Research Reports from the Department of Operations
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
1-1-1970
Abstract
Critical path method of project planning, scheduling and control has gained considerable importance because of its theoretical novelty and practical value. Essentially, this technique is based on the theory of flow through network. Although the structure of a project network holds analogy with electrical net, the branch characteristics fail to have the analogy. Battersby has solved this problem by introducing two kinds of floats, namely, duration and resource floats in the network. In this paper, complete electrical analogy is established following a somewhat different approach. With this approach current is injected or released at the appropriate nodes. The resulting G, paramount and dominant metrics present elegance. Further, based on the analogy, a procedure for representing the complete spectrum of costs and schedules is indicated. Also, a useful approach for sensitivity evaluation is presented.
Keywords
Operations research, Project management, Critical path analysis, Network analysis (Planning), Resource allocation, Cost analysis, Scheduling
Publication Title
Technical Memorandums from the Department of Operations, School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
Issue
Technical memorandum no. 172
Rights
This work is in the public domain and may be freely downloaded for personal or academic use
Recommended Citation
Shankar, K. and Nair, K.P. K., "On Electrical Analogy of Critical Path Method" (1970). Research Reports from the Department of Operations. 355.
https://commons.case.edu/wsom-ops-reports/355