A New Approach to Determine the Critical Path in Stochastic Activity Network

The determination of the critical path (CP) in stochastic networks is difficult. It is partly due to the randomness of path durations and partly due to the probability issue of the selection of the critical path in the network. What we are confronted with is not only the complexity among random vari...

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Main Authors:	Weng-Ming Chu, Koan-Yuh Chang, Chien-Yu Lu, Chang-Hung Hsu, Chien-Hung Liu, Yung-Chia Hsiao
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Hindawi Limited 2014-01-01
Series:	Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Online Access:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/547627

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record_format	Article
spelling	doaj-286fcc07d9714f2f849565161d6c63ff2020-11-24T22:42:32ZengHindawi LimitedMathematical Problems in Engineering1024-123X1563-51472014-01-01201410.1155/2014/547627547627A New Approach to Determine the Critical Path in Stochastic Activity NetworkWeng-Ming Chu0Koan-Yuh Chang1Chien-Yu Lu2Chang-Hung Hsu3Chien-Hung Liu4Yung-Chia Hsiao5Department of Electrical Engineering, National Chin-Yi University of Technology, Taichung 41170, TaiwanDepartment of Electronic Engineering, Chienkuo Technology University, Changhua 500, TaiwanDepartment of Industrial Education and Technology, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua 500, TaiwanDepartment of Power Mechanical Engineering, Army Academy, Zhongli 32093, TaiwanDepartment of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, TaiwanDepartment of Electro-Optical and Energy Engineering, MingDao University, Changhua 52345, TaiwanThe determination of the critical path (CP) in stochastic networks is difficult. It is partly due to the randomness of path durations and partly due to the probability issue of the selection of the critical path in the network. What we are confronted with is not only the complexity among random variables but also the problem of path dependence of the network. Besides, we found that CP is not necessarily the longest (or shortest) path in the network, which was a conventional assumption in use. The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Index (CPI) approaches are not able to deal with this problem efficiently. In this study, we give a new definition on the CP in stochastic network and propose a modified label-correcting tracing algorithm (M-LCTA) to solve it. Based on the numerical results, compared with Monte Carlo simulation (MCS), the proposed approach can accurately determine the CP in stochastic networks.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/547627
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	Weng-Ming Chu Koan-Yuh Chang Chien-Yu Lu Chang-Hung Hsu Chien-Hung Liu Yung-Chia Hsiao
spellingShingle	Weng-Ming Chu Koan-Yuh Chang Chien-Yu Lu Chang-Hung Hsu Chien-Hung Liu Yung-Chia Hsiao A New Approach to Determine the Critical Path in Stochastic Activity Network Mathematical Problems in Engineering
author_facet	Weng-Ming Chu Koan-Yuh Chang Chien-Yu Lu Chang-Hung Hsu Chien-Hung Liu Yung-Chia Hsiao
author_sort	Weng-Ming Chu
title	A New Approach to Determine the Critical Path in Stochastic Activity Network
title_short	A New Approach to Determine the Critical Path in Stochastic Activity Network
title_full	A New Approach to Determine the Critical Path in Stochastic Activity Network
title_fullStr	A New Approach to Determine the Critical Path in Stochastic Activity Network
title_full_unstemmed	A New Approach to Determine the Critical Path in Stochastic Activity Network
title_sort	new approach to determine the critical path in stochastic activity network
publisher	Hindawi Limited
series	Mathematical Problems in Engineering
issn	1024-123X 1563-5147
publishDate	2014-01-01
description	The determination of the critical path (CP) in stochastic networks is difficult. It is partly due to the randomness of path durations and partly due to the probability issue of the selection of the critical path in the network. What we are confronted with is not only the complexity among random variables but also the problem of path dependence of the network. Besides, we found that CP is not necessarily the longest (or shortest) path in the network, which was a conventional assumption in use. The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Index (CPI) approaches are not able to deal with this problem efficiently. In this study, we give a new definition on the CP in stochastic network and propose a modified label-correcting tracing algorithm (M-LCTA) to solve it. Based on the numerical results, compared with Monte Carlo simulation (MCS), the proposed approach can accurately determine the CP in stochastic networks.
url	http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/547627
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A New Approach to Determine the Critical Path in Stochastic Activity Network

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