Scholarly record

PLANNING TECHNIQUES WITH LIMITED SOURCES AND THEIR APPLICATION ON MINING PROJECTS

A. Kahriman, N. E. Ulger, U. G. Akkaya

Abstract

One of the main subjects of the contemporary project or production/operations management is to make decision. In order to be successful, managers should use modern planning methods. Application of an accepted investment project is as important as its design. As the sources are limited eventually the accepted project which is designed with spending great sources and effort should be completed on time, it is necessary to use them efficiently and cleverly. One of the distinguishing features of contemporary project management is its use of systematic planning methods. These methods allow the managers to plan, organize and control the conversion process in a systematic way. They give managers information and guidance for the decisions that they have to make in order to complete the projects on time by using optimum sources. Some techniques are developed on this subject. CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT (Project Evaluation and Review Technique) are the most important methods which are applicable on mining project. In the light of these methods project planning methods are developed with limited sources and important ones applicable to mining projects are source appropriation and source improvement problems. In Turkey various coal and ore mine establishments work less capacity and most of them can not apply mechanized production methods. As a result manpower is the main source (60-65 \% of coal production cost.) In this study, project planning methods with limited sources are investigated. The methods are described generally and a simple example is given for each problem. As an example the main development work project of a small coal mine which the mechanized methods can not be applied is investigated in this paper. It is considered that the man-power is limited during the application of example project. Firstly, the project is seperated according its activities. Drawing the network diagram assuming that the sources are not limited, using CPM technique, the earliest final time of the project and its critical path are determined. After then although sources are not limited because of lawful and needs of the management assuming that improvement of sources is necessary the problem is solved as an source improvement problem. At the last section of paper, assuming that labour-power is limited, the problem is converted as source appropriation problem and the earliest final time of the project is determined. The problem is solved by the intuitive method. Finally, in order to be successful on management mining projects, it is mentioned that it is necessary the methods to be used more efficiently and widely by the managers.

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