Scheduling of repetitive construction processes with concurrent work of similarly specialized crews

Abstract

The highest degree of construction works harmonization can be achieved when planning a repetitive project with processes replicated many times in work zones of identical size. In practice, structural considerations affect the way of dividing the object under construction into zones differing in terms of scope and quantity of works. Due to this fact, individual processes are being allotted to different non-identical zones. Most methods intended for scheduling repetitive processes were developed with the assumption that the work zones are identical and that a particular process cannot be concurrently conducted. To address this gap, the authors put forward a mathematical model of the problem of scheduling of repetitive processes that are repeated in different work zones with the following assumption: several crews of the same type are available, thus particular process can run simultaneously in different locations. The aim of optimization is minimizing the idle time of all crews under the constraint of not exceeding the contractual project duration. The proposed mixed binary linear programming model can be solved using software available in the market or developed into a dedicated system to support decisions. To illustrate the benefits of the model, an example of scheduling interior finishing works was provided.

Keywords

• construction project scheduling
• repetitive processes
• mixed-linear program
• resources constraints
• schedule optimization
• idle time reduction