Title: Fuzzy critical path analysis based on centroid of centroids of fuzzy numbers and new subtraction method

Authors: P. Phani Bushan Rao; N. Ravi Shankar

Addresses: Department of Mathematics, GITAM Institute of Technology, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam 530045, India ' Department of Applied Mathematics, GITAM Institute of Science, GITAM University, Visakhapatnam 530045, India

Abstract: This paper proposes a new method to solve fuzzy critical path problems for a project network with activity times being normalised trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. The prime idea of this paper is to propose a new method to find the maximum and minimum of fuzzy numbers which can be applied to find the fuzzy earliest starting times and the fuzzy latest finish times. This method replaces the extended subtraction operation by a new subtraction operation to find fuzzy latest finish times. An example with activity times being trapezoidal fuzzy numbers in previous studies is solved successfully to demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.

Keywords: critical path method; CPM; fuzzy sets; trapezoidal fuzzy numbers; centroid of centroids; ranking index; arithmetic operations; project management; fuzzy CPA; critical path analysis; subtraction method; latest finish times; earliest starting times; project networks.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMOR.2013.052461

International Journal of Mathematics in Operational Research, 2013 Vol.5 No.2, pp.205 - 224

Published online: 31 Mar 2014 *

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