Operations management

Table of Contents

1. Topic pack - Operations management - introduction
2. Operations Management (OM) - Introduction
3. 5.1 Production methods notes
4. 5.1 Production methods - questions
5. 5.2 Costs and revenues - notes
6. 5.2 Costs and revenues - questions
7. 5.3 Break-even analysis - notes
8. 5.3 Break-even analysis - questions
9. 5.3 Break-even analysis - simulations and activities
10. 5.4 Quality assurance - notes
11. 5.4 Quality assurance - questions and activities
12. 5.5 Location - notes
13. Innovation - notes (HL only)
14. 5.6 Innovation - questions
15. 5.7 Production planning - notes
16. 5.7 Production planning - questions
17. 5.8 Project management - notes (HL only)
    1. Project management - introduction
    2. Critical path analysis
    3. Critical path analysis - The rules and methodology
    4. CPA Stage 1 The data collection
    5. CPA Stage 2 The draft network diagram
    6. CPA Stage 3 - tidying and simplifying
    7. CPA Stage 4 - Earliest starting time (EST)
    8. CPA Stage 5 - Add the Latest finishing time (LFT)
    9. CPA Stage 6 - Identify the CRITICAL PATH
    10. Use of networks
    11. Float analysis
    12. Evaluation of networks
    13. Example - A simple project network
    14. Use of CPA diagrams
18. 5.8 Project management - questions (HL only)
19. Print View

CPA Stage 1 The data collection

The team will:

1. identify all the activities needed for the project's completion. You will not be required to do this in this course, or in the examination, as the nature of the activities and their duration will be provided or you will be given a complete network and asked to manipulate it. This is probably the most important part of CPA, the collection of the data.
2. identify the dependencies, if any, between activities - in other words which activities must be completed, before other activities can start. Again, you will be given this information.

Imagine you are making a cup of tea. Some activities need to be done CONSECUTIVELY, i.e. one after the other. Clearly it wouldn't be sensible to pour hot water onto the tea bag until it is in a cup! An activity that follows another is said to be consecutive; it depends on the previous activity being complete before it can start. For example a roof cannot be put on a building until the walls are finished.

However, some activities do not rely on others; they can be done whilst others activities are in progress, e.g. you can get the cup out of the cupboard, whilst the kettle is boiling. These activities can run CONCURRENTLY (together).

It is important to know whether activities are consecutive or concurrent, as this affects the duration of the project and planning of the resource use.