SOLUTION TO PARK AND RIDE PROJECT COURSEWORK Assignment

SOLUTION TO PARK AND RIDE PROJECT COURSEWORK - Assignment Example The basic rule for numbering events is that the starting point of an activity is lower than the completion point. Meanwhile, the activities or tasks which need to be completed are represented by arrows. In Figure 1, the tasks indicated in Appendix B were replaced by activity codes using letters. Task duration in days is shown beside their respective codes as numbers in parenthesis. Table 1 presents the activity data for the project with the activity codes, description of each task, normal task duration, the early start (ES), early finish (EF), late start (LS) and late finish (LF) times based on normal duration. The ES and EF times were computed based on the analysis of the network using a forward pass. In a forward pass, computation is made from left to right. The earliest starting time of an activity is the earliest finish time of its predecessor. When an activity has no predecessor, such as for initial activity (or activities), the ES of this activity is 0. The earliest finish time is the sum of the early start time and the duration of the activity (Kerzner, 2009; De Marco, 2011). Meanwhile, the LS and LF times were calculated using a backward pass or a right to left computation. The late start of the final activity is taken as the late finish of this activity and from here the late start of the final activity is computed by subtracting the activity duration from the LS time. If there are two or more terminal activities, the highest LS time of these activities should be adopted as the LS time of the rest of the terminating activities (Kerzner, 2009; Demarco, 2011). Table 1 is presented below and the network diagram is shown as Figure 1 on page 4. Table 1. Activity Data for the Park and Ride Project Using ‘Normal’ Task Durations – Float Times Task Description Duration (in days) Early Start (ES) Early Finish (EF) Late Start (LS) Late Finish (LF) Total Float (TF) Free Float (FF) A Excavate Site 10 0 10 0 10 0 0 B Install Ground Drainage 5 10 15 15 20 5 5 C Install Piled Foundations 10 10 20 10 20 0 0 D Erect Steel Frame 10 20 30 20 30 0 0 E Pour In-situ Concrete Floors 9 30 39 30 39 0 0 F Install Electricity, Lighting and IT Cabling 10 39 49 39 49 0 0 G Electrical and Lighting Fit Out 8 49 57 51 59 2 2 H Fix IT Hardware and Screens 10 49 59 49 59 0 0 I Tar-macadam to Access Ramps and Parking 4 49 53 55 59 6 0 J Fix Automated Entrance Barriers 3 49 52 56 59 7 7 K Commission Services and IT Equipment 10 59 69 59 69 0 0 L Landscaping 10 53 63 59 69 6 6 1. The critical path based on the ‘normal’ activity durations There are three ways of determining if an activity is critical. First, from the tabulation of the ES, EF, LS and LF times, if the ES and EF times of an activity are identical to the LS and LF times, then this activity is critical. An examination of Table 1 revealed that seven activities are critical and these are highlighted in blue and bold font in the table. These are activities are: A, C, D, E, F, H, and K. Another way of determining which activities are critical is by computing the float or slack. Float or slack is the difference between the early schedule (ES, EF) and the late schedule (LS, LF). Tasks with zero (0) float are critical (Kendrick, 2010). As reflected in Table 1, the critical activities have 0 total float and 0 free float. To differentiate, total float is the amount of time (i.e. days, in this project) that an activity can