When in need to lie such as when there are delays caused by others and you are not granted EOT and or Acceleration Costs then make sure your strategy is applied to activities scheduled at the end so the trick will surface late. Same when your contract includes some clause that lower retainage conditioned to job be "on time!!!!". If in need to do so keep two schedules one for the others that will show what they want to see and one for you that will show true plans. Sorry, this is the real world.

On the other hand if you are in need to meet the schedule then try to apply your strategy to early activities so that if the strategy do not work you are still on time to kake further action.

Do not forget that compressing the schedule usually cost money, your strategies shall be compared considering all costs, this include possible liquidated damages.

If you are at the point where crashing is an option the following procedure can give you an introduction on a strategy to do so. I consider Crashing a last resort option, but when in such crisis better know how to tame it.

Criteria for Selecting Activities to Crash:

There are several characteristics that mark or highlight an activity that exists on the Critical Path as a better candidate for crashing.
1. Must be on the Critical Path. Crashing noncritical activities that already have slack only buys more slack and doesn’t shorten the project duration. Only critical path activities drive the project and crashing them will shorten the project duration.
2. Precedes multiple activities. When an activity bottlenecks numerous succeeding activities, it is a great candidate to shorten. Once this activity is shortened, it allows the multiple activities to begin.
3. Long duration. An activity that has a long duration offers more potential time gain from crashing it.
4. Lower cost per period gained. Activities that cost less to crash are preferred. These include those requiring lower paid, lower skilled workers or other resources that are otherwise sitting idle.
5. Early in the project (the Sunshine Rule). If you fail in crashing the activity and it takes longer than planned, it is still early in the project. Thus you still have recovery time. Also, typically demand on resources early in the project is lower than other times, and they should be readily available.
6. Labor-intensive. When an activity is low skill labor intensive, it is easy to add people to help complete the project early. When an activity requires high skills to complete, it may be hard to find qualified individuals who are capable of completing the task.
7. Subject to common problems. Try to pick activities that are subject to higher probability of common problems. Shortening the duration lowers the exposure time and lessens the chances of having a problem.

Steps in Project Crashing:

1. Compute the crash cost per time period. If crash costs are linear over time:
Crash cost per period = (Crash cost – Normal cost) / (Normal time – Crash time)
2. Using current activity times find the critical path and identify the critical activities
3. If there is only one critical path, then select the activity on this critical path that (a) can still be crashed, and (b) has the smallest crash cost per period. If there is more than one critical path, then select one activity from each critical path such that
(a) Each selected activity can still be crashed, and
(b) The total crash cost of all selected activities is the smallest. Note that a single activity may be common to more than one critical path.
4. Update all activity times.
5. Cease crashing when
– The target completion time is reached
– The crash cost exceeds the penalty cost
If not, return to Step 2.

If optimum crashing results in crashing late activities you can factor late activities cost to crash as to artificially increase the crash cost and use this factored value on the above procedure as to obtain alternate crashing strategy. Then compare true costs to determine if higher cost of early crashing is justified.

DRAG metrics will tell you on the spot how much you can reduce the duration of an activity before a new additional critical path must be considered.

In addition to what Gary said, (although, I do not agree with lying, this is considered sweeping the dirt under the rag as they say)There are a number ways to shorten a critical path:

1. Increase production.

  1.1 Intensifying works on site to increase production

  1.2 Working extended hours. (overtime) or 2 shifts

  1.3  Increase resources or workforce (additional Plant or Workforce and additional supervison)

2. Improve working process through engineering innovation (people on site knows better and you will be surprised if you just consult them)

3. Work around the critical path

Best regards,

Daniel

Thanks, Mike. You're quire correct, I've edited my OP to show increasing working time as valid option.

You're also quite corect that lying on the schedule is all too commonplace.

I myself never lie. Except just then.

Hi Nanding,

Are you trying to

1)actually reduce the amount of time the project will realistically take, or are you

2) just trying to reduce the the amount of time P6 says the project will take?

If 1), your have 5 options:

a) check the accuracy of the existing schedule (NB: this is just as likely to lengthen the critical path as it is to shorten it)

b) Increase resources / working time

c) decrease scope / quality

d) increase risk (for example, placing an order before drawings approval)

e) Find quicker methods of completing work (for example, buying pre-fabricated tanks rather than assembling on site)

If 2), in addition to all of the above, you also have the option of lying. Lying can be doing any of the following without doing any of the above:

a) reducing durations

b) changing calendars

c) removing links

d) changing links from FS to SS or FF +lag

e) adding negative lag to FS links

f) deleting activities

g) using constraints to force the schedule to show a particular date