Steel submittals through punch list, eighteen work activities long, form the critical path in MT381's Unit 5 calculation, with switchgear five days behind and float computed for all 64 activities. Searches like "mt 381 unit 5 assignment example", "mt381 unit 5 sample" and "mt381 unit 5 example" land here.
What a finished MT381 Unit 5 critical path calculation looks like
A summary table leads the ten pages: 64 activities with duration, calendar, early and late start and finish, total float and free float, generated by a Python script whose listing is appended. A hand calculation follows for six linked activities, steel erection through the level 2 pour, showing how a finish-to-finish lag pushes the deck's start to day 74 and a start-to-start lag then sets the pour at day 82. The critical path appears as a bold chain on the logic diagram: steel shop drawings, review, fabrication, erection, deck, level 2 concrete, exterior framing, air barrier, curtain wall, dry-in, level 1 drywall and finishes, ceilings on all three levels, test and balance, final inspections and punch list. A near-critical table lists everything within ten days of it.
How a MT381 Unit 5 example is structured
Dates come from arithmetic in a fixed order. Early dates come out of the forward pass, late ones out of a backward pass starting at day 203, total float from late finish minus early finish, and free float from the gap before the earliest successor. Exterior activities run on the weather calendar, so thirty days of erection span 33 on the standard calendar, which the paper explains up front. Float is then interpreted, not merely listed. Brick veneer shows 36 days of total float and no free float, because paving follows directly and shares the margin. Switchgear holds only five days, making permanent power the chain likeliest to take over the path. Two findings close the paper: deck and air barrier are reverse critical, since the path enters each at its finish and leaves at its start, and level 1 drywall is critical only at its start.
Six activities worked by hand
Steel erection starts at day 56 and finishes at 89. Finish-to-finish plus three holds the deck's finish to day 92, which pushes its start to 74, and the pour follows at 82.
The weather calendar, explained once
Thirty working days of erection span 33 standard days because three anticipated lost days fall inside. The table prints both counts so the difference is not taken for a typing slip.
Total float beside free float
Brick veneer's 36 days are shared with paving, which follows it directly. Reporting free float next to total float stops a subcontractor from reading the chain's margin as its own.
Switchgear, five days from critical
Switchgear fabrication, setting and the utility's energizing work carry five days. A one-week slip at the factory would move completion, so the paper flags that chain for monthly confirmation.
A deck that shortens the job
Because the path enters the deck through its finish tie and leaves through its start tie, a longer deck duration moves completion earlier on paper. The paper names this a modeling artifact.
Drywall critical at one end
Level 1 hang drives taping through the start tie, while its finish tie leaves two days spare. Lengthening hang by two days changes nothing; a third day moves completion.
Where marks go in MT381 Unit 5
Reading the critical path off the diagram by eye, rather than calculating it, is what the passes in this unit exist to catch, and graders tend to recompute a few activities to check. Lags mishandled in the backward pass, a start-to-start tie treated as finish-to-start, produce plausible dates that are simply wrong, so hand-worked examples through lagged ties earn credit. Float reported in one column invites the belief that a single trade owns a margin its successors share; free float printed beside total float prevents it. Near-critical chains left unmentioned surprise the reader later. A software run submitted without settings, calendars or any check of its output rarely satisfies a section that asked for the passes by hand. Anomalies such as reverse-critical activities earn credit when noticed and explained, and cost it when buried.
Get a MT381 Unit 5 example written to your instructions
Paste the Unit 4 network, or the activity list with durations and ties your Unit 5 prompt supplies, plus the rubric and any rule about software. Expect a free first calculation in 24-48h: both passes shown, lags handled correctly in each direction, total and free float listed, and the critical path traced activity by activity.
MT381 Unit 5 questions, answered
How do lags change the backward pass?
Each tie type works in reverse. A finish-to-start lag comes off the successor's late start to give the predecessor's late finish; a start-to-start lag comes off the successor's late start to cap the predecessor's late start; a finish-to-finish lag runs late finish to late finish. Mixing these up is the commonest calculation error on lagged networks.
What separates total float from free float?
Total float is how far an activity can slip without moving the project finish. Free float is how far it can slip without delaying any successor's early start. An activity can hold plenty of total float and no free float, meaning its margin is shared with what follows, as brick veneer's is with paving in the sample.
What does reverse critical mean?
In precedence networks with start-to-start and finish-to-finish ties, the critical path can enter an activity at its finish and leave at its start. Lengthening that activity then moves the finish earlier in the calculation. It is a known quirk of lagged logic, not a real opportunity, and it generally signals that the activity should be split.