Maximizing Labor Stability As a Sustainability Performance Indicator in Project Scheduling

Project scheduling is an important task in program management. The selection of resources and the harmonization of their work make program scheduling crucial for the success of a construction program for both the owner and contractor. To achieve long term economic, social, and environmental benefits, program managers need tools that can help them assess their program's sustainability performance. Indicators are recognized as useful tools to measure performance across a range of sustainable principles. The multimode resource-constrained project scheduling problem (MRCPSP) deals with the scheduling of a set of projects with alternative requirements of resources to execute them. Minimization of project duration is usually considered as the objective; however, social objectives may impact the performance of projects and affect program sustainability goals. To account for this new social input, this paper adapts a mixed integer programming (MIP) model that solves the MRCPSP problem. Aside from the social objective, the model accounts for renewable resources and non-renewable required by projects during their life span. A literature search is undertaken to determine an indicator to assess performance with the objective of maximizing social sustainability of construction projects. The proposed model can be a valuable tool to assist in an industry that is moving towards sustainable practices.