Reduction of the critical path fi nding problem to an ordinary transportation task in Excel

Abstract

The problem of determining the critical path for the scheduling tasks has been considered. An original technique for practical calculations using the available Solver add-on in Excel has been described. The proposed approach is based on reducing the task of solving the ordinary transportation problem, in particular, the problem of finding the longest path. Examples of solutions with the test input data and corresponding screenshots are given. Consistently we describe practical steps of the user's activities in the process of direct solutions in Excel. The analysis of the results of the proposed method has been performed and presented. It was established that the presented method for calculating the critical path requires minimal eorts from users, regardless of the dimension of the tasks.