ADDITIONAL INFO ON

CRASHING
(LECTURE 06)
 TIME & COST TRADE-OFFS

You will be dealing with Time & Cost Trade-Offs,

whereby:

Time and cost are estimated in the planning stage

Cost estimating and budgeting depends on the
itemized cost activities in WBS
When the network diagram is designed, optimum
time is estimated
When there is a delay, crashing would occur
 TIME & COST TRADE-OFFS

Crashing, almost all the time, may result

in an increase in cost!

This is because crashing a task means:

More resources are required
More manpower are required
More energy is spent on a task
 RECAP CRASHING

CRASHING Original no. of labor: 2

New no. of labor : 3

A3 A6 A2
1 day 5 days 2 days
3 days

Start A7 A4 A5 Finish
0 days 4 days 3 days 5 days 0 days

A1
 TIME & COST TRADE-OFFS

Now, a Project Manager is required and expected to

know:

How to crash a project

What task to crash
How much time is saved
How much additional cost is borne
 EXAMPLE

Consider the following project:

Activity Prior Days
A - 10
B A 7
C A 2
D B 9
E C, D 5
F C 9
G F 5
H E,G 12

Now sketch the network diagram

 EXAMPLE

The network diagram would look like:

7 9 5

10 12

2 9 5

Now sketch the precedence diagram.

 EXAMPLE

And the precedence diagram would look like:

Now identify the critical path and all the paths in the
project with its duration
 EXAMPLE

Critical Path:
A B D E H [Path 1]
Length = 43 days

Other Paths in the project:

A C E H [Path 2]
Length = 29 days

A C F G H [Path 3]
Length = 38 days
 EXAMPLE

Now, the following data is given:

Normal
Activity Prior The normal duration
Days Cost, RM
for the task
A - 10 20,000

B A 7 15,000

C A 2 2,000 The cost to perform

the task
D B 9 12,000

E C, D 5 1,800

F C 9 4,900

G F 5 6,000

H E, G 12 13,600
 EXAMPLE

Now, the following data is also given:

Crash
Activity Prior The new duration of
Days Cost, RM
the task if crashing
A - 10 20,000 is performed
B A 7 15,000

C A 2 2,000 The new cost to

perform the task if
D B 3 14,400
crashing is
E C, D 3 2,000 performed
F C 6 5,500

G F 5 6,000

H E, G 8 14,200
 EXAMPLE

Merging the tables together:

Normal Crash
Activity Prior
Days Cost, RM Days Cost, RM

A - 10 20,000 10 20,000

B A 7 15,000 7 15,000

C A 2 2,000 2 2,000

D B 9 12,000 3 14,400

E C, D 5 1,800 3 2,000

F C 9 4,900 6 5,500

G F 5 6,000 5 6,000

H E, G 12 13,600 8 14,200
 EXAMPLE

Normal Crash
Activity
Days Cost, RM Days Cost, RM

A 10 20,000 10 20,000

B 7 15,000 7 15,000

C 2 2,000 2 2,000

G 5 6,000 5 6,000

Notice that there are NO changes to the duration and

cost of these activities, hence crashing CANNOT be
performed on these activities
 EXAMPLE

Normal Crash
Activity
Days Cost, RM Days Cost, RM

D 9 12,000 3 14,400

E 5 1,800 3 2,000

F 9 4,900 6 5,500

H 12 13,600 8 14,200

Now take a look at these activities

 EXAMPLE

Normal Crash
Activity
Days Cost, RM Days Cost, RM

D 9 12,000 3 14,400

E 5 1,800 3 2,000

F 9 4,900 6 5,500

H 12 13,600 8 14,200

The difference in the duration indicates the number of

days that crashing can take place
Eg. Activity D can be crashed for 6 days (9 days to 3 days)
 EXAMPLE

Normal Crash
Activity
Days Cost, RM Days Cost, RM

D 9 12,000 3 14,400

E 5 1,800 3 2,000

F 9 4,900 6 5,500

H 12 13,600 8 14,200

The difference in the cost indicates the amount of additional

cost incurred to the task if crashing takes place
Eg. Activity D can be crashed for 6 days (9 days to 3 days) for
an additional RM 2,400 (RM 14,400 RM 12,000)
 EXAMPLE

Compiling the crashing data:

Maximum number Cost Increment per
Activity Crashing Cost, RM
of crash days Day, RM

D 6 2,400 400

E 2 200 100

F 3 600 200

H 4 600 150

To obtain cost increment per day, the total crashing cost

is divided by the maximum number of crash days.
Hence 2,400 / 6 = 400
 EXAMPLE

Now, we would like to crash this project to the

shortest duration the project can be crashed to.

You should begin with the most cost effective

method of reducing project duration
 EXAMPLE

Path A B C D E F G H
ABDEH 400 100 150
ACEH 100 150
ACFGH 200 150

For tasks which contains the activity, label the cost for
crashing. Cost has to be labelled every time the tasks
appear in a path
Identify all the paths in the project
1) Crashing starts from the CRITICAL path.
2) To begin crashing, starts from the lowest cost of activity.
3) Monitor and make sure that the total number of days are in decreasing order
and should be minimize to as close ratio that they can be among the paths.

P1 original number of days required to complete project

Path A B C D E F G H P1
ABDEH 400 100 150 43
ACEH 100 150 29
ACFGH 200 150 38
P1 6 2 3 4

Label the total number of days before

crashing

Label the maximum number of crash days per task

 EXAMPLE

P2 crash E by 2 days

Path A B C D E F G H P1 P2
ABDEH 400 100 150 43 41
ACEH 100 150 29 27
ACFGH 200 150 38 38
P1 6 2 3 4
P2 6 0 3 4

Cost increment = RM 100 X 2

= RM 200
 EXAMPLE

P3 crash H by 4 days

Path A B C D E F G H P1 P2 P3
ABDEH 400 100 150 43 41 37
ACEH 100 150 29 27 23
ACFGH 200 150 38 38 34
P1 6 2 3 4
P2 6 0 3 4
P3 6 0 3 0
Cost increment = RM 150 X 4
= RM 600
 EXAMPLE

Important notes:

Crashing must be done on the path with the longest

duration AND by crashing the task with the lowest cost
increment.

Crashing is not necessarily done until the maximum

amount, it depends on the situation

Order of crashing is CRUCIAL. There is only ONE correct

order for each situation.
 EXAMPLE

P4 crash D by 3 days
(only enough to crash to next longest path)
Path A B C D E F G H P1 P2 P3 P4
ABDEH 400 100 150 43 41 37 34
ACEH 100 150 29 27 23 23
ACFGH 200 150 38 38 34 34
P1 6 2 3 4
P2 6 0 3 4
P3 6 0 3 0
P4 3 0 3 0

Cost increment = RM 400 X 3

= RM 1200
 EXAMPLE

P5 crash D by 3 days & F by 3 days

Path A B C D E F G H P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
ABDEH 400 100 150 43 41 37 34 31
ACEH 100 150 29 27 23 23 23
ACFGH 200 150 38 38 34 34 31
P1 6 2 3 4
P2 6 0 3 4
P3 6 0 3 0
P4 3 0 3 0
P5 0 0 0 0

Cost increment = RM 400 X 3 + RM 200 X 3

= RM 1800
 EXAMPLE

Summary:

The maximum number of days the project can be crashed to is

31 days.

The new critical paths are A B D E H and

A C F G H.

Total cost increment to crash project to 31 days is

RM 200 + RM 600 + RM 1200 + RM 1800 = RM 3800

Reminder: Question asked for

crash this project to the
Notice that the cost increment is ascending. shortest duration the project
can be crashed to
 TIME & COST TRADE-OFFS

A graph of cost increment against project duration can be

plotted.

From the graph, an increasing slope indicates that as the

project duration is shorten the cost of the crashing increases.

If the slope is not increasing, this means that the order of

crashing is incorrect. Remember, crashing has to be done with
the cheapest activity first, then move on to the more
expensive ones.
 TIME & COST TRADE-OFFS

From the example, we determine the points. To plot the cost

increment vs project duration graph, the project duration after
each path (P) and the cost increment after each P is required.
Hence:
Path A B C D E F G H P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
ABDEH 400 100 150 43 41 37 34 31
ACEH 100 150 29 27 23 23 23
ACFGH 200 150 38 38 34 34 31
P1 6 2 3 4
P2 6 0 3 4
P3 6 0 3 0
P4 3 0 3 0
P5 0 0 0 0
 TIME & COST TRADE-OFFS

P1: Cost Increment (RM) = 0

Project duration (days) = 43

P2: Cost Increment (RM) = 200

Project duration (days) = 41

P3: Cost Increment (RM) = 600

Project duration (days) = 37

P4: Cost Increment (RM) = 1200

Project duration (days) = 34

P5: Cost Increment (RM) = 1800

Project duration (days) = 31
 TIME & COST TRADE-OFFS

Now to obtain the plot points, for each P, the project duration
is taken as the x-axis while the cost increment is taken as the
y -axis. Note, cost increment is a cumulative value. This is
because for example, if P2 is to occur, P1 has to occur first.
Hence the value has to be taken into account.

P1: x-axis = 43
y -axis = 0

P2: x-axis = 41
y -axis = 200

P3: x-axis = 37
y -axis = 200+600 = 800
 TIME & COST TRADE-OFFS

P4: x-axis = 34
y -axis = 200+600+1200=2000

P5: x-axis = 31
y -axis = 200+600+1200+1800=3800

Now, each point can be plotted on a graph paper starting from

P1 to P5.

The points are then connected to indicated the gradient.

A correct crashing path would show an increasing slope from

P1 to P5.
 TIME & COST TRADE-OFFS

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