Technical seminar report

on

“CPM/PERT”

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
IN
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Submitted by

V Rahul Kumar 158R1A03L2

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL
 Acknowledgement

This report would be incomplete without the mention of those who directly or indirectly
helped us during the project. I thank our management for their kind supervision and
encouragement during the period of our project work

I gratefully acknowledge the inspiring guidance, encouragement and continuous support, his helpful
suggestion and constant encouragement have gone a long way in the completion of this dissertation.
It was a pleasure working under his alert, human and technical supervision.

I owe my heartly regards to all other professors and staff on their encouragement at each step
and their assistance in completion of the project work. Last but not least; i would like to thank
for their co-operation and consistent support.

Lastly, I would like to thank every one of our department who are involved in progress of
our project and whose contributions have added a lot of value.
 Abstract
Completing a project on time and within budget is not an easy task. The project scheduling
phase plays a central role in predicting both the time and cost aspects of a project. More
precisely, it determines a timetable in order to be able to predict the expected time and cost of
each individual activity. In this chapter, the basic critical path calculations of a project
schedule are highlighted and the fundamental concept of an activity network is presented.
Throughout all chapters of Part I, it is assumed that a project is not subject to a limited
amount of resources. The project is structured in a network to model the precedences between
the various project activities. The basic concepts of project network analysis are outlined and
the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is discussed as an easy yet effective
scheduling tool for projects with variability in the activity duration estimates.
CONTENTS
 History of CPM/PERT

 Definition of PERT

 Definition of CPM
 Steps in PERT/CPM
 Framework for PERT and CPM
 Advantages & Disadvantages of PERT/CPM

 Illustration of CPM problem

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.

Overview PERT
PERT is a method of analyzing the tasks involved in completing a given project, especially
the time needed to complete each task, and to identify the minimum time needed to complete
the total project. It incorporates uncertainty by making it possible to schedule a project while
not knowing precisely the details and durations of all the activities. It is more of an event-
oriented technique rather than start- and completion-oriented, and is used more in projects
where time is the major factor rather than cost. It is applied to very large-scale, one-time,
complex, non-routine infrastructure and Research and Development projects.
Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) offers a management tool, which relies "on
arrow and node diagrams of activities and events: arrows represent the activities or work
necessary to reach the events or nodes that indicate each completed phase of the total
project."[1]
PERT and CPM are complementary tools, because "CPM employs one time estimate and one
cost estimate for each activity; PERT may utilize three time estimates (optimistic, expected,
and pessimistic) and no costs for each activity. Although these are distinct differences, the
term PERT is applied increasingly to all critical path scheduling."[1]

Overview OF CPM

The critical path method (CPM), or critical path analysis (CPA), is

an algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities.[1] It is commonly used in conjunction
with the program evaluation and review technique (PERT). A critical path is determined by
identifying the longest stretch of dependent activities and measuring the time[2] required to
complete them from start to finish.

4 Basic Steps in Network (PERT/CPM) Techniques

Article shared by <="" div="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;
border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: bottom; background: transparent;
max-width: 100%;">

Project scheduling by PERT/CPM consist of following steps: (Fig.27.1).

STEP-I: Planning:
The planning phase is started by splitting the total project into small projects. These smaller
projects, in turn, are divided into activities and are analysed by the department or a section.
The relationship of each activity with respect to other activities are defined and established
and the corresponding responsibilities and the authority are also stated. Thus, the possibility
of over- looking any task necessary for the completion of the project is reduced substantially.

STEP-II: Scheduling:
The ultimate objective of the scheduling phase is to prepare a time chart showing the start and
finish time for each activity as well as its relationship to other activities of the project.
Moreover, the schedule must pinpoint the critical path activities which require special
attention if the project is to be completed in time.

For non-critical activities, the schedule must show the amount of slack or float times which
can be used advantageously when such activities are delayed or when limited resources are to
be utilized effectively. In this phase, it is possible to resource requirements such as time,
manpower, money, machines etc.
STEP-III: Allocation of Resources:
Allocation of resources is performed to achieve the desired objective. A resource is a physical
variable such as labour, finance, equipment and space which will impose a limitation on time
for the project.

When resources are limited and conflicting demands are made for the same type of resource,
a systematic method for allocation of resources become essential. Resource allocation usually
incurs a compromise and the choice of this compromise depends on the judgement of
managers.

STEP-IV: Controlling:
The final phase in project management is controlling. Critical path method facilitates the
application of the principle of management by exception to identify areas that are critical to
the completion of the project.

By having progress reports from time to time and updating the network continuously, a better
financial as well as technical control over the project is exercised. Arrow diagrams and time
charts are used for making periodic progress reports. If necessary, new courses of action are
determined for the remaining portion of the project.

The Framework for PERT and 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.

Terminology

Events and activities

In a PERT diagram, the main building block is the event, with connections to its known
predecessor events and successor events.

 PERT event: a point that marks the start or completion of one or more activities. It
consumes no time and uses no resources. When it marks the completion of one or more
activities, it is not "reached" (does not occur) until all of the activities leading to that
event have been completed.
 predecessor event: an event that immediately precedes some other event without any
other events intervening. An event can have multiple predecessor events and can be the
predecessor of multiple events.
 successor event: an event that immediately follows some other event without any other
intervening events. An event can have multiple successor events and can be the successor
of multiple events.
Besides events, PERT also knows activities and sub-activities:

 PERT activity: the actual performance of a task which consumes time and requires
resources (such as labor, materials, space, machinery). It can be understood as
representing the time, effort, and resources required to move from one event to another.
A PERT activity cannot be performed until the predecessor event has occurred.
 PERT sub-activity: a PERT activity can be further decomposed into a set of sub-
activities. For example, activity A1 can be decomposed into A1.1, A1.2 and A1.3. Sub-
activities have all the properties of activities; in particular, a sub-activity has predecessor
 or successor events just like an activity. A sub-activity can be decomposed again into
finer-grained sub-activities.

Time
PERT has defined four types of time required to accomplish an activity:

 optimistic time: the minimum possible time required to accomplish an activity (o) or a
path (O), assuming everything proceeds better than is normally expected
 pessimistic time: the maximum possible time required to accomplish an activity (p) or a
path (P), assuming everything goes wrong (but excluding major catastrophes).
 most likely time: the best estimate of the time required to accomplish an activity (m) or a
path (M), assuming everything proceeds as normal.
 expected time: the best estimate of the time required to accomplish an activity (te) or a
path (TE), accounting for the fact that things don't always proceed as normal (the
implication being that the expected time is the average time the task would require if the
task were repeated on a number of occasions over an extended period of time).
te = (o + 4m + p) ÷ 6

 standard deviation of time : the variability of the time for accomplishing an activity
(σte) or a path (σTE)
σte = (p - o) ÷ 6

Comparison Chart
BASIS FOR
PERT CPM
COMPARISON

Meaning PERT is a project CPM is a statistical technique of

management technique, used project management that
to manage uncertain activities manages well defined activities
of a project. of a project.

What is it? A technique of planning and A method to control cost and

control of time. time.

Orientation Event-oriented Activity-oriented

 BASIS FOR
PERT CPM
COMPARISON

Evolution Evolved as Research & Evolved as Construction project

Development project

Model Probabilistic Model Deterministic Model

Focuses on Time Time-cost trade-off

Estimates Three time estimates One time estimate

Appropriate for High precision time estimate Reasonable time estimate

Management of Unpredictable Activities Predictable activities

Nature of jobs Non-repetitive nature Repetitive nature

Critical and Non- No differentiation Differentiated

critical activities

Suitable for Research and Development Non-research projects like civil

Project construction, ship building etc.

Crashing concept Not Applicable Applicable

Advantages of PERT
 PERT chart explicitly defines and makes visible dependencies (precedence relationships)
between the work breakdown structure (commonly WBS) elements.
 PERT facilitates identification of the critical path and makes this visible.
 PERT facilitates identification of early start, late start, and slack for each activity.
 PERT provides for potentially reduced project duration due to better understanding of
dependencies leading to improved overlapping of activities and tasks where feasible.
 The large amount of project data can be organized and presented in diagram for use in
decision making.
 PERT can provide a probability of completing before a given time.
Disadvantages of PERT
 There can be potentially hundreds or thousands of activities and individual dependency
relationships.
 PERT is not easily scalable for smaller projects.
 The network charts tend to be large and unwieldy, requiring several pages to print and
requiring specially-sized paper.
 The lack of a timeframe on most PERT/CPM charts makes it harder to show status,
although colours can help, e.g., specific colour for completed nodes

Advantages of cpm
1. It helps in ascertaining the time schedule of activities having sequential relationship.

2. It makes control easier for the management.

3. It identifies the most critical elements in the project. Thus, the management is kept alert
and prepared to pay due attention to the critical activities of the project.

4. It makes better and detailed planning possible.

Limitation of CPM:
The main limitations of the CPM are:

1. CPM operates on the assumption that there is a precise known time that each activity in the
project will take. But, it may not be true in real practice.

2. CPM time estimates are not based on statistical analysis.

3. It cannot be used as a controlling device for the simple reason that any change introduced

will change the entire structure of network. In other words, CPM cannot be used as a dynamic
controlling device.

Application of PERT/CPM techniques

 Construction of a Dam or Canal

 Construction of a building or highway
  Maintenance or Overhaul of aircrafts
 Space Flights
 Designing a Prototype of a Machine
 Development of Supersonic Planes

Problem
ASSA ABLOY SA is a company specializing in door opening solutions. One part of the
company focuses on manufacturing pin tumbler and lever locks for multiple brands including
Union, Yale and Multi-Lock. The production line used to produce padlocks is a perfect
example of a network system; the steps are shown in Table 1. Using this example, the CPM
(critical path method) will be explained fully.

For the purpose of the example, a batch of 200 padlocks will be taken as the sample for the
data recorded.

Table 1: Steps followed to produce padlocks.


 Extra costs are associated with the activities if the manager wants to reduce the
overall time (or critical path). These costs can be seen from table 2, as well as the
maximum reduction in time per activity.

Table 2: Costs of making reductions in the duration of the activities.



 CPM Explained
The CPM will be explained using the above example to develop a basic
understanding of the steps involved.


 Figure 1: Process of CPM


 Figure 2: Demonstration of the use of dummies


 As can be seen from the graph below, the cost increases exponentially as the path
time decreases.


 Graph 1: Cost and path time relationship