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CPM For Project Scheduling & Management

CPM and PERT are project management techniques developed in the 1950s to schedule complex projects. CPM was created by DuPont to schedule plant construction, while PERT was created by the US Navy to schedule the Polaris missile program. CPM/PERT involve defining activities, sequencing them, estimating durations, and identifying the critical path - the longest sequence of activities that determines the project duration. Managers use the critical path to focus resources on critical tasks and monitor progress.

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64 views5 pages

CPM For Project Scheduling & Management

CPM and PERT are project management techniques developed in the 1950s to schedule complex projects. CPM was created by DuPont to schedule plant construction, while PERT was created by the US Navy to schedule the Polaris missile program. CPM/PERT involve defining activities, sequencing them, estimating durations, and identifying the critical path - the longest sequence of activities that determines the project duration. Managers use the critical path to focus resources on critical tasks and monitor progress.

Uploaded by

Sagar Patil
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CPM for Project Scheduling &

Management

1. INTRODUCTION
Basically, CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT (Programme Evaluation Review Technique) are project
management techniques, which have been created out of the need of Western industrial and military
establishments to plan, schedule and control complex projects.

1.1 Brief History of CPM/PERT


CPM/PERT or Network Analysis as the technique is sometimes called, developed along two parallel streams,
one industrial and the other military.
CPM was the discovery of M.R.Walker of E.I.Du Pont de Nemours & Co. and J.E.Kelly of Remington Rand,
circa 1957. The computation was designed for the UNIVAC-I computer. The first test was made in 1958, when
CPM was applied to the construction of a new chemical plant. In March 1959, the method was applied to a
maintenance shut-down at the Du Pont works in Louisville, Kentucky. Unproductive time was reduced from 125
to 93 hours.
PERT was devised in 1958 for the POLARIS missile program by the Program Evaluation Branch of the Special
Projects office of the U.S.Navy, helped by the Lockheed Missile Systems division and the Consultant firm of
Booz-Allen & Hamilton. The calculations were so arranged so that they could be carried out on the IBM Naval
Ordinance Research Computer (NORC) at Dahlgren, Virginia.

1.2 Planning, Scheduling & Control


Planning, Scheduling (or organising) and Control are considered to be basic Managerial functions, and
CPM/PERT has been rightfully accorded due importance in the literature on Operations Research and
Quantitative Analysis.
Far more than the technical benefits, it was found that PERT/CPM provided a focus around which managers
could brain-storm and put their ideas together. It proved to be a great communication medium by which
thinkers and planners at one level could communicate their ideas, their doubts and fears to another level. Most
important, it became a useful tool for evaluating the performance of individuals and teams.
There are many variations of CPM/PERT which have been useful in planning costs, scheduling manpower and
machine time. CPM/PERT can answer the following important questions:
How long will the entire project take to be completed? What are the risks involved?
Which are the critical activities or tasks in the project which could delay the entire project if they were not
completed on time?
Is the project on schedule, behind schedule or ahead of schedule?
If the project has to be finished earlier than planned, what is the best way to do this at the least cost?
1.3 The Framework for CPM
Essentially, there are six steps which are common to both the techniques. The procedure is listed below:

I. Define the Project and all of it’s significant activities or tasks. The Project (made up of several tasks)

should have only a single start activity and a single finish activity.

II. Develop the relationships among the activities. Decide which activities must precede and which must

follow others.

III. Draw the "Network" connecting all the activities. Each Activity should have unique event numbers.

Dummy arrows are used where required to avoid giving the same numbering to two activities.

IV. Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity

V. Compute the longest time path through the network. This is called the critical path.

VI. Use the Network to help plan, schedule, monitor and control the project.

The Key Concept used by CPM/PERT is that a small set of activities, which make up the longest path through
the activity network control the entire project. If these "critical" activities could be identified and assigned to
responsible persons, management resources could be optimally used by concentrating on the few activities
which determine the fate of the entire project.
Non-critical activities can be replanned, rescheduled and resources for them can be reallocated flexibly, without
affecting the whole project.
Five useful questions to ask when preparing an activity network are:

 Is this a Start Activity?


 Is this a Finish Activity?
 What Activity Precedes this?
 What Activity Follows this?
 What Activity is Concurrent with this?

Some activities are serially linked. The second activity can begin only after the first activity is completed. In
certain cases, the activities are concurrent, because they are independent of each other and can start
simultaneously. This is especially the case in organisations which have supervisory resources so that work can
be delegated to various departments which will be responsible for the activities and their completion as
planned.
When work is delegated like this, the need for constant feedback and co-ordination becomes an important
senior management pre-occupation.

1.4 Drawing the CPM Network


Each activity (or sub-project) in a PERT/CPM Network is represented by an arrow symbol. Each activity is
preceded and succeeded by an event, represented as a circle and numbered.
At Event 3, we have to evaluate two predecessor activities – Activity 1-3 and Activity 2-3, both of which are
predecessor activities. Activity 1-3 gives us an Earliest Start of 3 weeks at Event 3. However, Activity 2-3 also
has to be completed before Event 3 can begin. Along this route, the Earliest Start would be 4+0=4. The rule is
to take the longer (bigger) of the two Earliest Starts. So the Earliest Start at event 3 is 4.
Similarly, at Event 4, we find we have to evaluate two predecessor activities – Activity 2-4 and Activity 3-4.
Along Activity 2-4, the Earliest Start at Event 4 would be 10 wks, but along Activity 3-4, the Earliest Start at
Event 4 would be 11 wks. Since 11 wks is larger than 10 wks, we select it as the Earliest Start at Event 4.We
have now found the longest path through the
network. It will take 11 weeks along activities 1-2, 2-3 and 3-4. This is the
Critical Path.

1.5.3 The Backward Pass – Latest Finish Time Rule


To make the Backward Pass, we begin at the sink or the final event and work backwards to the first event.
At Event 3 there is only one activity, Activity 3-4 in the backward pass, and we find that the value is 11-7 = 4
weeks. However at Event 2 we have to evaluate 2 activities, 2-3 and 2-4. We find that the backward pass
through 2-4 gives us a value of 11-6 = 5 while 2-3 gives us 4-0 = 4. We take the smaller
value of 4 on the backward pass.

1.5.4 Tabulation & Analysis of Activities


We are now ready to tabulate the various events and calculate the Earliest and Latest Start and Finish times.
We are also now ready to compute the SLACK or TOTAL FLOAT, which is defined as the difference between
the Latest Start and Earliest Start.

Earliest Earliest Latest Latest Total


Event Duration(Weeks)
Start Finish Start Finish Float
1-2 4 0 4 0 4 0
2-3 0 4 4 4 4 0
3-4 7 4 11 4 11 0

1-3 3 0 3 1 4 1
2-4 6 4 10 5 11 1

 The Earliest Start is the value in the rectangle near the tail of each activity

 The Earliest Finish is = Earliest Start + Duration

 The Latest Finish is the value in the diamond at the head of each activity

 The Latest Start is = Latest Finish – Duration

There are two important types of Float or Slack. These are Total Float and Free Float.

TOTAL FLOAT is the spare time available when all preceding activities occur at
the earliest possible times and all succeeding activities occur at the latest possible
times.

 Total Float = Latest Start – Earliest Start

Activities with zero Total float are on the Critical Path

FREE FLOAT is the spare time available when all preceding activities occur at
the earliest possible times and all succeeding activities occur at the earliest possible
times.
When an activity has zero Total float, Free float will also be zero.
There are various other types of float (Independent, Early Free, Early Interfering, Late Free, Late Interfering),
and float can also be negative. We shall not go into these situations at present for the sake of simplicity and be
concerned only with Total Float for the time being.
Having computed the various parameters of each activity, we are now ready to go into the scheduling phase,
using a type of bar chart known as the Gantt Chart.
There are various other types of float (Independent, Early Free, Early Interfering, Late Free, Late Interfering),
and float can also be negative. We shall not go into these situations at present for the sake of simplicity and be
concerned only with Total Float for the time being. Having computed the various parameters of each activity,
we are now ready to go into the scheduling phase, using a type of bar chart known as the Gantt Chart.

1.5.5 Scheduling of Activities Using a Gantt Chart


Once the activities are laid out along a Gantt Chart (Please see chart below), the concepts of Earliest Start &
Finish, Latest Start & Finish and Float will become very obvious.

Activities 1-3 and 2-4 have total float of 1 week each, represented by the solid timeline which begins at the
latest start and ends at the latest finish. The difference is the float, which gives us the flexibility to schedule the
activity.
For example, we might send the staff on leave during that one week or give them some other work to do. Or we
may choose to start the activity slightly later than planned, knowing that we have a week’s float in hand. We
might even break the activity in the middle (if this is permitted) for a week and divert the staff for some other
work, or declare a National or Festival holiday as required under the National and Festival Holidays Act.
These are some of the examples of the use of float to schedule an activity. Once all the activities that can be
scheduled are scheduled to the convenience of the project, normally reflecting resource optimisation measures,
we can say that the project has been scheduled.

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