Lesson 6 Questions-3
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Industrial Engineering
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Feb 20, 2024
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Sara Khan Lesson 6 Questions (Gido et al., chapter 5) Use the following table for questions 1-5 (this assignment is to be completed manually, creating a table and sketching the diagram (may be a sketch or figure produced in PowerPoint or similar), it is NOT intended to be completed in a PMIS
. For Questions 2-4, assume that the project must be completed in 26 days per the customer’s requirements
. Activity Predecessor Duration A Start 4 days B A 3 days C B 6 days D B 3 days E C and D 6 days F D 7 days G E and F 12 days 1. Provide a sketch of the network diagram for the activities in the table above. Be sure to include ‘Project Start’ and ‘Project Finish’ boxes
in your network diagram. Make sure you use ‘arrows’ not plain lines. Your arrows should start on the right side o
f an activity box (the predecessor) and end at the left side of the successor box. Do not let your arrows cross as this makes it difficult to grade. Please note that in the next question you will be adding ES, EF, LS, and LF to the network diagram so leave room in your diagram to add these values above and below the boxes (see question 2). This is what the start of your figure should look like and the components for question 1:
Sara Khan 2. Calculate ES, EF, LS, and LF, and Total Slack for each of the activities in your network diagram and provide a fully completed network diagram that illustrates the ES, EF, LS, and LF for each task. You will then complete the table below by adding the ES, EF, LS, and LF values from your diagram to the table and then complete the table by calculating the Total Slack values for each task. Note: You cannot simply use the EF of a predecessor as the ES of the successor and move through the table row by row, you need to look at the network diagram and base your values on the relationships in the network diagram. To do this exercise it is most helpful if you complete your network diagram first by including the ES, EF, LS, and LF in the diagram as shown in Figure 5.7 in your Gido et al. textbook. Take your network diagram and enter values for each as shown in the image below, be sure to include a project start and a project finish box: Begin with the earliest task in your diagram and add the ES=0; EF is then equal to ES + duration. You must use the rules discussed in your Gido et al. textbook in the ‘Develop Project Schedule’ section, pps. 152-160. You will first determine ES and EF for each activity (forward calculations). To calculate the LS and LF you start with the last activity and work backward (backwards calculations). As stated above, the project must be completed by the end of day 26, this means that the latest finish (LF) of the last activity is 26 (already entered in the table below). Once you complete ES, EF, LS, and LF for all activities: a) Insert network diagram image here (with ES, EF, LS, and LF included):
Sara Khan Enter the values of ES, EF, LS, and LF in the table below. Now you can calculate the total slack using one of the equations provided in your book. Both equations should give you the same answer, you should check the total slack using both equations for Activity A to see if they match, if they don’t you have a mistake somewhere. b) Complete the following table, do not change LF for task G
, as it is already completed for you, this is the requested completion date from the customer: Activity # Activity Est. Duration Earliest Start Earliest Finish Latest Start Latest Finish Total Slack 1 A 4 0 4 -6 -2 -6 2 B 3 4 7 -2 1 -6 3 C 6 7 13 1 7 -6 4 D 3 7 10 4 7 -3 5 E 6 13 19 8 14 -5 6 F 7 10 17 7 14 -3 7 G 12 19 31 14 26 (
do not change
) -5 Note: In the questions below regarding the ‘critical path’ they are referring to the ‘most critical path’ (or the longest path). Your Gido book defines the critical path as the longest path but it also says that any paths that have 0 or negative slack are often referred to as ‘critical paths’ but these questions are asking about the most critical path.
3. Which activities are on the critical path as identified using the table that was completed in question 2, specifically using ‘total slack’? In your response describe how you determined the answer. Answer: a) Activities on critical path: A, B, C, E, G 1, 2, 3, 5, 7
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Sara Khan b) Description of how it was determined: Since the activities that has the least Slack should be on the critical path, in the table above we can see that -6 and -5 are the lowest values of the slack, therefore it was determined that activities A, B, C, E and G has the least slack. 4. What is the duration of the critical path? In your response describe how you determined the answer. Answer: a) Critical path duration: 31 days b) Description of how it was determined: It can be determined by summing the estimated duration of the activities that are on the critical path. Here we have A, B, C, E AND G on the critical path, their estimated duration is 4+3+6+6+12 = 31 days 5. This is a general question regarding the critical path and NOT specific to the above project. a) Why is it important to determine the critical path of a project? b) What happens if activities on this path are delayed? c) What happens if activities on this path are accelerated? Provide your answers in the spaces below
. Answers: a) It is important because: All the most important activities can be identified from the critical path of a project. We can use the critical path to determine not only the tasks that must be completed on time but also the ones that can be delayed for different reasons. From the critical path we can also determine how much slack one has. b) If activities are delayed: if the activities on the path are delayed, the completion of the project will also be delayed. c) If activities are accelerated: if the activities on the path are accelerated, the project will complete before the deadline.
Sara Khan 6. This question refers specifically to the project discussed above in questions 1-4. The initial project schedule has been developed but the project has NOT YET STARTED, but it is about to start
. The critical path has negative total slack. Which activities should you focus on to get the project on schedule (completed by the end of day 26)? Describe the two types of activities as discussed in your Gido et al readings in the ‘Control Schedule’ section
and give an example of each using the example project above and your identified critical path. Answers: Recommendation 1 a) Describe the activity type to focus on (from Gido reading): Activities that are near term (that is, in progress or to be started in the immediate future). According to the book it is better to take action to reduce the estimated durations of the near-term activities quickly than to plan to reduce the estimated durations of activities that are scheduled sometime in the future. b) Identify an activity (or activities) from the above example (pick from A-G): If Activity B is where the current progress is, then reducing the duration of the near term activities Like B,C,or D can be effective c) Describe what you could do to shorten the activity duration (several options were discussed in the lesson): It could be shortened by assigning more people to work on the activity or asking the people working on the activity to work more hours per day or more days per week. Recommendation 2: d) Describe the activity type to focus on (from Gido reading): Activities that have long estimated durations. These longer duration activities present the opportunity for larger reductions and can have a greater impact on reducing the completion time.
Sara Khan e) Identify an activity (or activities) from the above example (pick from A-G): An Activity with a longest estimated duration which in this case is activity G f) Describe what you could do to shorten the activity duration (several options were discussed in the lesson): It could be shortened by assigning a person with greater expertise or more experience to perform or help with the activity, to get it done in a shorter time than was possible with the less-experienced people originally assigned to it. 7. Determine the a) expected activity durations using the Beta Distribution, b) Beta Activity Standard Deviation, and the c) range of the estimate (using 2 SD) for activities A and B in the table below. Complete the table below using the appropriate equations (
all values are in days
). Be sure to include the equations that you used and show all of your work. Complete the table with your final answers but also show all of your work below the table: Activity P M O a) Expected Activity Duration (using Beta Distribution) b) Beta Activity Standard Deviation c) *Range of the Estimate (using 2 SD (
σ)
; 95% confidence)
A 90 63 48 65 7 58-72 B 52 42 34 42.33 3 39.33-45.33 P = Pessimistic; M = Most likely; O = Optimistic *When specifying the range, please indicate two numbers: From X to Y (X-Y), indicating the range of the estimate is from the first value to the second value. Hint: the answer is not a single number, it is a range between 2 numbers. For example, the range could be from 14 days to 20 days and you can represent that by either: 14 to 20 or 14-20.
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Sara Khan
Sara Khan