Sid Davidson is the personnel director of Babson and Willcount, a company that specializes in

consulting and research. One of the training programs that Sid is considering for the middle-
level managers of Babson and Willcount is leadership training. Sid has listed a number of
activities that must be completed before a training program of this nature could be conducted.
The activities and immediate predecessors appear in the following table:

Develop a network for this problem.

Sid Davidson was able to determine the activity times for the leadership training program. He
would like to determine the total project completion time and the critical path. The activity
times appear in the following table (see Problem 12-12):

Following table shows different paths from start to finish of the

project. Critical path is the one with the longest duration.
Path Duration Path Critical?
Duration
A-E-G 2+3+8 13
B-D-E-G 5+10+3+8 26 Yes
C-F-G 1+6+8 15

Critical path is B-D-E-G and the total duration of the path=26 days

Activity Duration ES EF LS LF Slack/Float, (LS- Critical

ES) Path?
A 2 0 2 13 15 13 No
B 5 0 5 0 5 0 Yes
C 1 0 1 11 12 11 No
D 10 5 15 5 15 0 Yes
E 3 15 18 15 18 0 Yes
F 6 1 7 12 18 11 No
G 8 18 26 18 26 0 Yes

Critical path is B-D-E-G and the total duration of the path=26 days

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 a. Network diagram.

b. Each activity’s EST, EFT, LST, LFT and each activity’s slack.

See following spreadsheet:

Activity EST EFT LST LFT Slack

A 0 4 0 4 0
B 4 10 4 10 0
C 4 8 4 8 0
D 8 10 8 10 0
E 10 14 15 19 5
F 10 15 10 15 0
G 8 11 12 15 4
H 15 19 15 19 0
I 19 21 19 21 0

c. Alternative paths … and the critical path:

Path Duration Critical?

a-b-e-i 16 No
a-b-f-h-i 21 Yes
a-c-d-f-h-i 21 Yes
a-c-g-h-i 17 No

There are, therefore, two critical paths.

d. The length of time to complete the project.

The project will take 21 (units of time) to complete (i.e., the length of time of the
critical paths).

Monohan Machinery specializes in developing weedharvesting equipment that is used to clear

small lakes of weeds. George Monohan, president of Monohan Machinery, is convinced that
harvesting weeds is far better than using chemicals to kill weeds. Chemicals cause pollution,
and weeds seem to grow faster after chemicals have been used. George is contemplating the
construction of a machine that would harvest weeds on narrow rivers and waterways. the
activities that are necessary to build one of these experimental weed-harvesting machines are
listed in the following table. Construct a network for these activities.

ACTIVITIES IMMEDIATE PREDECESSORS

A
B
C A
D A
E B

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 F B
G C, E
H D, F

After consulting with Butch Radner, George Monohan was able to determine the activity times for
constructing the weed-harvesting machine to be used on narrow rivers. George would like to determine
ES, EF, LS, LF, and slack for each activity. The total project completion time and the critical path
should also be determined. (See Problem 13-16 for details). The activity times are shown in the
following table:

Early Early Late Late On critical

Activity Activity time Start Finish Start Finish Slack path?
A 6 0 6 0 6 0 Yes
B 5 0 5 0 5 0 Yes
C 3 6 9 6 9 0 Yes
D 2 6 8 10 12 4
E 4 5 9 5 9 0 Yes
F 6 5 11 6 12 1
G 10 9 19 9 19 0 Yes
H 7 11 18 12 19 1

It can be seen from the above table that there are two critical paths: A-C-G and B-E-G
Project completion time=19 weeks
The critical paths are shown in the network diagram by thickened lines

The estimated times (in weeks) and immediate predecessors for the activities in a project are given in
the following table. Assume that the activity times are independent.

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 a. Construct a network for this problem.

b. Determine the expected time and variance for each activity.

Activity Optimistic, a Most Probable, m Pessimistic, b Expected Time, Variance,

t=[(a+4m+b)/6] [(b-a)/6]2
A 9 10 11 10 4/36
B 4 10 16 10 144/36
C 9 10 11 10 4/36
D 5 8 11 8 36/36
38

c. Determine ES, EF, LS, LF, and slack for each activity.

Activity Duration ES EF LS LF Slack/Float, (LS-ES) Critical Path?

A 10 0 10 0 10 0 Yes
B 10 0 10 2 12 2
C 10 10 20 10 20 0 Yes
D 8 10 18 12 20 2

d. What is the expected completion time of the critical path? What is the expected completion time of
the other path in the network?

Following table shows different paths from start to finish of the project. Critical path is the one
with the longest duration.
Path Duration Path Duration Critical?
A-C 10+10 20 Yes
B-D 10+8 18

Critical path is A-C and the total duration of the path = 20 weeks
Non-critical path B-D and the total duration of the path = 18 weeks

e. What is the variance of the critical path? What is the variance of the other path in the network?
Activity Variance
A 4/36
B 144/36
C 4/36
D 36/36

Variance of critical path = 4/36 + 4/36 = 0.22

Varian of other path = 144/36 + 36/36 = 5

f. If the time to complete path A–C is normally distributed, what is the probability that this path will
be finished in 22 weeks or less?
z = x - u / Std Dev
x = 22, u =20, std dev = 0.47, z = 4.25
P(x<=22) = P(Z<=(22-20)/0.47) = P(Z<=4.25) 1 = 100% ≈
g. If the time to complete path B–D is normally distributed, what is the probability that this path will
be finished in 22 weeks or less?
z = x - u / Std Dev
x = 22, u =18, std dev = 2.236, z = 4.25
P(x<=22) = P(Z<=(22-18)/2.236) = P(Z<=1.7889) ≈ 0.963 = 96.3%

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 h. Explain why the probability that the critical path will be finished in 22 weeks or less is not
necessarily the probability that the project will be finished in 22 weeks or less.
Path B–D has more variability and has higher probability of exceeding 22 weeks.

Using PERT, Ed Rose was able to determine that the expected project completion time for the
construction of a pleasure yacht is 21 months and the project variance is 4.

z = x ­ u / Std Dev

u 21 Months
Variance 4
Std deviation 2

a. What is the probability that the project will be completed in 17 months or less?
x 17
Z ­2
P(Z<=17) 0.02275

b. What is the probability that the project will be completed in 20 months or less?
x 20
Z ­0.5
P(Z<=20) 0.30854

c. What is the probability that the project will be completed in 23 months or less?
x 23
Z 1
P(Z<=23) 0.84134

d. What is the probability that the project will be completed in 25 months or less?
x 25
Z 2
P(Z<=25) 0.97725

The air pollution project discussed in the chapter has progressed over the past several weeks,
and it is now the end of week 8. Lester Harky would like to know the value of the work
completed the amount of any cost overruns or under runs for the project, and the extent to

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 which the project is ahead of or behind schedule by developing a table like Table 12-8. The
revised cost figures are shown in the following table:

Acitivity PERCENT OF COMPLETION ACTUAL COST ($)

A 100 20,000
B 100 36,000
C 100 26,000
D 100 44,000
E 50 25,000
F 60 15,000
G 10 5,000
H 10 1,000

Actual cost ($) Value of Activity Difference

% of Total budgeted work =Actual cost-Work
Acitivity completion cost completed completed
A 100% 22000 20,000 22000 -2,000
B 100% 30000 36,000 30000 6,000
C 100% 26000 26,000 26000 0
D 100% 48000 44,000 48000 -4,000
E 50% 56000 25,000 28000 -3,000
F 60% 30000 15,000 18000 -3,000
G 10% 80000 5,000 8000 -3,000
H 10% 16000 1,000 1600 -600
172,000 181,600 -9,600

Value of work completed=$181,600

Actual cost =$172,000
Cost underrun=$9,600

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