Patent GB-1276735-A (GB)
Title: Preparation of visual management aids, and apparatus therefor
Inventor: VIGEL PIERRE
IPC: G09B29/00
Filed: 1969-07-30
Abstract: 1276735 Work planning devices ARIANEX 30 July 1969 [2 Aug 1968] 38307/69 Heading G5C Indicator strips 15, 17, having lengths corresponding to the completion time of operations A, B, &c. in a planned project are attached to endless webs 10 movable on pulleys (not shown) in a frame 1. Critical path analysis of the project is carried out and the strips are accordingly arranged relative to a time-scale 7. A set of consecutive (in time) strips 15 and/or 17 represents separate paths revealed by the analysis, and is labelled accordingly 1 or 2, &c. Further strips 18, one for each operation, are attached to webs 11, and are arranged each with its righthand end at the position marked by stops 13 which correspond to the latest date for the completion of an operation. The webs 10 which bear the strips 15, 17 of a path are connected by perforated bars 25, studs 16 being passed through corresponding holes in strip and bar. When an adjustment is made to one strip it is automatically transferred to the remainder. The webs 11 are similarly joined by a bar 8, which also marks the completion date of the project, so that the strips 18 also move conjointly. If an operation has more than one prerequisite operation, it lies on a corresponding number of paths, and therefore has a corresponding number of strips 15, 17. The strip occupying the furthest rightward position of all the strips for an operation lies on the path containing the prerequisite operation which finishes latest and which therefore indicates the time when the operation in question may actually be started: this strip is among those which are coloured and designated 17. The critical path is made up of those strips 17 opposite the letters I, G, D and A. The other strips 17 would only become critical if the work programme had to be altered. The transparent strips 15 correspond to " non-operational ", i.e. theoretical sections of paths and indicate the point at which the operation could have been started, had it not been for prerequisite operations (lying on other paths) that would not have been completed at that point. The distance between the right-hand end of a strip 17 and its related marker 13 gives an indication of the spare time available between the end of an operation and the commencement of the operation to be started next. Since there is no such spare time for operations on the critical path, the strips 18 coincide (in time) with their corresponding strips 17 in these cases. A bar 8 marks the completion date of the project, and connects all the webs 11 by means of further studs 16 so that the strips 18 move conjointly, adjustments made to one being automatically made to the remainder. A bar 6 marks the commencement of the project. A static panel 12 mounted on the frame 1 provides a zone 2 for a description of the operations, a zone 3 for indicating in column a the prerequisite and in column d subsequent operations of each operation o, and a zone 4 showing the duration of each operation. An insert 19 indicates the extent to which the project has progressed, and a further time scale 9 shows the amount of time (if any) by which the completion date of the project has been delayed.