Critical Path Analysis: Redecorating a room.

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nohmaanali

Critical Path Analysis:Redecorating a room

Redecorating rooms is a project thousands of families undertake every year and mine in particular like to redecorate every room of the house once a year.  The process is carried out without any real planning or thought into the process.  I feel that by carrying out a Critical Path Analysis coursework project on redecorating a typical room (for this project I will use my own room) I will be able to make the process far more efficient and save as much time and money as possible.  A solution would be of great value not only in my home but such solutions would be of great benefit to many people who take the task of redecoration upon themselves.

        Before I can begin the investigation there are certain factors that I must assume in order to undertake the many activities involved in this investigation, the assumptions include:-

  • All resources are unlimited and at our disposal at any time during the project, i.e. all workers/tools/materials are present and no time is needed to collect them
  •  Once an activity has started there will be no breaks or pauses until it is completed
  • The room will be received in a state where it is unfurnished and only minimal changes need to be made before work can begin such as removal of wallpaper or floorboards, items such as mirrors/hooks are not present
  • All resources are unlimited
  • All people working on the tasks to which they have been assigned are competent and fully able to carry out that task without training
  • All work will be carried out to a high standard so where some relatively minor tasks appear to take up more time than necessary this will solely because of the quality factor.
  • To save time all paints/waxes/polishes will be instant dry so no time is allocated to allow the walls to dry.
  • All workers are able to swap around and do each others tasks freely without any additional training required
  • No worker can multitask

The first task is to list the activities that will be carried out as the room is redecorated from start to finish.  Once the activities have been identified it I will put them in order of their precedence in a table.  In the table I will also list the number of workers needed for each task and the duration of each task.

        Some activities were difficult to place in order of precedence as for example it was debatable weather the carpet could be removed whilst the wallpaper is being stripped, I have listed all these cases below and explain why they have been put in the order that I have listed in the precedence table also I have listed each activity and briefly explained on what it involves and why the number of people are needed that I have set and why the time set is required:

  • A – Sew Curtains, This activity can begin straight away as it is independent to any activity being carried out in the room, it only requires one person to sew the curtains and the task will take one hour to complete
  • B – Strip Wallpaper, This is a major task and requires 3 people to carry it out, we need to ensure all wall paper is removed so the once the plaster is coated over we are left with an even coat, because of this the activity will last for 3hrs.
  • C – Prepare Plaster Mixture, This again is an independent activity as it can be carried out without affecting any other activities going on within the room, the task will require two workers and will last for 1hr.
  • D – Assemble wall mirror and frame, These items were purchased and arrived separately to be assembled, assembly will only require one person and will last for 10 minutes
  • E – Remove Carpet, this is one of the activities where I decided that it could begin at the same time as the wall paper is stripped as it is possible for as the person stripping the wallpaper to simply stand over the carpet as it is being removed from under their feet.  The task will last for 40 minutes and will require to workers.
  • F – Remove old skirting boards, This is a task that can also be carried out at the same time as the wall paper is being removed and the carpet is being taken out, as again once the carpet reaches the people removing the skirting boards they can simply step over it, this task will last for 60 minutes and requires 3 workers.
  • G – Assemble Furniture – This task will require 2 workers and will last for a half hour, it will not be carried out in the project room so will not interfere with other activities that can begin straight away.
  • H – Change Wall sockets, this can only be carried out once the wallpaper has been stripped as the wallpaper is glued to the sockets
  • I – Re-plaster walls, this task will require a lot of time and effort and can only be carried out once the wallpaper has been removed and the wall sockets have been inserted
  • J – Paint Base Coat, here the walls will be painted with a base coat, the task requires two people and will last for 120 minutes, it can only be carried out once the walls have been plastered
  • K – Paint Stripe Wall Design, this task does not take as much time as painting the base coat as the wall design only encompasses a small area of one wall, it cannot begin until the base coat has been painted
  • L – Paint Wall Border, this task will last for longer than the striped design as it goes across the entire room, the border can only be painted once the striped wall design has been painted as it is painted over the striped wall design.
  • M – Mark out area on wall to attach clothes pegs, this activity will only require a short amount of time and can only be started once all the walls have finished being painted.
  • N – Add Shelf to Wall – This task can only be completed once the walls have been painted
  • O – Add Clothes Pegs to wall, this task doesn’t take long and can only begin once the markings for the clothes pegs have been plotted.
  • Q – Attach new skirting Boards – the new skirting boards can only be attached once the old ones have been removed and the striped wall design has been painted, as this design is the last once that paint job that reaches the proximity of the skirting boards.
  • R – Paint the new skirting boards, this task will last for 60 minutes and will require two workers, it can only begin after activity Q or when the new skirting boards have been attached.
  • S – Remove old floorboards, This task will require 3 workers, will last for 150 minutes and can only begin once the carpet has been removed from the floor.
  • T – Insert new floorboards,  Inserting the new floorboards will take slightly longer than taking out the old ones as more care is taken during this activity also some floorboards will have to be shaped to fit the room, the activity can only be completed once the old ones have been removed.
  • U – Drill hole for radiator pipes, this task will last for 20 minutes and will require two workers; it can only be completed once the new floorboards have been inserted.
  • V – Insert Pipes, obviously this task precedes task U
  • W – Install radiator, this is the final task for the radiator project and can only begin once the pipes have been inserted.
  • X – Wax floorboards, this task will require a lot of time and effort and can only begin once the holes for the radiator pipe have been drilled as then no more changes are made to the floorboards themselves
  • Y – Polish Floorboards, this task again will require a lot of time and effort because of the nature of it, it can only begin once the floorboards have been waxed.
  • Z – Attach curtains, to finish of the redecoration the curtains can be attached, the task can only begin once the curtains have been sewn and once the striped border has been painted as again it is the last painting job that comes close to the curtains.
  • Below is the precedence table showing the above information with each activity listed as well as the workers needed the duration and of course the order of precedence:
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From the precedence table the network can be drawn.  The network shows the events with their durations, showing earliest start times and latest finish times, the network clearly shows which activities must be completed for others to begin, the critical path can be clearly seen as it Is highlighted.  

        Any dummies can also be identified. The following are a list of the dummies used in my network with justifications for their appearance:

  • A dummy was used from activity 8 to 4, this is because activity K needs J to be complete for ...

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