Finance-Based Scheduling of Construction Projects Using Integer Programming
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 130, Issue 1
Abstract
Construction scheduling is the process of devising schemes for sequencing activities. A realistic schedule fulfills the real concerns of users, thus minimizing the chances of schedule failure. The minimization of total project duration has been the concept underlying critical-path method/program evaluation and review technique (CPM/PERT) schedules. Subsequently, techniques including resource management and time-cost trade-off analysis were developed to customize CPM/PERT schedules in order to fulfill users’ concerns regarding project resources, cost, and time. However, financing construction activities throughout the course of the project is another crucial concern that must be properly treated otherwise, nonrealistic schedules are to be anticipated. Unless contractors manage to procure adequate cash to keep construction work running according to schedule, the pace of work will definitely be relaxed. Therefore, always keeping scheduled activities in balance with available cash is a potential contribution to producing realistic schedules. This paper introduces an integer-programming finance-based scheduling method to produce financially feasible schedules that balance the financing requirements of activities at any period with the cash available during that same period. The proposed method offers twofold benefits of minimizing total project duration and fulfilling finance availability constraints.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Ahuja, H. (1976). Construction performance control by networks, Wiley, New York.
Au, T., and Hendrikson, C.(1986). “Profit measures for construction projects.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 112(2), 273–286.
Birrell, G. S.(1980). “Construction planning—beyond the critical path.” J. Constr. Div., Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 106(3), 389–407.
Burns, S., Liu, L., and Feng, C.(1996). “The LP/IP hybrid method for construction time-cost trade-off analysis.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 14(4), 265–276.
Cheng, Y. (1993). “QSB+: Quantitative systems for business plus.” version 3.0, A quantitative systems software, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
De, P., Dunne, E. J., and Wells, C. E.(1995). “The discrete time-cost tradeoff problem revisited.” Eur. J. Oper. Res., 81, 225–238.
Easa, S. M.(1989). “Resource leveling in construction by optimization.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 115(2), 302–316.
Elmagraby, S. E.(1993). “Resource allocation via dynamic programming in activity networks.” Eur. J. Oper. Res., 64, 199–215.
Feng, C. W., Liu, L., and Burns, S. A.(1997). “Using genetic algorithms to solve construction time-cost trade-off problems.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 11(3), 184–189.
Karaa, F. A., and Nasr, A. Y.(1986). “Resource management in construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 112(3), 346–357.
Li, H., Cao, J., and Love, P.(1999). “Using machine learning and GA to solve time-cost trade-off problems.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 125(5), 347–353.
Li, H., and Love, P.(1997). “Using improved genetic algorithms to facilitate time-cost optimization.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 123(3), 233–237.
Liu, L., Burns, S. A., and Feng, C.-W.(1995). “Construction time-cost trade-off analysis using LP/IP hybrid method.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 121(4), 446–454.
Meyer, W. L., and Shaffer, L. R. (1963). “Extensions of the critical path method through the application of integer programming.” Civil Engineering Construction Research Series No. 2, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, III.
Patterson, J. H., and Huber, D.(1974). “A horizon-varying, zero-one approach to project scheduling.” Manage. Sci., 20(6), 990–998.
Reda, R. M., and Carr, R. I.(1989). “Time-cost trade-off among related activities.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 115(3), 475–486.
Robinson, D. R.(1975). “A dynamic programming solution to cost-time tradeoff for CPM.” Manage. Sci., 22(2), 158–166.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 130 • Issue 1 • February 2004
Pages: 15 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 6, 1999
Accepted: Oct 21, 2002
Published online: Jan 16, 2004
Published in print: Feb 2004
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.