STE 515: Construction Management 1

Network Analysis

Network is a technique used for planning and scheduling of large projects in the fields of
construction, maintenance, fabrication, purchasing, computer system instantiation, research and
development planning etc. There is multitude of operations research situations that can be
modeled and solved as network. Some recent surveys reports that as much as 70% of the real-
world mathematical programming problems can be represented by network related models.
Network analysis is known by many names PERT (Programme Evaluation and Review
Technique), CPM (Critical Path Method), PEP (Programme Evaluation Procedure), LCES (Least
Cost Estimating and Scheduling), SCANS (Scheduling and Control by Automated Network
System) etc. Network analysis helps the manager to calculate the duration and identify critical
activities in a project. Critical activities are those activities which determines the overall duration
of the project. The duration of the project is not necessary the simple arithmetical sum of the
individual activity duration because several activities occur concurrently in the project. Project
duration would be equal to the sum of all individual activity durations only when all the activities
in the project are sequential. The starting and finishing time of the project are calculated through
the network analysis.

Network
It is a graphical representation of logical and sequentially connected activities and events of a
project. Network is also called arrow diagram. PERT (Programme Evaluation Review
Technique) and (Critical Path Method) are the two most widely applied techniques.

Activity
Any individual operation, which utilizes resources and has an end and a beginning, is called
activity.

These are usually classified into four categories: predecessor activity, successor activity,
concurrent activity and dummy activity.

Dummy Activity: It indicates only precedence relationships and does not require any time or
effort.
PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique): is a method to analyze the involved
tasks in completing a given project, especially the time needed to complete each task, and
identifying the minimum time needed to complete the total project. PERT is based on the
assumption that an activity’s duration follows a probability distribution instead of being a single
value.
Three time estimates are required to compute the parameters of an activity’s duration
distribution:
1. Pessimistic time (tp ) - the time the activity would take if things did not go well
2. Most likely time (tm ) - the consensus best estimate of the activity’s duration

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3. Optimistic time (to ) - the time the activity would take if things did go well.

Mean (expected time= (𝑡𝑝 − 4𝑡𝑚 + 𝑡𝑜 )⁄6

𝑡 −𝑡
Variance ( 𝜎 2 )= ( 𝑝 6 𝑜)2

Probability computation: Determine probability that project is completed within specified time
𝑍 = 𝑋 − 𝜇/𝜎
Where
𝜇 = 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
𝜎 = 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑑 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
𝑋 = 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
Float
Float of an activity represents the excess of available time over its duration.
Total Float (Ft)
The amount of time by which the completion of an activity could be delay beyond the earliest
expected completion time without affecting the overall project duration. i.e. Tf= (Latest start-
Earliest start) for activity(i-j),
Free Float (Ff)
The time by which the completion of an activity can be delayed beyond the earliest finish time
without affecting the earliest start of a subsequent (succeeding) activities.

Benefits of CPM/PERT

1) Useful at many stages of project management

2) Mathematically simple
3) Give critical path and slack time
4) Provide project documentation
5) Useful in monitoring costs

Difference between PERT and CPM

S/N PERT CPM

1 PERT is event oriented CPM is activity
oriented
2 PERT is probabilistic CPM is deterministic
3 PERT is primarily CPM places dual
concerned with time only. emphasis on project
time as well as cost.
4 PERT is generally used for CPM are used for
projects where time projects which are
required to complete the repetitive in nature

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 activities are not known and comparatively
apriori. Thus PERT is used small in size.
for large R&D type of
projects.
5 Three time estimates are One time estimates is
possible for activities possible for activities
linking up two events. ( no allowance is
made for uncertainty)

Situations in network diagram

1. A must finish before either B or C can start

B
A

2. Both A and B must finish before C can start

A C

3. Both A and C must finish before either B and D can start

C
A

B D

4. A must finish before B can start. Both A and C must finish before D can start.

A B

Dummy

B D

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Network analysis include the following

1. Event numbering
2. Computation of the earliest start time (EST)
3. Computation of the latest state time (LST)
4. Computation of the earliest finish time (EFT)
5. Computation of the latest finish time (LFT)
6. Identification of critical path
7. Computation of slack or float

Event numbering
It is common practice to number every event in the network so that they are not
duplicated. Every event is identified with a reference number in the network and every
activity is identified by its preceeding and succeeding event numbers.
There are two systems in vogue for numbering events.
i. Random event numbering
ii.Sequential event numbering

Random event numbering

In this system, events of a network are numbered randomly, thereby avoiding the
difficulty in numbering extra event due to insertion of new jobs.

Sequential event numbering

In this case the events are numbered successively from the beginning to the end of the
network. For any individual job, the head (succeeding) events must bear a higher number
than the tail (preceding) events.

Table 1: Example of an activity

S/N Activity Symbol Preceding Time (days)

activity
1 Site selection A - 7
2 Digging well B A 3
3 Laying field C B 15
channels
4 Procurement of D A 7
pump
5 Installation of E D,B 3
pump
6 Test run F C,E 2

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 B C

A Z

D E F

Computing earliest start time (EST) and latest start time (LST)

The earliest start time (EST) represents the time before which the activity cannot begin and
latest start time (LST) refers to latest time by which the activity must begin. The EST and
LST are computed in two phases. The EST is calculated first in the forward pass beginning
from the start event. For the start event, the EST is always set to zero so that it can be scaled
to any convenient calendar date at a larger stage. The EST at the last event is generally
considered to be the project duration i.e. the minimum time required for the project
completion. Therefore EST and LST are equal at the end event. LST for other events are then
calculated through backward pass starting from the end event.

The steps involved in the computation are listed below:

S/N Earliest start time (EST) Latest start time (LST)

1 Through forward pass Through backward pass
2 Calculation begins form start Calculation starts from end
event event
3 Proceed from left to right Proceed from right to left
4 At start event, EST is zero At end event LST equals
EST
5 Adding the activity time to Subtracting the activity time
EST from LST
6 At a merge event, take At a burst event, take
maximum value minimum value.

Computation of EST using Table 1 gives the EST of this project to be 27 days

10 C
B
A F 27
0 25
7 0 Z
14 E
D

Computation of EST and LST using Table 1

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 10/10 C
B
A F 27/27
0/0 25/25
7/7 0 Z

D E
14/22

Computation of the Earliest Finish Time (EFT) and the Latest Finish Time (LFT)

The earliest finish time (EFT) for each activity is calculated from the first activity, which
commences after the start event. It is given by ;

EFT of an activity = EST of preceding activity + activity duration.

The calculation of LFT starts from the last activity of the network or from the computed LST
and is given by;

LFT = LST of succeeding event.

Table2: Computed times for the activities according to Table 1

S/N Activity Duration EST LST EFT LFT Float

1 A 7 0 0 7 7 0
2 B 3 7 7 10 10 0
3 C 15 10 10 25 25 0
4 D 7 14 22 21 29 8
5 E 3 25 25 28 28 0
6 F 2 27 27 29 29 0

Exercise 1

Draw the network for the events in the table below. Identify the critical path. Find EST,
EFT, LST, LFT and slack time for each event.

S/N Activity Symbols Duration Preceding EST EFT LST LFT Slack
description (hours) events
1 Design A 6 -
prototype
2 Obtain B 2 A
materials
3 Order parts C 2 A
4 Manufacture D 3 B
parts

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 5 Assembly 1 F 2 C
8 Assembly 2 E 4 D,F
9 Final G 1 E
assembly

Solution

S/N Activity Symbols Duration Preceding EST EFT LST LFT Slack
description (hours) events
1 Design A 6 - 0 0 6 6 0
prototype
2 Obtain B 2 A 6 6 8 8 0
materials
3 Order parts C 2 A 6 6 8 8 0
4 Manufacture D 3 B 8 8 11 11 0
parts
5 Assembly 1 F 2 C 8 9 10 11 1
6 Assembly 2 E 4 D,F 11 11 15 15 0
7 Final G 1 E 15 15 16 16 0
assembly

8/8 11/11
D 8
0/0 B 15/15
E 16/16
A Z G
0

6/6
C F 11/11
8/9

The critical path of the project are A-B-D-E-G

The duration of the project = 6+2+3+0+4+1 = 16 hours