Fuzzy repetitive scheduling method for projects with repeating activities

Maravas, A and Pantouvakis, J P (2011) Fuzzy repetitive scheduling method for projects with repeating activities. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 137(7), pp. 561-564. ISSN 0733-9364

Abstract

In projects with repeating activities (such as multistory buildings, highways, or pipelines consisting of reiterating identical or similar units) and in which the activity unit production rates are characterized by uncertainty or imprecision, fuzzy set theory and the well-established repetitive scheduling method (RSM) can be combined to ensure uninterrupted usage of resources between similar activities in different units. The reason for this approach is that in practice the application of RSM may be hindered by several considerations, for example, repetitive units may be slightly different from each other, the performance of construction crews may vary, and there may be complex resource matching and sharing between activities and work sites. The proposed methodology is termed fuzzy repetitive scheduling method (F-RSM), and it requires a generalization of RSM in which schedules are represented by two- or three-dimensional graphs and whereby the concepts of a control segment and the controlling sequence area are introduced. The resulting methodology addressing the original RSM scheduling problem is presented in this paper.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: construction management; fuzzy sets; scheduling
Index terms: pipeline, fuzzy set, fuzzy set theory, repetitive scheduling, scheduling, methodology
Subjects: infrastructure and transport systems, decision-making and optimization, research methods, operations research
Topics: Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Time Control
Descriptive scope: 3 PCT

N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here