Critical Path Planning Research Articles

Critical path planning for discharging older adults using a functional perspective

AbstractThis study aims to introduce an innovative method to schedule and analyze the discharge planning processes under uncertain individual activity completing times. Hospital care processes ending in discharging older adults represent a major challenge, as a number of interrelated tasks or activities are involved in the processes. The functional resonance analysis method (FRAM) is used to identify activities that constitute a descriptive model of the discharge planning processes and to assign the completion time to each task or activity. Then the critical path planning technique is utilized to identify the critical path of the discharge process. To this end, the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is employed. Published data regarding six older patients are used to examine the potential utility of the introduced method to improve the discharge process of older adults. The results show that the integration of the FRAM and PERT is able to identify the critical activities that constitute the critical path of the discharge process. It also helps analyze the completion time assigned to each task/activity and calculate the completion time of the discharge process. The probability of completing the discharge process within a target completion time is also discussed. The results add further evidence showing the applicability of the FRAM and PERT to scheduling systems for the discharge planning processes. Health care professionals could use the findings of this study in designing a scheduling system to complete the discharge process of older adults in a reasonable time.

Value chain excellence – managing variability to stabilise and exploit the mine value chain

ABSTRACT Mining occurs in highly variable, spatially dynamic environments. Existing methods of planning and operations management are insufficient to adequately account for variability. Managing variability within the value chain aims to maximise business value. This paper presents a methodology for managing variability. This includes: assessing the impact of variability on a deterministic mine schedule; applying guiding principles based on Theory of Constraints to stabilise and exploit the value chain; developing a risk approach to minimise costs of plan delivery; and establishing tools for critical path planning, reconciling performance against plan and establishing corrective actions to deliver plan outcomes. A case study is presented from the Olympic Dam mine. Conclusions include: operations contain significant variability that if not managed will fail to deliver the mine plan; the proposed methodology can be applied to reduce variability and robustly deliver the best-value mine plan; and this methodology has broad application across the mining industry.

New picture archiving and communications system plus new facility equals critical path planning challenge.

The architectural design and construction of a new imaging department is one of the most complex challenges in healthcare architecture. When a client also plans a simultaneous change in basic operating system technology from film-based to filmless imaging, the challenge for both hospital management and the facility/technology design team is even more complicated. A purposeful planning process plus a carefully composed team of internal and external experts are the two essentials for success in executing this difficult conversion of both facility and technology.

Software Reviews : The Confidence Factor: The Decision-Maker's Tool Kit

Techniques of rigorous prescriptive analysis are increasingly finding their way into the practice and curricula of public policy and management analysis. For those who are interested in critical path planning, simple lexicographic decision-making techniques, linear programming, decision-tree analysis, or risk simulation, THE CONFIDENCE FACTOR may well constitute a refreshing alternative to existing software. Overall, I have found THE CONFIDENCE FACTOR to be useful in preparing materials for class, and for personal analyses. It has been very helpful when combined with one of the more popular public policy analysis texts, the Stokey and Zeckhauser Primer for Policy Analysis.

Planning and stages of site investigation

Stages of developed site investigation in common practice on engineering projects in Britain and America are briefly reviewed. To help both the logistical and technical appraisal of an investigation, critical path planning, based on the anticipated geology of the site, is discussed. A basic three stage site investigation scheme is put forward; stage I, which consists of “site exploration”, is preliminary; stage II, “site investigation”, is detailed; both these stages are more or less completed before construction starts; stage III, “foundation investigation”, is carried out during construction. Case histories are given which illustrate how the geometry of the site geology together with the engineering requirements of the project, can be used to guide the layout and programme of the investigation and to help establish criteria for the design parameters.

Notes on the development of network models for resource allocation in R & D projects

The extension of PERT and Critical Path planning models for analysis of cost-time trade-offs and resource allocation is discussed. Various scheduling algorithms with and without resource constraints are noted and compared as reported in the literature. Key assumptions and some practical limitations are analyzed. Recommendations for further research are offered.

Electronics in nuclear power

The paper emphasises that nuclear power plants of the present type have become increasingly dependent upon elecronic devices, including computers, throughout most of the stages of conceptional and detailed design, construction, commissioning and operation. Current examples are given of the way in which electronics is used to satisfy safety demands (the control of spatial instabilities), to reduce capital costs (optimisation procedures), and construction limes (critical path planning), and to simplify operation (steps towards automatic control). Future trends in nuclear power plants are discussed extending to the possible use of electronic apparatus such as ionic converters and plasma generators, as well as thermonuclear fusion.

A Structural Method of Computing Project Cost Polygons

For a project that consists of numerous jobs subject to technological ordering restrictions the polygon representing project cost versus completion time is to be determined when the normal and crash completion times are known for each job and the cost of doing the job varies linearly between these times. A linear programming formulation of this problem was given by Kelley [Kelley, J. E., Jr. 1961. Critical-path planning and scheduling: Mathematical basis. Oper. Res. 9 296–320.] and a network flow formulation by Fulkerson [Fulkerson, D. R. 1961. A network flow computation for project cost curves. Management Sci. 7 (2, January) 167–178.]. Since the traditional mathematical background of civil engineers includes neither linear programming nor network flow theory, these methods are not as widely used in the building industry as they deserve. This paper shows that Fulkerson's algorithm can be given a structural interpretation using concepts that are familiar to civil engineers.

Letter to the Editor—Critical Path Planning—PERT Integration

The Critical Path Programming System, even though restricted to project planning situations in which network structure and activity statistics are invariant during reduction of project duration, is proving to be a practical and useful technique. In fact, the efficiency of the algorithm developed by Kelley (Kelley, James E., Jr. 1961. Critical-path planning and scheduling: mathematical basis. Opns Res. 9 296–320.) for project time reduction permits one to adjust rapidly and inexpensively to changes in network structure or activity time-cost estimates as these changes develop. However, the effects of random variations in activity time estimates on earliest event occurrence time and project duration are not evaluated in the basic model described by Kelley, and the incorporation of the PERT procedure provides additional information concerning these effects.