Construction production planning and optimal control

The literature in construction planning and control reveals much effort in the recent past in two different but complementary directions. The first is in the development of managerial and control systems to be used at a project level. The second is in the detailed study of the tasks or activities that constitute a project. The development of decision support systems for planning and controlling the construction process has been greatly enhanced (if not solely made possible) by the use, at both project and activity levels, of Operations Research techniques. One will find such classical optimization techniques as linear and dynamic programming, as well as queueing theory and simulation, as the ones that have been predominantly, if not the only ones, used in construction. In a departure from the development of decision support systems using the above traditional techniques, Optimal Control Theory is used in this thesis to develop a whole new category of models. Decision support systems for planning and controlling the construction process, under the presence of varying weather and/or demand conditions, are developed separately for both activity and project levels. The models provide managerial decision information concerning costs, optimal resource mix, durations, etc. Examples of the literature are used to show the practicality of the approach proposed.