Quantifying the interruption impact of activity delays in non-serial repetitive construction projects

Hassan, A and El-Rayes, K (2020) Quantifying the interruption impact of activity delays in non-serial repetitive construction projects. Construction Management and Economics, 38(6), pp. 515-533. ISSN 01446193

Abstract

Available scheduling models for repetitive construction projects can be classified as serial or non-serial. Serial models assume that each repetitive activity is limited to have only one predecessor and one successor, while non-serial models enable repetitive activities to have multi predecessors and successors. Activity delays in serial and non-serial repetitive projects often cause work interruptions for successor activities and project delays. This paper presents the development of a novel scheduling model for both serial and non-serial repetitive construction projects to quantify the impact of any activity delay on interrupting the crew work continuity of its successors. An application example of a repetitive construction project from the literature is analyzed to illustrate the use of the model and its computations. This analysis illustrates the novel capabilities of the model in: (1) calculating a new float to identify the duration that each activity can be delayed without causing interruption in the crew work continuity of any of its successors; and (2) quantifying the impact of unexpected activity delay on interrupting the crew work continuity of its successors. These capabilities enable construction planners to analyze and minimize the impact of unexpected activity delays on interrupting the crew work continuity of all its successors.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: construction management; crew work continuity; delay impact; float; linear scheduling; non-serial repetitive construction projects
Index terms: construction planner, duration, repetitive project, project delay, computation, linear scheduling, scheduling, repetitive construction, successor
Subjects: computational methods, production management, project controls, practitioner, building construction, operations research
Topics: Time Control, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions, Project Management, Digital Applications
Descriptive scope: 2 PC

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