Project Crashing
Cost-Time Tradeoff
Cost/Time Trade-off: A Crashing Algorithm
• Project duration may be shortened by
increasing cost
• The crash time and crash cost for an activity are
the time and cost incurred if the activity is
executed as fast as possible
* Incremental cost =
Crash cost – normal cost
Crash time – normal time
∞
Network using normal times and normal costs for each activity
For normal time and cost, the project completion time is nine weeks and cost $
20,000. The critical path is A – C – F
The Crash Schedule
• The crash schedule is the network that results from
using crash time and crash costs for each activity.
For our example, the crash schedule is given in the
following figure and results in a project completion
time of five weeks and a total cost of $33,000. The
critical path is A – C – F
Crashing Objective
• The project can be completed in anywhere from nine
to five weeks at a cost ranging from $20,000 to
$33,000. Is it possible to achieve a project completion
time of five weeks at a lower than $33,000?
Generally the answer is “yes”. The resulting schedule is
called the minimum crash schedule.
Crashing normal schedule
• Step One. Set up the normal schedule and calculate the
cost to crash each activity
• Step Two. Shorten the project completion time by one
time unit at the lowest cost possible. This is done by
crashing the activity on the critical path having the
smallest cost-to crash slope (Incremental cost). If there
are two or more critical paths, it may be necessary to
crash more than one critical activity. If at step 2 the
project duration can’t be shortened because the critical
activities are at their crash points, then STOP – you have
the minimum-cost crash schedule
• Step Three. Construct a new critical path using the
newly created activity times, and then repeat step 2.
• For Step two, in our example, the critical path A-C-F.
The cost to crash each of these by one week is $2 for
A, $4 for C, and $0.5 for F. Thus, we choose to crash F
by one week – from four weeks to three weeks.
• For step three, our new network is shown in the
following figure. Note that only the activity time for F
is changed.
The critical path shown darkened is A-C-F at eight
weeks
We now repeat step two on the new network. The critical path A-C-F, the cost to crash are
$2 for A, $4 for C, and $0.5 for F. Again we crash F by one week. Here we should remember
that Activity F is at its crash point of two weeks and can’t be crashed further
The cost to crash the critical activities that are not at their crash
points are $2 for A and $4 for C. Thus we choose to crash A by
one week from two to one week
We find two critical paths A-C-F and B-E-G which gives six
weeks for completion time
Note that in these two paths activity A, F, and G are at their
crash points
• The critical paths for new network are A-C-F and B-E-G.
The costs to crash the critical activities that are not at
their crash points are $4 per week for C, $1 per week
for B, and $3 per week for E. Now observe that in order
to shorten the project completion time by one week
we must shorten both critical paths by one week. On
the path A-C-F we have no choice but to crash C by one
week (since A and F are at their crash points). On the
path B-E-G, we would crash B by one week.
The New Network:
Minimum Cost Crash Schedule
• Now in our new network the critical paths are A-
C-F and B-E-G at five weeks each. To shorten the
project completion time by one week we must
shorten both paths by one week. But all the
activities of path A-C-F are at their crash points, so
A-C-F cannot be shortened further. Thus we stop:
the minimum cost crash schedule has been found.
What is the cost of the final schedule?
The cost equals the cost of the normal Schedule Plus the total crashing costs.
Example
The normal time of an activity is 12 days at a cost of ₤ 480 and a
crash time of 8 days at ₤ 640.
640 480
Cost slope
12 8
= ₤40 per day
1. Least cost scheduling or crashing – the process of finding the least cost method of
reducing the overall project duration from time period to time-period.
Note: only critical activities affect the project duration and thus they are the only ones
whose time can be reduced (or crashed).
Example
• A project has the following characteristics:
Activity Pre-requisite Time Cost
Cost
Normal Crash Normal Crash Slope
A - 5 3 500 620 60
B - 4 2 300 390 45
C A 7 6 650 680 30
D A 3 2 400 450 50
E B, C 5 3 850 1000 75
Network Diagram
7
5
Critical path: ACE
Total normal cost = ₤ 2000
Time duration 17 days