Optimal work breaks in deterministic and probabilistic repetitive projects

Author

Ioannou, Photios G. ; Srisuwanrat, Chachrist

Author_Institution

Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor

fYear

2007

fDate

9-12 Dec. 2007

Firstpage

2141

Lastpage

2150

Abstract

An effective way to reduce the duration and cost of projects with repetitive activities is through the relaxation of resource continuity and the introduction of work breaks at strategic points between repetitive project units. This paper describes the problem and introduces the basic concepts for determining the optimal location and duration of work breaks for both deterministic and probabilistic activity durations. The procedure is described in detail and is applied to an example project with 9 activities with probabilistic durations that repeat over 10 similar work units. The solution employs concepts from the Repetitive Scheduling Method (RSM), the Sequence Step Algorithm (SQS-AL), and is modeled in STROBOSCOPE, an activity-based simulation system. Numerical and graphical results explain the process and the underlying time and cost tradeoffs.

Keywords

construction industry; cost reduction; probability; project management; scheduling; simulation; construction project management; deterministic probabilistic repetitive project cost reduction; optimal work break; repetitive scheduling method; sequence step algorithm; stroboscope activity-based simulation system; Buildings; Continuous production; Costs; Delay; Floors; Road transportation; Scheduling algorithm; Tunneling;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Simulation Conference, 2007 Winter

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1306-5

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-1306-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WSC.2007.4419848

Filename

4419848