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PROJECT SCHEDULING WITH KNOWN ACTIVITY TIMES 371

Most managers at some time are responsible for managing business projects. These
may vary from relatively small, short-term projects – completing a business report – to
large, complex and long-term projects such as multi-national construction projects
which may last several years and cost millions of euros. Effective management of
projects is critical – ensuring projects are completed on time, within budget and to
agreed standards. In these situations the programme evaluation and review technique
(PERT) and the critical path method (CPM) have proven to be extremely valuable.
PERT and CPM can be used to plan, schedule and control a wide variety of
projects:
1 research and development of new products and processes;
2 construction of plants, buildings and highways;
3 maintenance of large and complex equipment;
4 design and installation of new systems.
In these types of projects, project managers must schedule and coordinate the
various jobs or activities so that the entire project is completed on time. A compli-
cating factor in carrying out this task is the interdependence of the activities; for
example, some activities depend on the completion of other activities before they
can be started. Because projects may have as many as several thousand activities,
project managers look for procedures that will help them answer questions such as
The UK Operational the following.
Research Society funded
a study to identify factors 1 How long will it take to complete the project?
that influenced the 2 What are the scheduled start and finish dates for each specific activity?
success and survival of
internal MS consultancy 3 Which activities are ‘critical’ and must be completed exactly as scheduled to
groups. The study found keep the project on schedule?
that to be effective an MS
group needs good 4 How long can ‘noncritical’ activities be delayed before they cause an increase
consulting skills and in the total project completion time?
expert project
management. PERT and CPM can help answer these questions.
Although PERT and CPM have the same general purpose and utilize
much of the same terminology, the techniques were developed independently.

MANAGEMENT SCIENCE IN ACTION

Nokia Networks
okia Networks is part of the Nokia telecoms developed an Integrated Project Management
N company and provides network infrastructure, (IPM) programme to ensure a client-focused delivery
communications and networks service platforms, as process across its business by better management
well as professional services to operators and serv- of the supply chain and is supported by an inte-
ice providers with around 150 mobile network cus- grated IT platform, Nokia IPM Suite. The Suite ena-
tomers in more than 60 countries and with Nokia bles integrated management of the different project
Network systems serving over 400 million subscrib- activities and allows for effective monitoring of activ-
ers. Planning and installing cellular networks is, by ities across different suppliers and clients.
definition, project oriented with an average sized
Based on J. Collin and D. Lorenzin, ‘Plan for supply chain agility at
network typically including several thousand base
Nokia: Lessons from the mobile infrastructure industry’, International
station sites and with timely installation of the net- Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, 36/16,
work critical to the client. Nokia Networks has (2006): 418–430.

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