In the process of socialist construction, we need to make plans to arrange scientific research work, whether in industrial production, agricultural production, or national defense construction. In the process of organizing social life, family life, or even individual activities, it is also inevitable to plan in advance for important things. The content of the plan includes what purpose to achieve, what action to take, when to start, when to end, what to do first, what to do later, and so on. An important part of this is to break down the whole task (action) into some basic activities (processes), determine their sequence, and arrange the start and end dates according to time. Due to the interrelation and mutual restriction between various activities, whether the organization is properly arranged or not is related to the time for task completion and the amount of labor and resources consumed. Simple work can be organized and arranged based on experience, but for modern industrial production, agricultural production, infrastructure projects, military operations, and scientific research, there are many projects, complex relationships, and many units and personnel involved. Experience alone cannot make all links closely connected and coordinated.
Modern industrial production is accomplished by thousands of workers using various complex technical equipment. The production process is very complex, the division of labor is very fine, and the cooperation relationship is very tight. In this case, production must be scientifically organized and strictly planned, and work in accordance with the production rules. In order to ensure the continuity of production and make full and effective use of existing human, material and financial resources, the imbalance in production must be carefully predicted, adjusted and handled through information in a timely manner, so as to achieve the best economic results.
However, in daily production, uncoordinated situations often occur between various production links, resulting in waste of human, material and financial resources, thus affecting the completion of the entire production task. If we make comprehensive balance and overall arrangement in production organization, we can avoid various incongruities. Network planning technology is a scientific management method to solve this problem.
The basic principle of network planning technology is: first, use the network form to express the sequence and interrelationship of various tasks (tasks, activities, processes) in a plan (project); second, find out the key work and key routes in the plan through calculation; then, select the best plan through continuous improvement of the network plan and put it into practice; finally, During the implementation of the plan, carry out effective control and supervision to ensure the most reasonable use of human, material and financial resources to complete the task more quickly, better and economically. As the network diagram highlights the main contradictions and clarifies the relationship of mutual cooperation, it enables all parties to work closely around the main contradiction line, overcome the confusion and slowdown, and make the project proceed in a planned and step-by-step manner. The network planning method can make the project "clearly planned, focused, well understood, and closely coordinated", which is a scientific management method to meet the needs of modernization. Since the 1950s, network planning technology has attracted the attention of all countries in the world, and has been widely used in the planning management of industry, agriculture, national defense and complex scientific research.
Practice has proved that the network planning method has the following characteristics: (1) It can visually represent the whole plan in the form of a network diagram, and the units in the network correspond to basic activities or processes. (2) The sequence and constraints of each process can be seen from the network diagram. The preparation process of the network plan is a process of in-depth investigation and research, and careful analysis and synthesis of the project objects, which is conducive to overcoming the subjective blindness in the preparation of the plan. (3) Through calculation, we can determine the processes (i.e. key processes) that have a critical impact on the completion deadline from beginning to end, whether the advance or delay of each process has an impact on the total duration, and how much the impact is. By using the time difference of non key processes, we can better mobilize human and material resources, that is, "ask for time from key processes and resources from non key processes". (4) The advantages and disadvantages of the network plan are easy to compare, and it is easy to communicate the intentions and ideas from top to bottom. Through the preparation and comparison of multiple network diagrams, it is easy to select the best scheme from a variety of possible schemes and put it into practice. (5) In the implementation process, it can be adjusted according to the actual completion of each process to ensure effective control and supervision of the plan from beginning to end, so that the overall plan can be completed on schedule or ahead of schedule. (6) It can be arranged as a whole with costs and resources. It is applicable to all kinds of soil engineering projects. It can be calculated by computer or by hand. For the complex network of large-scale projects, it can be calculated, optimized and adjusted by computer. The economic effect is more remarkable, which is unmatched by the traditional bar chart.
The management efficiency of network planning is also significant, because the truly critical processes are usually less than 10% of the total number of processes, and it is difficult to exceed 15%. Of course, if there is negligence in non critical processes, and it exceeds the flexibility of this process, the whole plan will also be affected. In order to reflect the actual situation, the plan must be changeable. In this regard, the network chart is a more effective tool than the old planning tools such as "bar chart", because it is relatively simple to modify in time. The network planning method only needs to modify about 10% of the original schedule, while the traditional management method is almost the same as the original plan. It improves the predictability of plan management work, and can find the problems in organization management work as early as possible, so as to prevent problems before they happen. At the same time, it also makes the planning work more scientific and rigorous. Especially for large and complex tasks, it can quickly sort out the clue, distinguish the primary and secondary, grasp the key, and seek the optimal organization and implementation scheme, so that resources can be reasonably used, thus greatly improving labor productivity, equipment and capital utilization.
The plan management language is strict, the work requirements are clear, and the responsibilities are clear, which is conducive to the implementation of the post responsibility system at all levels, the rapid improvement of work efficiency and quality, and the better promotion of democracy, brainstorming and implementation of the mass line. At the same time, it can also enable all personnel to understand the overall situation of the task, understand the overall deployment requirements, facilitate the unification of ideas and pace, and vigorously promote the successful completion of the overall task in coordination. It can be seen that network planning technology is an important means to promote the modernization and scientization of plan management. The main reasons why it has such a great role are as follows: first, it has established a mathematical model for task planning management - network diagram; second, it has carried out simulation tests to make the planning work predictable and scientific; third, it can quickly understand the situation by implementing feedback, so that deviations or changes in the work can be adjusted in time; fourth, it seeks optimization Various plan implementation schemes with different human, financial and resource resources and different schedules shall be compared, and the best shall be selected.
