OPMA 317 W25 Details of Project Crashing Example
OPMA 317 W25 Details of Project Crashing Example
Activity D is the cheapest critical activity and it has room to be crashed. We crash activity D by
one week. Note that we can crash D by maximum 3 weeks, but for the purposes of this course,
we decrease project duration one week at a time. The reason is when we crash by more than
one week, we might turn other non-critical paths into critical path. If we have more than one
critical path, we need to consider all those paths when we decide on which activities to crash
(we will see this in Step #3).
If we crash activity D by one week, we need to pay an extra $1,500. However, we save $4,000 in
indirect cost and $5,000 in penalty cost (penalty cost of $5,000 per week is incurred if the
project duration is more than 17 weeks). The net benefit for Step #1 is
$4,000+$5,000-$1,500=$7,500.
Next, we need to update the paths’ durations. Since activity D is only part of the second path,
we only decrease the duration of path ADGH:
Paths’ lengths after Step #1
Path Length Critical
ACFH 16 weeks No
ADGH 18 weeks Yes
BEGH 17 weeks No
Step #2:
We observe that ADGH is still the only critical paths. Therefore, we will have the same options
to crash. We still have room left to crash Activity D, which is the cheapest option on the critical
path.
Step #2 options & their cost
Option # Activities Cost
1 A $1,800
2 D $1,500
3 G $2,000
4 H $5,000
Similar to Step #1, the net benefit is $7,500 because we save both the $4,000 in indirect cost
and $5,000 in penalty cost. Again, we update the paths’ lengths:
Paths’ lengths after Step #2
Path Length Critical
ACFH 16 weeks No
ADGH 17 weeks Yes
BEGH 17 weeks Yes
Step #3:
Now we have two critical paths (ADGH and BEGH). In order to reduce the project duration by
one week, we need to crash activities such that both these paths become shorter by one week.
Otherwise, if we only shorten one of the critical paths, then it would not affect the overall
project length because the other critical path determines the project length.
Now, to reduce both critical paths, we need to crash an activity that simultaneously shorten
both paths such as activity G or activity H (note both G and H are on ADGH and BEGH).
Alternatively, we can choose one activity from each critical path (i.e., overall crash two
activities). The options are as follows:
Activity G is the cheapest option that would reduce both paths simultaneously. Also, it has
room to be crashed by only one week (i.e., after this step, we cannot crash activity G any
further). Crashing activity G costs $2,000 and we save $4,000 in indirect cost (a net benefit of
$2,000). Note that we no longer save any penalty cost because the duration of the project is
already at 17 weeks.
Next, we need to update the paths’ durations. Since activity G is part of the second and third
paths, we decrease the duration of paths ADGH and BEGH by one week:
Step #4:
All three paths are now critical at 16 weeks. In order to decrease the project duration further by
one week, we need to crash activity or activities that reduces all three paths’ lengths to 15
weeks. We can achieve this by: 1) crashing one activity shared by all three paths (i.e., activity
H), 2) crashing two activities (one shared between two paths, and the other one from the third
path), or 3) crashing one activity from each path (overall, crashing three activities). See the
options below:
Step #4 options & their cost
Option # Activities Cost
1 H $5,000
2 A,B $7,800
3 A,E $3,500
4 F,D,B $10,000
5 F,D,E $5,700
Note that activity C did not have any room to be crashed and we have already used activity G’s
room in Step #3. We observe that the cheapest option is to crash activities A and E each by one
week. Activity A will help us shorten the first and second paths and activity E helps us shorten
the third path. Note that since activity A only has one week crashing room, we cannot crash it
any further in future steps. Crashing activities A and E costs us $3,500 but we save $4,000 in
indirect cost (i.e., a net benefit of $500). We update the paths’ lengths:
Paths’ lengths after Step #4
Path Length Critical
ACFH 15 weeks Yes
ADGH 15 weeks Yes
BEGH 15 weeks Yes
Step #5:
The situation is similar to the previous step, but options with activity A in them are no longer
available (since we have already crashed A to its fastest duration in Step #4). Thus, our options
are as follows:
Step #5 options & their cost
Option # Activities Cost
1 H $5,000
2 F,D,B $10,000
3 F,D,E $5,700
This time, the cheapest way to decrease the project duration is to crash activity H, which
shortens all three paths simultaneously. Crashing H costs us $5,000 compared to the savings of
$4,000 in indirect cost. In other words, the net benefit for this step is -$1,000. Therefore, if we
are interested in finding the cheapest duration, we would not crash activity H in Step #5.
Instead, we stop crashing activities at the end of Step #4. Thus, the cheapest duration is 15
weeks. Furthermore, compared to the normal cost, the project will be cheaper by
$7,500+$7,500+$2,000+$500=$17,500
if finished in 15 weeks.
Now suppose we would like to find the fastest duration that we can complete the project
(although it might not be the cheapest duration). In that case, we complete Step #5 by crashing
activity H. Note that after this step, we no longer can crash activity H since it can only be
shortened by one week. The updated paths’ durations are as follows:
Paths’ lengths after Step #5
Path Length Critical
ACFH 14 weeks Yes
ADGH 14 weeks Yes
BEGH 14 weeks Yes
Step #6:
The situation is similar to the start of previous step (i.e., all three paths are critical). Since H is
no longer an option, we have two possible ways to shorten the project:
Step #6 options & their cost
Option # Activities Cost
1 F,D,B $10,000
2 F,D,E $5,700
Crashing activities F, D and E is the cheapest option (i.e., we pick one activity from each critical
path). The net benefit is -$1,700(=$4,000-$5,700).
Note that since this is the third time that we crash activity D, we cannot crash it in the future. It
is already at its fastest duration. Consequently, we can no longer shorten the project. The
fastest duration to finish the project is 13 weeks:
Paths’ lengths after Step #6
Path Length Critical
ACFH 13 weeks Yes
ADGH 13 weeks Yes
BEGH 13 weeks Yes
Here’s the table with information on all steps:
Remark: For the exam, I only expect the above table. If the indirect cost information is not
provided, you do not need to calculate the net benefit. The question might ask you to find
either the cheapest duration or the fastest duration. You should know when to stop if the
question asks for the cheapest duration.