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Engineering Management Summary Notes 2

The document discusses different project planning and scheduling tools including bar charts, Gantt charts, and network diagrams. It provides details on: - How bar charts and Gantt charts show the timing and dependencies of tasks visually along a horizontal timescale but have limitations around complex projects. - Network diagrams (including CPM and PERT methods) represent projects as connected activities to clearly show task sequences and interdependencies through nodes and arrows. - The key steps to develop a network diagram including analyzing tasks, determining sequences and dependencies, assigning time/cost values, and identifying the critical path.

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Njuguna Waweru
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52 views

Engineering Management Summary Notes 2

The document discusses different project planning and scheduling tools including bar charts, Gantt charts, and network diagrams. It provides details on: - How bar charts and Gantt charts show the timing and dependencies of tasks visually along a horizontal timescale but have limitations around complex projects. - Network diagrams (including CPM and PERT methods) represent projects as connected activities to clearly show task sequences and interdependencies through nodes and arrows. - The key steps to develop a network diagram including analyzing tasks, determining sequences and dependencies, assigning time/cost values, and identifying the critical path.

Uploaded by

Njuguna Waweru
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Engineering management summary notes

Bar charts

A planning tool listing the operations to be carried out on the left hand side of
the chart, and carrying a time schedule along the horizontal scale.
The start duration and the finish of each activity is shown as a line or bar.
A Gantt chart is constructed by firstly listing all the things that you can think
of that need to be done in a project. This could be quite a long list
Uses (plan, coordinate, and track specific tasks in a project.)

For calculating the resources requirements for a project.


Linked bar chart are useful in managing the dependencies between tasks.
shows the links between an activity and the preceding activity which
have to be complete before this activity can start. Similarly links are shown
between the activity and the succeeding activities which are dependent
on the activity being completed.
Used By contractors when they have to follow the program period set by the
client/representative or which they have set to carry out works.
for monitoring project progress You can immediately see what should have
been achieved at a point in time, and can therefore take remedial action
to bring the project back on course. This can be essential for the
successful and profitable implementation of the project
Staff requirements are not either over or under estimated

Limitation of bar charts


1. Task dependencies can sometimes be hard to identify at the outset of a project. Strictly no
interdependency shown between one bar and the next
2. The various activities are inter-dependent
3. The sequence of activities is not clearly defined
4. It was developed as a means of scheduling the output of fixed production
equipment
5. Incapable of showing in details a large number of inter-related activities and
dependencies or whether one activity is delaying or about to disrupt another.
They have substantial limitations and do not permit a high degree of control.
6. On a large project they can become so huge they are unmanageable mainly
suitable for contracts where relatively small number of large scale. Selfcontained operations dominates the programme as in the case of a road
construction comprising mainly of earthworks
Network analysis

1.
2.
3.

General term describing planning tools such as:


CPS (critical path scheduling
PERT (programme evaluation and review technique
RAMPS (resource allocation and multi project scheduling
All the techniques involve use of network or arrow diagram in which the
constituents activities of the project are shown as interconnected arrows.

Define only the sequences and inter relations between the activities.
The analysis of the diagram to produce a working schedule for the project
depends on the particular technique adopted.
A network is a project graph which clearly depicts the various operations
which has to be performed to complete a project and their inter-relationships.
Means of representing a plan so that it displays clearly the series of
operations, which must follow in order to complete the project. It also shows
clearly their inter-relationship and interdependence of the activities.
Each of these operations can often be carried out in a variety of different
ways by varying the amount of labor, number and size of gangs, working
hours, plant employed and other inputs,

Procedure for constructing a network diagram


1. Analyze the project into discrete activities.
2. Determine the sequence and inter-dependence of activities and decide which
activity must come first and what follows it.
3. Assign time or cost values to each activity and in some cases, both may be
needed
4. Determine the critical path, being the critical sequence of activities through
the network from start to finish
Forms of network analysis
1. Activity on arrow network
2. Activity on node network
3. Event or milestone system which Is largely represented by the PERT method
Activity on arrow network (Arrow Diagramming Method (ADM)

Activity is represented by an arrow.


The length of the arrow has no significance.
Nodes or circles are the starting and ending points of activities
Can only show finish-to-start dependencies
no dummy activities.

Rules of Making Arrow Diagram


First determine which activities:
a) must be complete before this activity starts
b) cannot start until this activity is complete
c) Have no logical relationship with this activity and can therefore take place at
the same time.
1. Any two events may be directly connected by no more than one activity.
2. The arrows originate at the right side of a node and terminate at the left
side of a node.
3. Event numbers must not be duplicated in a network.

4. Networks may have only one initial event with no predecessor and one
terminal event with no successor.
5. Arrows imply logical precedence only. Length and direction no significance.
6. At either end of the arrow must appear an event
Nodes network system (Precedence Diagramming Method)

sometimes requires dummy activities


Dummy Activity an artificial activity with zero time duration that only
shows a precedence relationship among activities.
Rectangles instead of circles
Artifical Start and Finish activities are used when needed, to have only one
beginning and end of the diagram

Rules
1. All activities entering a node must be complete before any activity starts from
that node.
2. Activities are defined by their start and finish node.
3. When two activities are running in parallel, dummy activities are used to
distinguish between them. These dummy activities are logical restraints used
to maintain the logic of a network.
4. Dummy activities are also used when some activity is dependent on
completion of another activity.
5. All networks are constructed logically on the principle of dependency.
An event is a milestone or a point at which an operation, the activity, is
complete or another can start. Node or connector.
NETWORK ANALYSIS DIAGRAMS

Each activity must be proceed and succeeded by an event and each


event must have an activity before it and following it, except the starting
and ending activities in a project.
There are however other situations when an event in a diagram will not be
reached until a number of activities proceeding it have been completed.
Numbers can be assigned to each event in the network in one of the three
ways
1. - serial forward numbering 0 or 1 for 1st event
2. - serial backward numbering 0 or 1 for final event
3. - random or non-consecutive numbering
Advantage of serial numbering is that it enables one to see at a
glance specific occurrence of a specific activity.
Disadvantage is that, if one has to add an activity after the network has been
drawn, the whole diagram has to be numbered again to maintain consecutive
succession.
Advantage of random numbering - much easier to add an activity at a
later stage without renumbering again.
Disadvantage- risk of repeating numbers especially if the project is large and
processing of the network is being done manually.

Where two activities running in parallel start and finish at the same nodes a
dummy activity is inserted to enable a distinction to be made between them.
Merge nodes: Events into which a number of activities enter and one (or
several) leave.
Burst nodes: Events that have one (or more) entering activities generating a
number of emerging activities.

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