CH 06
CH 06
Chapter 6
Allocating Resources to the Project
This chapter extends the previous one on scheduling into the area of allocating resources among
the activities of a project, or among multiple projects competing for the same resources. The
chapter begins with a discussion of expediting project completion times and highlights that by
selectively choosing which activities to crash and by how much, we can determine the minimum
cost for all possible project completion time. The use of Excels Solver optimization routine to
facilitate this analysis is also presented. Next, the chapter moves on to the topic of resource
loading and in particular highlights the problems of over scheduling resources. The topics of
resource leveling and resource allocation naturally follow in the subsequent sections. Finally, the
chapter concludes with an overview of several of the concepts Goldratt raises in his provocative
book Critical Chain.
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The student syndrome refers to situations in which people wait until the
last possible minute to begin a task. Its name is derived from the belief
that students often delay the start of an assignment until just before it is
due.
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o
o
Resource loading recognizes the existence of needed resources and ensures that
they are allocated to the project when needed. An example would be a
construction site where the electrical work is subcontracted to an external
supplier. The main task is to determine that the external firm can have the
necessary skilled work force on site at the appropriate time.
Scarce resources are those with limited availability and the key elements of the
project have to be scheduled around that availability of the resource - even if a
firm has just a single project. An example of this situation would be the reliance
of a construction site on a specific piece of equipment such as a crane.
The allocation of scare resources becomes far more complex when the same
resources are need on more than one project. In this case, the utilization of the
resource on project A will also have an impact on project B (and, possibly, other
projects). As indicated in the chapter, the company will need to apply one of the
six priority rules to determine which project shall have the first use of the scarce
resource.
Solutions to Problems
20.
b. Assuming a five day week, the critical path is: A-C-D-E-G and the project
duration is 14 days.
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c. Since each resource is assigned 100 per cent to each task, the resource
constraints are:
o Resource X is over utilized on the Friday of week 1, Monday of week 2,
and Tuesday of week 3.
o Resource W is over utilized on Tuesday or week 3.
d. After leveling the resources, the project duration is 17 days and the
critical path is
A-C-D-F-G.
e. If it is necessary to shorten the project duration without overallocating the resources then
there are two options:
o
o
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The project duration is 13 days when the resources work weekends and after leveling.
21. Provided are the predecessors, normal time, normal cost, crash time
and crash cost for an eight activity (a to h) project.
a. The network for this project is as follows:
A
1
3
B
C
2
G
6
The critical path is B-C-E-H. The project duration and cost for the all
normal level of project activity is 20 days and $400, respectively.
b. The crash costs per day for all activities are shown in column F.
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A
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
B
Normal
Time
5
4
7
2
3
8
5
6
Activity
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
C
Normal
Cost
$50
$40
$70
$20
$30
$80
$50
$60
D
Crash
Time
3
2
6
1
E
Crash
Cost
$150
$200
$160
$50
F
Crash
Cost/Day
50
80
90
30
5
4
3
$290
$100
$180
70
50
40
c. The spreadsheet below was created to find the optimal way of getting to
an 18-day delivery time. As shown, the total normal cost is $400 (cell
C14) and the total crash cost is $80 (cell I14) for a total project cost of
$480 (cell B2). The 18 day duration was achieved by crashing activity H 2
days (cell H13).
A
1 Deadline:
2 Total Cost:
3
4
Activity
5
6
a
7
b
8
c
9
d
10
e
11
f
12
g
13
h
Total
14
15
16
Node
17
18
2
19
3
20
4
21
5
22
6
B
18
$480
Normal
Time
5
4
7
2
3
8
5
6
Normal
Cost
$50
$40
$70
$20
$30
$80
$50
$60
$400
Crash
Time
3
2
6
1
Crash
Cost
$150
$200
$160
$50
5
4
3
$290
$100
$180
Actual
Time
5
4
7
2
3
8
5
4
Event
Time
4
11
13
14
18
The optimal solution using Solver was found in the following way:
o Cell I14 was specified as the target cell to minimize.
o The ranges H6:H13 and B18:B22 were specified as the changing cells.
The following constraints were added:
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o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Duration
4
3
7
5
Successors
D
C, D
D
None
Critical Followers
Slack
D
C, D
D
None
6
0
0
0
a. Using the shortest task first priority rule: Task B has the shortest duration.
b. Minimum slack first Tasks B, C, and D all have zero slack.
c. Most critical followers Task B has the largest number of critical
followers.
d. Most successors Task B has the largest number of successors.
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23. Given the project shown in Figure 5-10 of Chapter 5 and the fact that
the facility used by activities c and d is scarce, which activity would
benefit from each of the rules?
The following Table shows the activity, slack, critical followers, duration,
and latest start time for activities c and d:
Activity
Start Time
Slack
Followers
F, I
G, H, J
Critical Followers
Duration
None
H, J
8
7
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Latest
a. Using the minimum slack rule: Activity D has the least amount of slack
and therefore would get the facility first using this rule.
b. Most followers D has the most followers and would get the facility first.
c. Most critical followers D has the most critical followers and would get
the facility first.
d. Shortest task first C has a smaller duration and would get the facility
first.
e. With the as late as possible priority rule, the latest start times are used.
In this case activity C has a LSof 8 and D has a LS of 7. In using this rule it
only makes sense to assign the facility to the resource with the earliest LS
or activity D.
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Teaching Purpose: In this installment students are required to develop Gantt charts for the
resources and prepare a resource calendar using MSP.
Question 1: Prepare a Gantt chart with resources for the action plan Dr.
Alison submitted. Begin this project on January 2. Prepare a resource
calendar for Dr. Alison.
The following is the Gantt chart of the action plan presented in the case.
This Gantt chart was prepared using MSP with a resource calendar for Dr.
Alison and Dr. Link with a workweek of Monday through Friday, and a daily
schedule of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an hour of non-working time for lunch.
The resource calendar was applied using the Change Working Time under
the Tools menu in MSP. (The issue of scheduling the Test of the
assessment tool will be addressed in answer #3 & #4). Note: the case
stated to start the project on January 2, if students use the year 2000, the
project will actually begin work on January 3rd, as January 2nd is a non-working
day. If students use January 2, 2001 (or later), the project will start on
January 2nd. The start date used in these examples is January 2, 2000, to
coincide with the year that the case started.
The following is the standard resource calendar used for Dr. Alison for all of
the tasks defined by the action plan. Since the case outlined that a resource
scheduling conflict would only pertain to the task of Testing the assessment
tool, it is not appropriate to constrain Dr. Alison on the project for any other
tasks. Note: The following printout excerpt was prepared using the Reports
feature in MSP. The issue of how to handle the specific scheduling constraint
will be addressed in answer #3 below.
Question 2: How would you handle Dr. Alisons resource problem?
The resource issue that Dr. Alison has should be handled by adjusting the
project schedule to allow for the scheduling constraints.
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The case states that Dr. Alison can perform all of the project steps within his
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. normal work week, however he will only be able to perform
the Test of the assessment tool during his administrative time on
Wednesdays from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Since that step is important to the
success of the project, it is necessary to adjust the project plan to reflect Dr.
Alisons scheduling conflict. It is not appropriate to add another resource, or
overallocate Dr. Allison to get this task done within the time frame specified.
There are several different ways to set a resource constraint on the Test the
tool task, Step #4 in the action plan. MSP 2007allows you to create a
specific calendar for a step in an action plan. Simply create a New calendar
in the Tools menu, Change working time section. In the new calendar
create a schedule that has its working time as Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to 12
p.m., and all other days as non-working. Then you apply this calendar to
step 4 in the action plan. (This is done by selecting the task information box
for Step #4, going to the Advanced tab, and selecting the new calendar
you just created. These steps are all outlined in the Help section, under
Assigning a calendar to a task.)
Once you apply the new calendar, MSP will automatically adjust the Gantt
chart to reflect the changes in the schedule. Note: If students are using
MSP98, the schedule constraint can be incorporated into the project by
adjusting Dr. Alisons resource calendar for only the time period that this step
takes place (Jan 19 Jan 26).]
Question 3: Given Dr. Alisons availability, how long will it take to
complete testing of the assessment tool?
Based on Dr. Alisons availability to complete the step Test of the
assessment tool, Step #4 will now take from January 19, 2000 January 26,
2000. Please note that the tasks duration remains at 6 hours, however with
Dr. Alison only available to work on the step from 8 a.m. 12 p.m. one day a
week, the step will now take an extra calendar week to complete. Without
the constraint the task could begin as soon as Step #3 was completed,
January 14. However, with the constraint applied, Step #4 cannot begin
until the following Wednesday when Dr. Alison is available, and he can only
work 4 hours on that day, so another 2 hours the following Wednesday is
necessary to complete the task.
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DB
Benchmarking
Plan
Design
Pages
Forms
8
e
s
t
The time to complete the project at a normal level of activity is 43 days and
the cost is $100,650.
Question 2: What is the shortest amount of time in which the
project can be completed? What is the cost of completing the
project in the shortest amount of time?
When all the activities are crashed their maximum amount, the project is completed in 30 days.
In the spreadsheet below, Solver was used to find the least costly way to crash the project such
that it was finished in 30 days. Column H details the amount each activity was crashed. The
incremental cost required to shorten the project these 13 days is $26,250 (cell I13).
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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
A
Deadline:
Total Cost:
Activity
Benchmark
Plan
Design
Database
Webpages
Forms
Test
Total
Node
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
B
30
$126,900
Normal
Time
10
5
15
10
10
7
3
Event
Time
7
10
20
28
28
27
30
H6:H12 < G6:G12 (limit on the amount each activity can be crashed)
B17:B23 > 0 & H6:H12 > 0 (nonnegativity constraints)
B17 > J6 (node 2)
B18 > B17 + J7 (node 3)
B19 > B18 + J8 (node 4)
B20 > B19 + J9 (node 5)
B20 > B21 (node 5)
B20 > B22 (node 5)
B21 > B19 + J10 (node 6)
B22 > B19 + J11 (node 7)
B23 > B20 + J12 (node 8)
B23 < B1 (deadline specified)
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Amt
Crashing Actual
to Crash
Cost
Time
3.0
3750.0
7
2.0
750.0
3
2.0
5400.0
13
0.0
0.0
10
0.0
0.0
10
0.0
0.0
7
1.0
2250.0
2
$12,150