 1,300
G 7 4 1,200
I 8 5 1,600
The next cheapest activity to reduce is G. The critical path will remain the same until G is reduced
to 5 weeks (Consider reducing G by one week at a time to be certain that no additional paths
become critical). When G is reduced to 5 weeks, both paths A – C – E – G – I and A – C – E – H – I
becomes critical. Reducing G from 7 to 5 weeks results in the following:

21 A–C–E–G–I A 1 1
A–C–E–H–I C 2 2
E 5 4 1,300
G 5 4 1,200
H 5 4 600
I 8 5 1,600

In order to further reduce the project time, we have to shorten both critical paths. If we reduce both
G and H from 5 to 4 weeks, it costs $1,200 + 600 = $1,800. If we reduce E from 5 to 4 weeks, it
costs $1,300. We chose the least cost option and reduce E from 5 to 4 weeks. Making this reduction
we obtain:

20 A–C–E–G–I A 1 1
A–C–E–H–I C 2 2
E 4 4
G 5 4 1,200
H 5 4 600
I 8 5 1,600
At this point, the cost of reducing the project by an additional week exceeds $1,500, so we have
reached the optimal solution. The consultants obtain a savings of $1,800 (= 5 × $1,500 – 2 × $1,000
– 2 × $1,200 – $1,300) by taking crashing into account.
REFERENCES
Arda, Y., 2007. Modèles en Gestion de Production, syllabus.

Anderson, D.R., Sweeney, D.J. and T.A. Williams, 2000. An introduction to Management Science,
Quantitative Approaches to Decision Making, ninth edition, South-Western College Publishing.
Hillier, F.S. and G.J. Lieberman, 1990. Introduction to Operation Research, fifth edition, McGraw-Hill.
Nahmias, S, 2009. Production and Operations Analysis, sixth edition, McGraw-Hill.
Stevenson, W.J., 2009. Operations Management, tenth edition, McGraw-Hill.
Taha, H.A., 2007. Operations Research, An Introduction, eight edition, Pearson Prentice Hall.
Winston, W.L., 1994. Operations Research, Applications and Algorithms, third edition, Duxbury Press.

CHAPTER V: Project Scheduling With PERT/CPM

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CHAPTER V: Project Scheduling With PERT/CPM

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CHAPTER V: Project Scheduling with PERT/CPM

5. Project Scheduling with PERT/CPM ..................................................................................................... 5.1

1. Construction of plants, buildings, highways, and swimming pools.

Operations Research – September 2018 5.1

5.1. Precedence Constraints

For an activity , let

: start time of activity

The four basic types of precedence constraints are the following:

: an arbitrary reference date

 Activity can not start before the date + .

Operations Research – September 2018 5.2

 Activity can not start after the date +  .

2. Succession between activities:

 Activity j can not start before the completion of activity i.

b. Succession with overlapping:  −  ≥  where 0 ≤  ≤ 1 →  ≥  + 

3. Imposed start time:

5.2. Network Representations

There are two basic types of project networks:

Operations Research – September 2018 5.3

 Activities are represented using the nodes of the network.

Figure 5.1. Representation of the precedence constraint  − ≥  using an AON Network

AOA (Activity On Arc) Project Network:

 Activities are represented by directed arcs.

Figure 5.2. Representation of an activity using an AOA Network

An AON or an AOA network always contains two special nodes:

Operations Research – September 2018 5.4

Figure 5.3. AON Network of the project of Example 5.1

Figure 5.4. AOA Network of the project of Example 5.1

Operations Research – September 2018 5.5

Figure 5.5. Use of dummy activity to ensure correct precedence relationships

Figure 5.6. Redefined AOA Network of the project of Example 5.1

Operations Research – September 2018 5.6

Figure 5.7. Representation of an activity with more than one arc

Operations Research – September 2018 5.7

In the following, we study the critical path computations of AON networks.

5.3.1. Determining Activity Ranks

Constraints Activity On Node Network

Figure 5.9. Structure of a cycle in an AON network

Operations Research – September 2018 5.8

Activity Duration (in days) Constraints (on the start time)

The ranks of these 8 activities are obtained as follows:

Activity Immediate Predecessors Rank

Operations Research – September 2018 5.9

Figure 5.10. AON network of the project of Example 5.3

Figure 5.11. AOA network of the project of Example 5.3

5.3.2. Determining the Critical Path of an Acyclic AON Network

Operations Research – September 2018 5.10

2() : set of immediate predecessors of activity

The critical path computations are carried in two steps:

Forward Pass: Determine the earliest start time 5 of each activity .

Operations Research – September 2018 5.11

Backward Pass: Determine the latest start time 6 of each activity .

Operations Research – September 2018 5.12

The critical path of the project is then Start – B – F – G – End.

Operations Research – September 2018 5.13

Figure 5.13. Schematization of total and free slack values

Operations Research – September 2018 5.14

 How long will the project take to complete?

5.4. Construction of the Time Schedule

Operations Research – September 2018 5.15

Figure 5.15. Earliest schedule for the project of Example 5.3

Operations Research – September 2018 5.16

Figure 5.16. Latest schedule for the project of Example 5.3

 Activity can not start after the date + .

b. Succession with overlapping: − ≥ where 0 ≤ ≤ 1 → ≥ +

Figure 5.1. Representation of the precedence constraint − ≥ using an AON Network

NO 0 0 2.5 0 0.5 0 0