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Lesson 4

Project management(Te kaupapa me te whakahaere)

TTTThhhheeee hhhhäääännnngggg iiii

Hëmi has been asked to organise a hangi at his marae. He thought about some of the taskswhich will need to be done by his groups of helpers.

Hëmi wrote the tasks down in a list (in no special order).

A Peel and cut up the potatoes. B Make the coleslaw.

C Cut green mänuka for the fire. D Dig the hole for the hängi.

E Buy the food. F Butter the bread.

G Set the tables, including bread & coleslaw. H Remove food from the pit and serve.

I Light fire and burn until stones are hot. J Put the food into the pit and cover.

K Cook the food for 2 12 hours. L Peel and cut up kümara and pumpkin.

M Gather the stones for the hängi. N Collect clean sacks to cover the food.

O Place wood in pit with stones on top. P Gather dry mänuka and kindling.

Hëmi realised that his list was a jumble. He decided that the tasks should be put into a suitableorder.

He wrote down at the top of the list those tasks which did not depend on other tasks.

Then he wrote down the rest of the tasks in an order which he thought would be sensible.

Task I, Light the fire and burn until stones are hot, can be done only after certain other taskshave been completed. Task I must follow tasks C, D, M, O and P.

Activity 4A

The list of the tasks in the following table are in an approximate order.

The current task must follow the tasks which are listed in the last column.

Fill in the gaps in the table.

Current task Must follow tasksC Cut green mänuka for the fire. noneM Gather the stones for the hängi. noneD Dig the hole for the hängi. noneP Gather dry mänuka and kindling. noneE Buy the food. noneN Collect clean sacks to cover the food. noneO Place wood in pit with stones on top. C, D, M, PA Peel and cut up the potatoes. E

I Light the fire and burn until stones are hot. OJ Put the food into the pit and cover. A, L, I, NB Make the coleslaw.K Cook the food for 2

12 hours. J

F Butter the bread.G Set the tables, including bread & coleslaw.

G, K

Have you checked your answers?

You may have thought of other tasks such as• the placement of the baskets (ngä kete) on top of the stones to be purified by

the fire before the food is placed in them• the cleaning out of the fire and levelling of the stones in the pit prior to the

food (kai) being put on top• the laying of clean table cloths between the baskets of food and the clean

sacks• preparation of the meat• preparation of individual aluminium foil packages of the food (kai)• making of steam puddings to be put in the hängi.

Think about where you would place these, and any other tasks you may havethought about, in the table.

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Hëmi thought that a diagram would show the situation more clearly.He drew the network below.

Tasks which could be done by different groups at the same time are shown by parallel lines.

The arrows indicate the direction each task is moving.

Activity 1

Fill in the six missing tasks for Hëmi on the network.

Gather dry mänuka and kindling

Light fire and burn

Gather stones for the fire

Cook food

Cut green mänuka

Place wood in pit with stones on top

Make the coleslaw

Buy the food

Set the tables

Peel and cut up kümara and pumpkin

Have you checked your answers?

A network can show points where more labour or resources will help to shorten the time takenfor the project. Also it can show that more resources at a certain point will make no differenceto the total time taken for the project.

Many hours can be saved in major tasks by careful planning. It is possible to see whereproblems and hold-ups may occur.

Until all the work on all preceding tasks has been completed, work on the next task cannotbegin.

As a project is being worked through the network can be analysed and updated.

Using an approximate time for each task is helpful in constructing a network.

Activity 2

1 The following table gives the times for each task involved in cooking a meal.

Current task Time (minutes) Must follow tasksA Prepare meat. 10 noneB Cook meat. 10 AC Prepare and cook veges. 20 noneD Serve meat and veges and eat. 20 B, C

Construct a network for this project if two people are involved.Write the time taken on each link and an arrow to show the direction that each taskis moving.

2 Draw a network for publishing a book.

Current task Time (weeks) Must follow tasksA Get text ready. 4 noneB Obtain diagrams. 1 noneC Organise cover. 2 noneD Print book. 4 A, BE Promote book. 7 noneF Bind book. 2 C, DG Distribute book. 3 E, F

3 A group of friends prepare a tray of sandwiches and coffee.

a Complete the final column of the table.

Current task Must follow tasksA Find tray and put on bench. noneB Boil water. noneC Put mugs on tray. AD Put a spoon of instant coffee in each mug. CE Prepare sandwiches and put on plate on tray.F Put sugar bowl on tray.G Put jug of milk on tray.H Pour water into mugs. B, DI Serve sandwiches and coffee.

b Draw a possible network to represent the project.

c Which two tasks will probably take the longest time?

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4 The following table is for cleaning a car by two people.

a Complete the final column in the table.

Current task Time (minutes) Must follow tasksA Wash car. 10B Dry car. 10C Wax car. 15 A, BD Vacuum inside car. 20 A, BE Polish car. 25

b Draw a possible network for the project.

Have you checked your answers?

Lesson 5

Time management(Te wä me te whakahaere)

Critical path

In project management it is not the shortest path which matters, but the longest.

In a project that involves several steps, the sequence of steps that take the longest time will bethe path that decides how long the whole project will take.

That path is called the critical path.

Activity 3

Let’s return to Hëmi and the hängi.

From previous experience Hëmi knows the length of time needed for a group tocomplete each task.

Consider the following four tasks.

2 hours

3 hours

1 hour

121 hours

Gather dry mänuka and kindling, P

Dig hole for the fire, D

Gather stones for the fire, M

Cut green mänuka, C

If Hëmi had enough helpers for four groups, and they all started their task at thesame time,

a which group would finish last?

b what is the time for the critical path of these four tasks?

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Hëmi decided to have only three groups for the four tasks. He asked one group togather the stones, M, and dig the hole for the hängi, D.

c Would this decision make any difference to the critical path for these fourtasks?

Give a reason for your answer.

Have you checked your answers?

Activity 4

1 The following is a network for a small building project. The time is measured indays.

A

B

C

D

E

G

H

F2

9

5

3 4

1

6 3

a Work out the times for each path. Fill in the following table.

Path Days Total daysB - GA - D - GA - E - F - GA - E - HC - F - G 6 + 4 + 1 11C - H 6 + 3 9

b Indicate the critical path on the above network.

c What is the minimum time that the project can be completed in?

2 Lyn, Max and Noel are going on holiday. They need to clean up their house andgarden first.

They make up a list of their plan of tasks with the expected times (in minutes).

Task Must followtasks

Time(minutes)

A Mow lawns. none 40B Do dishes. none 20C Vacuum. none 25D Water pot plants. B 10E Use car and dispose of clippings. A, H, D 13F Load car with holiday gear. E 5G Shampoo carpet after everyone is out of the house. A, H, D 20H Put gear outside ready to load in car. C 10

a Draw up a network with the times and task letters written on it.

b Work out the times for each path.

c Which is the critical path?

d The person shampooing the carpet completes this in 17 minutes.

Does this affect the critical path? Explain.

e Also, the person mowing the lawns managed to reduce their time by tenminutes. The jobs are not reallocated.

What would be the new critical path and the time taken to complete all thetasks?

Have you checked your answers?

JfEfWORKSName:

Railways

ACtiThis must be your own work.

This is an open-book assessment task, so you may refer back to any part of the booklet.

Towns on a mountainous island are linked by railway lines as shown in the map.

The distances between stations are shown on the map and in the following table.

They are in kilometres.

Ash400 Beech

ilSISI 260 Cedar

470 Daisy

350 270 Rim

^ISiSIl 280 310 — Fern

illlISI 280 360 100 Gum

5111! 580 lis 380 450 160

1 Construct a network of the railway system.

Label the stations with the first letter and show the distances on the lines.

2 List, in order, the stations on the shortest route from Ash to Daisy.

a Explain why it is possible to plan a tap that travels all sections of the

railway line without travelling on any section of the line more than

once. (You may have to visit towns more than once.)

b To plan such a trip, list the towns in the order you would visit them.

The railway company decides to close some lines. They want to leaveenough lines so that it will still be possible to travel from each town to any of

the others.

Draw the minimum spanning tree to show which lines they would leave open

if they wanted the shortest total length of track.

Label all the stations clearly and show the distances on the lines.

A group of railway enthusiasts buy the line between Fern and Daisy for their

steam trains. They own an old station house and garden between the two

towns. They hold a working bee to clean up the garden. Rob, Sue and Trev

are allocated the tasks as shown in the following table.

Task Must follow tasks Person Time (minutes)

A Cut edges E Rob 20B Prune roses none Sue 45C Cut hedge none Trev 30D* Trim trees C Trev 20E Mow lawns none Rob 48F Clean up B, D (&C) Sue and Trev 15

a Draw a network for the situation.

b Identify the critical path for this project

c What is the minimum time that the project can be completed in?

d Rob took five minutes less to mow the lawns than planned. He saidthat Trev's tasks were now on the critical path.

Explain clearly, showing all steps of reasoning, whether Rob is correct.

An engineer with the railway company has been asked to connect fiveworkers' homes with a telecommunication cable. One of the homes is in

Fem and there is also one home in each of the other towns.

The table gives the distances between the homes in kilometres.

Fern

32 Kauri

25 Matai

50 33 Rimu

30 31 35

a Model this situation to show how the homes could be connected withthe minimum length of cable.

b Find this minimum length of cable.