Application of Voting Theory to the Float Ownership Problem
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 144, Issue 1
Abstract
A longstanding contentious question in construction scheduling is who owns float: the owner or general contractor. Float is the ability of scheduled activities to absorb delays by their flexible timing. Zero float is considered to constitute criticality. This definition creates a fundamental but largely ignored paradox: To mitigate risk, critical activities urgently need float, but by definition are given none. Yet consuming float can reduce local delays to prevent a ripple effect of negative consequences. This research revisits the float ownership problem with inspiration from voting theory, which can provide proven approaches that apportion a limited valuable good among several participants of different sizes. Equivalent concepts in voting and scheduling were extracted and aligned to derive a functioning approach. Performance of such float apportionment was visualized and quantified by how efficiently the new method protects against delays, both in terms of counts and periods, and when saturation occurs. It was validated by simulating all combinations of a substantial benchmark schedule. The initial question was thus revised to who should use float to minimize overall risk.
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Data Availability Statement
Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. Information about the Journal’s data sharing policy can be found here: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%29CO.1943-7862.0001263.
Acknowledgments
The support of the National Science Foundation (Grant CMMI-1265989) for portions of the work presented here is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors thank the three anonymous reviewers for the detailed suggestions regarding presenting this approach and for the interesting ideas for future research directions, which has enabled them to improve the original manuscript.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 144 • Issue 1 • January 2018
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 14, 2016
Accepted: Jun 29, 2017
Published online: Nov 15, 2017
Published in print: Jan 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Apr 15, 2018
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