12 Network Analysis For Planning and Control of Maintenance Work

Chapter-12
Network Analysis for Planning and Control of Maintenance work
Maintenance Project Control Methods for Planning and Controlling
Two widely used maintenance project control and plan methods are
(i) Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and
(ii) Critical Path Method (CPM).
In maintenance and other projects three important factors of concern are time, cost, and
resource availability. CPM and PERT deal with these factors individually and in
combination. PERT and CPM are similar. The major difference between the two is that when
the completion times of activities of the project are uncertain, PERT is used and with the
certainty of completion times, CPM is employed.
The following steps are involved with PERT and CPM

• Break a project into individual jobs or tasks.
• Arrange these jobs/tasks into a logical network.
• Determine duration time of each job/task.
• Develop a schedule.
• Identify jobs/tasks that control the completion of project.
• Redistribute resources or funds to improve schedule.
CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM)

 CPM is a technique used for planning and controlling the most logical and economic
sequence of operations for accomplishing a project.
 The project is analyzed into different activities whose relationships are shown on the
network diagram. The network is then utilized for optimizing the use of resources,
progress and control.
 CPM
 Used when activity times are known with certainty.
 Used to determine timing estimates for the project, each activity in the project,
and slack time for activities.
 Path: A connected sequence of activities leading from the starting event to the ending
event.
 Critical Path: The longest path (time); determines the project duration.
 Critical Activities: All of the activities that make up the critical path.
 Forward pass
 Earliest Start Time (ES): Earliest time an activity can start.
 ES = maximum EF of immediate predecessors.
 Earliest finish time (EF): Earliest time an activity can finish, earliest start time
plus activity time.
 EF= ES + t, where t is activity time.
 Backward pass
 Latest Start Time (LS): Latest time an activity can start without delaying
critical path time.
 LS= LF - t
 Latest finish time (LF): Latest time an activity can be completed without
delaying critical path time.
 LF = minimum LS of immediate successors.
Four symbols used to construct a CPM network are shown in Fig.1. The circle denotes
an event. Specifically, it represents an unambiguous point in the life of a project. An event
could be the start or completion of an activity or activities, and usually the events are labelled
by number. A circle shown with three divisions in Fig.1 (b) is also denotes an event. Its top
half labels the event with a number, and the bottom portions indicate latest event time (LET)
and earliest event time (EET). LET may be described as the latest time in which an event can
be reached without delaying project completion. EET is the earliest time in which an activity
can be accomplished or an event could be reached. The continuous arrow represents an
activity that consumes time, money, and manpower. This arrow always starts at a circle and
ends at a circle. The dotted arrow denotes a dummy activity or a restraint. Specifically, this is
an imaginary activity that does not consume time, money, or manpower.
A single activity CPM network

CPM Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages of CPM
• It is an effective tool for monitoring project progress.
• It helps improve project understanding and communication among involved personnel.
• It highlights activities important to complete the project on time. These activities must be
completed on time to accomplish the entire project on predicted time.
• It shows interrelationships in workflow and is useful in determining labour and resources
needs in advance.
• It is an effective tool for controlling costs and can easily be computerized.
• It helps avoiding duplications and omissions and determining project duration
systematically.
Disadvantages of the CPM

• Costly
• Time-consuming
• Poor estimates of activity times
• Inclination to use pessimistic estimates for activity times
Situations in Network Diagram

CPM Analysis
 Break down the project into various activities systematically.
 Label all activities
 Arrange all the activities in logical sequence.
 Construct the arrow diagram.
 Number all the nodes (events) and activities.
 Find the time for each activity.
 Mark the activity times on the arrow diagram
 Calculate early and late start and finishing times.
 Calculate total float for each activity, Float = LS - ES = LF – EF
 Float is the maximum amount of time that an activity can be delayed in its completion
before it becomes a critical activity, i.e., delays completion of the project.
 Identify the critical activities and mark the critical path on the arrow diagram.
Critical path is that the sequence of activities and events where there is no “slack” i.e.
Zero slack.
Critical Path Method Problem:

Develop a critical path diagram and determine the duration of the critical path and slack times
for all activities.
(i) First draw the precedence diagram.

(ii) Determine early starts and early finish times
(iii) Determine late starts and late finish times

(iv) Critical Path & Slack
PROGRAM EVALUATION AND REVIEW TECHNIQUE (PERT)
 PERT is based on the assumption that an activity’s duration follows a probability

distribution instead of being a single value, Because of the uncertainty of activity
timings.
 The statistical probability feature of PERT foretells the probability of reaching the
specified target date.
 Three time estimates are required to compute the parameters of an activity’s duration
distribution:
 Pessimistic time (tp) - pessimistic or maximum time an activity will require
for completion
 Most likely time (tm) - most likely time an activity will require for completion
of the best estimate of the activity’s duration.
 Optimistic time (to) - optimistic or minimum time an activity will require for
completion
 The fundamental assumption in PERT is that the three time estimates form the end
points and mode of Beta distribution. It is further assumed that to and tp are about
equally likely to occur whereas the probability of occurrence of t m is 4 times that of tp
or to.
PERT Networking Problem
Consider the following tasks from A to I and find the critical path, longest path on the
network.

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Chapter-12

Network Analysis for Planning and Control of Maintenance work

Maintenance Project Control Methods for Planning and Controlling

The following steps are involved with PERT and CPM

CRITICAL PATH METHOD (CPM)

A single activity CPM network

Disadvantages of the CPM

Situations in Network Diagram

Critical Path Method Problem:

(i) First draw the precedence diagram.

(iii) Determine late starts and late finish times

PROGRAM EVALUATION AND REVIEW TECHNIQUE (PERT)

 PERT is based on the assumption that an activity’s duration follows a probability

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