Construction planning simulation at GRU airport

Many complex construction schedules are still being planned nowadays with deterministic project schedule tools such as MS Project, with deterministic estimates, lack of focus on event conflicts and no queuing estimates. This paper presents a discrete-event simulation approach for a soil replacement project of great importance to the Brazilian government. This was part of the expansion work at GRU Airport, the greatest and most important of the country, and was being carried by the Brazilian Army. The airport should be ready for the increasing demand expected for World Cup in 2014 and Olympics in 2016. The study started with the original deterministic schedule, and considered several external factors, like traffic, rain seasons and providers capacity. After evaluating many scenarios and identifying some bottlenecks, the best scenario was found, with a due date sooner than initially planned.