Internet Case - Cranston Construction Company Cranston Construction Company The Cranston Construction Company is a small Mississippi construction company that undertakes building projects of a medium-to large-scale nature based on local and statewide needs. Although the company is capable of operating outside of its native state, it usually does not bid on out-of-state business. It maintains an office with a small staff and usually has several construction projects going on at the same time. Cranston has just received the contract for construction of a new humanities building on the campus of Northern Mississippi State University. Although the university and the State Building Commission are pleased to have completed negotiations for the new building, a significant task lies ahead for Mr. Daniel Cranston, the president of Cranston Construction Company. He must select a project manager and arrange for allocation of necessary resources for construction. He must then work with the project manager to develop a schedule for constructing the building in order to assist in the timely decision-making that involves financial needs and shifting of equipment from other job sites. Mr. Cranston decides that the detailed planning, layout, and scheduling can be provided by his project manager. The project manager will further be delegated total authority for the construction operations, the execution phase of the project. Based on past experience, Mr. Cranston makes up a job breakdown with approximate costs (shown in Table 1). Since the bid was for over $1 million, these costs represent company targets and are confidential. Although Cranston does not have significant experience with critical path analysis, he also makes up the activity list and time allowances (shown in Table 2). These time allowances represent the span between the earliest date he thinks each activity can begin and the latest date by which each should end. TABLE 1 Job Breakdown, Humanities Building Number Activity 1. Sales tax, bond, and insurance $22,000 2. General conditions 3. Site work 4. Reinforcing steel 57,000 5. Concrete footings 17,000 6. Concrete grade beams 14,000 25,000 8,000 7. Structural concrete 8. Structural and miscellaneous steel 9. Masonry (includes stone) 115,000 21,000 125,000 10. Roofing and sheet metal and insulation 16,000 11. Doors and frames 2,000 12. Architectural and miscellaneous metal and accessories 5,000 13. Metal windows 2,000 14. Lath and plaster 15. Ceramic and marble 16. Millwork 17. Hardware 18. Resilient floor 10,000 19. Glazing and store front 20,000 20. Acoustic ceiling 10,000 21. Painting 10,000 24,000 5,000 34,000 9,000 22. Elevator 19,000 23. Carpet 24. Finish grade and site work 25. Clean up and move out 26. Miscellaneous labor and materials 8,000 10,000 4,000 20,000 Total Contract Price $612,000 TABLE 2 Project Activities and Duration Number Activity Time Allowed (days) 1. Sales tax, bond, and insurance 35 2. Move in, tool house general conditions 35 3. Clean, clear, excavate, and grade 28 4. Reinforcing steel 5. Concrete footings 35 6. Concrete grade beams 35 217 7. Structural concrete framing and slabs 35 8. Structural and miscellaneous steel 210 9. Masonry and stone 231 10. Roofing and sheet metal 80 11. Metal doors and frames 203 12. Architectural and miscellaneous metal and accessories 266 13. Metal windows 231 14. Lath and plaster 154 15. Ceramic tile and marble 16. Millwork 234 17. Finish hardware 133 18. Resilient floor 161 19. Glazing and store front 203 20. Acoustic ceiling 21. Painting 161 22. Elevator 119 30 35 23. Carpet 35 24. Finish grade and site work 28 25. Clean up and move out 49 With these initial efforts, Mr. Cranston calls in Mr. Henry Nolton to discuss his appointment as project manager. After a lengthy discussion, Mr. Nolton accepts the appointment but makes the following statement to Mr. Cranston: "Your cost targets are probably reasonable; however, your time estimates and activity list do not really provide believable information. According to your figures, the project will be finished in less than 370 days and, therefore, you will not incur any penalty costs. However, if most of your time estimates are close to being correct, then I believe that the project will take longer than 370 days. As an example, let me point out that your duration times look like total time allowances rather than activity times. Take the activity of "architectural and miscellaneous metals." I'd say that this would take about two weeks to complete and could be one of the last items accomplished, probably following completion of all the stairwells." "Another major problem with your listing is that we'll be using reinforcing steel with all of the concrete work and, since it's a three-story building with a penthouse, we'll be doing concrete activities floor by floor. Thus, in order to schedule and control this job, I need to decide on an activity list which is based on the actual sequence of construction, floor by floor. floor concrete, the middle-floor columns and then the middle-floor concrete framing may be completed similar to the first-floor logic. After framing is complete, middle floor door frames, upper-floor concrete and lath and plaster activities can start. Lower floor masonry and middle-floor door frames must be complete before middle floor masonry can begin. Following lath and plaster, ceramic tile and marble can be placed. After the stairwells are complete, hardware, architectural, and miscellaneous metals can be installed." "As with the first two floors, upper-floor columns are emplaced following the upper floor concrete work. Next, upper-floor concrete framing can be completed. At this juncture, upper-floor door frames, roofing, and elevator activities can begin. Once these three activities are completed, plus completion of middle-floor masonry, the upper floor masonry, penthouse work, and ceiling work can be started. Following ceiling work, painting can begin and must be finished before tiling and carpeting which follow millwork. The millwork and finish grading start after upper-floor masonry and penthouse activities." Upon hearing this, Mr. Cranston decides to modify the activity list to make it more useful and more accurate. Working together, Mr. Cranston and Mr. Nolton put together Table 3 which gives all the relevant information. Table 3. Revised List of Activities and Times Labe l Activity Immediate Predecessors Duration (days) A Layout, Excavate, and Grade - 28 1. B Tax, Bond, & Insurance - 21 C Move In Tool House, General Conditions - 7 D Grade Beams A, B, C 11 E Foundation, Concrete footings A, B, C 11 F Lower Floor Concrete D, E 10 G Lower Floor Columns F 21 H Lower Floor Frame G 35 I Middle Floor Concrete H 12 J Middle Floor Columns I 23 K Middle Floor Concrete Frame J 37 L Upper Floor Concrete K 14 M Upper Floor Columns L 23 N Upper Floor Concrete Frames M 37 O Upper Floor Door Frames N 14 P Roof Slab, Beams, Sheet Metal N 21 Q Elevator N 21 R Lathe & Plaster K 21 S Upper Floor Masonry, Interior Doors O, P, Q, II 21 T Penthouse Steel, Concrete, and Masonry O, P, Q, II 21 U Ceilings O, P, Q, II 42 V Paint U 42 W Millwork S, T 42 X Finish Grade, Sitework S, T 28 Y Tile & Carpet V, W 21 Z Clean Up, Inspect, and Move Out X, Y, AA, CC, FF, GG 2 AA Ceramic Tile & Marble R 14 BB Stairwells H 35 CC Hardware, Architectural and Miscellaneous Metals BB 14 DD Lower Fl. Door Frames H 14 EE Lower Floor Masonry & Interior Doors DD 35 FF Exterior Doors H 21 GG Glazing & Store Front H 35 HH Middle Floor Dr. Frame K 14 II Middle Floor Masonry, Interior Doors EE, HH 35 Acting as Mr. Nolton's administrative assistant, draw a network to represent this project. Then develop a table showing the activities from Table 3, their durations, their earliest start, earliest finish, latest start, latest finish, and slack times. Identify the activities on the critical path. 2. Write a report to Mr. Nolton addressing the problems of project duration and specifying which activities may require the closest management attention. If it appears that the project will not be finished on time, identify the activities which might be considered for crashing if relevant time and cost information could be found