Enhanced Trade-Off of Construction Projects: Finance-Resource-Profit
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 140, Issue 9
Abstract
The parameters of finance requirements, resource leveling, and anticipated profit have significant influence on many aspects of project management. These parameters interact and occasionally conflict with each other. Accordingly, achievement of a balance between these three parameters is crucial to ensure the accomplishment of project objectives. A multi-objective multimode scheduling optimization algorithm is proposed to establish the optimal trade-off between these three parameters. The strength Pareto evolutionary algorithm (SPEA) was implemented to obtain the solutions comprising the Pareto-optimal trade-off. The developed SPEA was validated by reproducing identical results of a time/cost trade-off problem in the literature. The developed SPEA was used to obtain the Pareto-optimal trade-off of a network of nine multimode activities that comprised fifty solutions. The trade-off of fifty solutions allows decision makers explore the impact of finance upon the efficiency of resource utilization and anticipated profit and thus select the solution that achieves the desired balance between the parameters. In addition, a fuzzy-based technique was used to identify the best compromise solution of the fifty solutions. The results proved the robustness and scalability of the developed algorithm. Finally, the finance-resource-profit trade-off offers potential solutions of maximized anticipated profit.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR) at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) for funding this work through Project #11-INF2154-04, funded by KACST under the 5th Cycle of the National Science, Technology and Innovation Plan.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 140 • Issue 9 • September 2014
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 13, 2014
Accepted: Apr 8, 2014
Published online: Jun 12, 2014
Published in print: Sep 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Nov 12, 2014
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