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1. Procurement Processes
In project construction, the importance of the procurement liability for getting the right materials delivered from the suppliers to the site
on time cannot be taken for granted. A minor item or low value material not available when needed can stop the construction activities,
put people out of work and delay of completion. For instance, in the absence of a common wire nails carpentry work activities could be
paralyzed. In general, the purchasing agent is made responsible for maintaining the following major procurement factors:
1. Quality of the materials
2. Quantity of the materials
3. Time of delivery
4. Price of the materials
The procurement department and his agent are expected to:
1. Know and maintain records showing the materials and their possible substitute, sources of-supply, prices and quantities
available.
2. Review specifications for possible simplifications and standardization of materials as for unreasonable requirements.
3. Negotiate with suppliers for possible extension of credit.
4. Gather and analyze price quotations and fluctuations'
5. Place orders with suppliers
6. Follow up purchase orders for delivery as specified
7. Audit invoices to check compliance with agreed terms and conditions
8. Maintain records of all purchases
9. Coordinate with other departments on all matters pertaining to Procurement.
The prerequisite of any purchasing contract is meeting of the minds "at to the exact nature of the materials required and to be furnished.
Material standard which define; the major requirements such as; size, color, forms, composition, performance of the materials and also
the state acceptance terms' and shipping conditions requires purchase specifications. These are materials which are purchased by
catalogue number, description or by its name. This practice is practically simple but because of specifications of banded catalogue
items are often subject to change.
Purchase order usually starts from a Purchase requisition. It specifies the kind, quantity and when is to be delivered. Purchase
requisitions are serially numbered as an in filing and follow up. For items ordered regularly, a travelling requisition is used. This is a
card carrying the usual information on the purchase requisition but with space for the word repeat order. This is used over and over
again without the retrying data. This procedure, eliminate clerical works and the need for a separate purchase history record.
Materials bought under continuing contract or those purchased repeatedly do not require quotations from the supplier since all the
necessary information is already available to both parties. In case of repeat order, the purchase order form might include the phrase
"as previously furnished on our PO No. __. The unit price and discount expected will likewise be shown as with the purchase order
number and that of the original requisition.
a. Inventory Control
Effective inventory control is aimed at providing an adequate but not excessive supply of materials at hand at all times to meet operating
requirements. However, for most companies, inventories perform two functions:
1. They act as safety stock of materials or in effect, short term insurance against fluctuations in supply.
2. Inventories permit a company to operate with disconnected processes in the construction and disbursement cycle.
2. Site Management of the Work
Safety in the project construction must be given primary considered from the mechanical side to the legal angles of workmen's
compensation or even as a matter of training and motivation toward safe work practices for workers.
The immediate supervisor's responsibility is to see to it that the working place is properly arranged and maintained wherein the
equipment, scaffoldings and the like are all in safe operating conditions. He should strictly see to it, that all workers do follow the safe
working habits.
Regardless of the exact percentage relationship, influencing human motivation to work safely is an important responsibility of the
foreman and supervisors. Safety must begin from the drawing board. In the original design of the layout of work place or tools, accident
hazards may be built in or eliminated. A safety minded project engineer will make adequate provisions for safety measures to:
Principle No. 2
That an activity has a single definite starting point and a single definite ending point.
An arrow in the network must satisfy two basic questions:
1. What activities must be completed before this one can start?
2. What activities cannot be started if this one is not completed?
Principle No. 3
The network (arrow diagram) does not describe time relationships but rather dependency relationships.
The length and direction of an activity arrow has no relationship with the amount of time required to accomplish the work presented by
it. Similarly, two activities starting with the same event do not necessarily occur at the same time.
Principle No. 4
That the network (arrow diagram) is hardly ever done by a single person.
The accomplishment of the schedule made in the network diagram is influenced by several number of people who have something to
do with the project and should be consulted when making the network.
Likewise, the sub-contractors and suppliers should be asked to review the network to be sure that the activities affecting their
participation are accurately and realistically described.
Fundamental Elements of PERT/CPM Networking
The fundamental elements of PERT/CPM networking activities are: Activity, Event and Time
Activity - Is the work operations required to complete a task or in some cases, a segment of that task. In short, it is the actual work
between events.
For example: each particular work such as clearing, excavation, foundation and concreting works are indicated by an arrow on the
project network.
The arrows should always point to the right. And arrow which represents activity is identified by a numbered circle at its tail and
another number circle at its point. The description of the activity is written along the arrow.
Events - Is a point in time signifying the beginning or end of one or more activities. It denotes the completion of all preceding or
predecessor activities and the beginning of one or more succeeding activities.
The event is indicated on the network as a circle, square, ellipse or any form of geometrical symbols with a number written therein
for identification.
1. Numbering the events follows the construction of the network.
2. No two events shall have the same identification number in the network.
3. For this reason, one or more dummy activities may be used in a network.
Dummy Activity - Is an arrow on a network showing the dependent relationship between two activities. However, dummy activity does
not represent actual work efforts, and do not consume time. Dummy activity may be used in the network to distinguish between two or
more parallel activities.
Duration of an Activity - Is the time it takes an activity to be finished. In short, this is the normal time duration of a task. Duration
activity is the span of time from the Early Start to its Early Finish or from its Late Start to its Late Finish.
Path - A Path is a sequence of activities that leads from the starting node to the finishing node. Thus, the sequence I-2-4-6 in the
network of Figure 5-9 is a path. There are two paths from the starting node to the finishing node. They are:
a. Path l-2-4-6
b. Path l-3-5-6
Comment:
1. The length or time of any path can be determined by adding the expected time of the activities along that path.
2. The path with the longest time catches management interest because it governs the project completion time.
3. In short, the expected duration of a project is equal to the expected time of the longest path.
4. If there are delays along the longest path, naturally there is also a corresponding delay in project completion time.
5. Therefore, any attempt to shorten the project completion time must concentrate on the longest sequence of activities because
of its relation to the completion time.
6. The longest path is the critical path and, its activities are called the critical activities.
7. Paths that are shorter than the critical path may experience some delay but may not affect the overall project completion time
as long as the ultimate path time does not exceed the length of the critical path.
8. The allowable slippage for any path is called the path slack or floats time. It indicates the difference between the length of a
given path and the length of the critical path.
9. The critical path then has a zero slack or float.
The Network Diagram
a. Introduction
All kinds of project be it engineering, administrative or construction have their own unique characteristics. However, there are certain basic
characteristics, which are common to any project. Every project is composed of works, activities, tasks or functions that are related to one or
the other in some manner.
But generally, they must all be completed because the main goal is to finish the project under the following objectives.
1. To complete the project at the earliest minimum time.
2. To use any available manpower, equipment and other resources
3. To complete the project with a minimum capital investment without causing undue delay.
For management to function effectively, the project planning system used must consider all available alternatives. The options could be a
possibility of utilizing its full resources such as money, manpower, facilities and equipment. Only when management knows and learn how to
use these options can it discharge its responsibilities.
Critical Path - Is the longest route in the network of activities representing a project. The sum of the activities duration along this route
is the duration of the project.
In other words, the time required to complete a project is numerically equal to the length of the route which is called critical path.
Activities along the critical path are called Critical Activities of the project and any delay in their completion may result in the delay of the
entire project.
There may be more than one critical path in a network and the critical path may shift as the project moves toward the completion.
Earliest Event - Is the earliest time occurrence of an event sometimes called Earliest Event Time or Early Event Time. It is the earliest
time an event can happen without delaying the Earliest Start of any activity.
The Earliest Event time is numerically equal to the longest path of activities in series from the project start to the finish. Unless
specified, the Earliest Event Time of the starting event is assumed to be zero.
The Earliest Start of an activity cannot be earlier than the earliest event time of the event. In other words, the Earliest Start of any
activity is always equal to the Earliest Event at the beginning of an arrow which is sometimes called i-node. The point of an arrow is
called j-node.
i- node j- node
Early Start is not necessarily the point in time that the activity will be over, but it is the earliest time that it can occur. It is the first day
after the physical assumption of the activity.
The Earliest Finish of an activity is equal to its Earliest Start plus its duration or time. Therefore:
ES = ES + Duration or
EF = Early Event + Duration
The Latest Event time - is the latest time the event may occur without delaying project completion. It is numerically equal to the length
of the critical path minus the longest path from the project and event to the event in question.
SOLUTION:
Assume an Early Start (ES = 0) for activities-without predecessors or we start from 0. Hence, activities l-2 and 1-3 as starting
activities are assigned to 0.
The EF time for these activities are:
1. The EF 1-2 = 0 + 10 = 10 and
EF 1-3 = 0 + 6 = 6
2. The Early Finish (EF) of activity 1-2 becomes the ES for the two activities 2-4 and2-5 that follows it.
3. Similarly, the EF of activity 1-3 becomes the ES for activity 3-5. Therefore:
ES 2-4 = 10
ES 2-5 = 10
ES 3-5 = 6
4. The corresponding time for these activities are:
EF 2-4 = 10 + 8 = 18
EF 2-5 = 10 + 13 = 23
EF 3-5 = 6 + 12 = 18
5. The activity 4-5 has an early starting time ES equal to EF2-4 = 18 and an early finish time of 18 + 4 = 22.
6. Activity 5-6 with three predecessors has an early starting time ES equal to 18, 22, and 23. Select the largest
number which is 23 plus duration 2 = 25, the early finish EF.
Summary of the above computations:
Activity Duration Early Start ES Early Finish EF
1-2 10 0 10
13 6 0 6
24 8 10 18
25 13 10 23
35 12 6 18
45 4 18 22
5-6 2 23 25
Note: The Latest Finish is the duration of the project. Therefore, the expected length of the project is 25 weeks.
ILLUSTRATION 2
Determine the Latest Starting time (LS) and the Late Finish (LF) for each activity of the following network.
The activity oriented CPM network diagram is made under the following Rules:
1. When an activity is the only predecessor of one or more successors, the activity's Early Finish (EF) is equal to the
Early Start (ES) of any of its successors. This is true because a successor activity cannot start until its predecessor
activity has not been completed.
ILLUSTRATION 3
From the following network diagram, determine the following:
a. The Early Start (ES) - in days
b. The Early Finish (EF) - in days
c. The Latest Start (LS) - in days
d. The Latest Finish (LF) - in days
SOLUTION:
A. Solve for the Early Start (ES) and the Early Finish (EF)
1. Activity l-2can start at ES = 0 with a time of 5 days it can finish at EF + 5 = 5 days
2. This value 5 days being the EF of activity 1-2 is at the same time the ES for the activity 2-5 and 2-4. Thus,
activity 2-4 and activity 2-5 cannot start earlier than 5 days.
3. At this point, the question is:
What will be the Earliest Start for activity 4-5? Will it be after activity 3-4 which is 4 + 2 = 6 or after activity 2-4
which is 5+3 = 8?
4. Note that, if two or more activities are entering the node the Earliest Start ES is the Largest value of EF. In this
case we will adopt 8 days being larger than 6. Hence, activity 4-5 has an ES of 8 and an EF of 8 + 3 = 11
days.
5. Take note again that the EF's of the activities entering the final Node (5) has 9 and 11 days. The largest value
which is 11 is the expected project duration. Thus, both activities must be finished by that time.
B. Solve for the Late Start (LS) and Late Finish (LF)
1. Determine the value of LS and LF by working back starting from Node (5) using EF = 11
LLUSTRATION 5
From Illustration 6-4, Figure 6-6, solve for the value of Float or Slack.
SOLUTION:
We have two options to use in solving the value of Float. By the use of formula ( LS -ES ) or ( LF -EF ).
Referring to the previous tabulation of activities in Illustration l and 2 we can tabulate the result of LS and ES to find the value
of Float as follows:
Activity LS ES Float ( LS ES )
12 ( 10 10 ) = 0 At (1) = 0 0
13 ( 11 6 ) = 5 (66) = 0 5
24 ( 19 8 ) = 11 ( 0 + 10 ) = 10 1
25 ( 23 13 ) = 10 ( 0 + 10 ) = 10 0
35 ( 23 12 ) = 11 (0+6) = 6 5
45 ( 23 4 ) = 19 ( 10 + 8 ) = 18 1
5-6 ( 25 2 ) = 23 ( 10 + 13 ) = 23 2
The Critical Path using the above tabulation is indicated by activities with Zero Float Time.
Thus, activities L-2; 2-5; and 5-6 are all critical activities.
Knowing the float time, the manager has a wider detail for planning the allocation of limited resources and for directing control
towards those activities that are susceptible to delaying the project.
The activity float time are based on the 4ssumption that all of the activities on the same path should be started as early as
possible and never to exceed their expected time;
If two activities are both on the same path like activities 1-3 and 3-5 with a .float of 5 and activities 2-4 and 4-S with float of
one week respectively, those number of weeks will be the total float available for both activities. In other words, said activities
have a Shared Slack or Shared Float.
Thus, if one of the activity consume all this float time, the other activities will have a zero float for all the following activities on
that same direction.
Source: Project Construction Management
Max B. Fajardo, Jr.
Dennis C. de Villa
February 2012