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Problem
ASSA ABLOY SA is a company specializing in door opening solutions. One part of the company focuses on manufacturing pin tumbler and lever
locks for multiple brands including Union, Yale and Multi-Lock. The production line used to produce padlocks is a perfect example of a network
system; the steps are shown in Table 1. Using this example, the CPM (critical path method) will be explained fully.
For the purpose of the example, a batch of 200 padlocks will be taken as the sample for the data recorded.
Extra costs are associated with the activities if the manager wants to reduce the overall time (or critical path). These costs can be seen from table 2,
as well as the maximum reduction in time per activity.
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Solved Problem - Critical Path Method 5/7/17, 2:15 PM
CPM Explained
The CPM will be explained using the above example to develop a basic understanding of the steps involved.
Figure 3: The process for drawing the activity on arc (AOA) network.
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Solved Problem - Critical Path Method 5/7/17, 2:15 PM
2. Determining early event time (ET) and late event time (LT)
ET(1) = 0
ET(2) = ET(1) + 0.5 = 0.5
ET(3) = ET(2) + 1 = 1.5
ET(4) = ET(3) + 0.8 = 2.3
ET(5) = ET(3) + 1.4 = 2.9
ET(6) = ET(4) + 1 = 3.3
ET(7) = ET(5) + 1.2 = 4.1
ET(6) + 0 = 3.3
ET(8) = max between : ET(3) + 1.5 = 3
ET(7) + 0 = 4.1
Figure 5: Early event time and late event time for given problem
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Solved Problem - Critical Path Method 5/7/17, 2:15 PM
The critical path in any project network is the longest path from the start node to the finish node.
· An activity with a total float of zero is a critical activity.
· A path from node 1 to the finish node that consists entirely of critical activities is the critical path.
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Solved Problem - Critical Path Method 5/7/17, 2:15 PM
When the time of an activity can be reduced at an additional cost a different LP needs to be taken into consideration. This usually occurs when a
project needs to be completed in a time shorter than the current critical path. For the ASSA ABLOY example the following will happen:
To determine the minimum cost the following LP will need to be solved. Also assume that the path time required is 6.3 hours.
Objective function: min z = 20A + 200B + 0C + 0D + 35E + 80F + 100G + 20H + 20I + 0J
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J >= 0
xi urs
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Solved Problem - Critical Path Method 5/7/17, 2:15 PM
The first 10 constraints are for the reduction in time for each activity.
As can be seen from the graph below, the cost increases exponentially as the path time decreases.
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