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Hêriş Golpîra Editor
Application
of Mathematics
and Optimization in
Construction Project
Management
Application of Mathematics and Optimization
in Construction Project Management
Hêriş Golpîra
Editor
Application of Mathematics
and Optimization in
Construction Project
Management
Editor
Hêriş Golpîra
Department of Industrial Engineering
Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University
Sanandaj, Iran
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland
AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse
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transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
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This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To my mother Himêra, my wife Someye, and
my daughter Hozan
Preface
vii
viii Preface
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
xi
About the Editor
Hêriş Golpîra obtained his PhD in industrial engineering – operations research and
system engineering from Sciences & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University,
Tehran, Iran (2016). Currently, he is an assistant professor in the Department of
Industrial Engineering, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran.
He is the author and co-author of more than 60 journal/conference papers.
xiii
Chapter 1
Overview of Project Management
Hêriş Golpîra
H. Golpîra ()
Department of Industrial Engineering, Sanandaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj, Iran
e-mail: H_Golpira@iausdj.ac.ir
fundamental in managing projects [8, 13], while leading to different but related
ways of viewing the functions of project management [8].
The first has found its way in engineering science and applied mathematics,
especially in planning techniques and methods. And the last challenges the engi-
neering approach using economics and organizational psychology and sociology
aspects [14]. More specifically, a task, within a single project, is defined in
terms of the resources used, its duration, and the order in which it is performed
relative to other activities [15]. However, project research attempts are further
expanded toward broader aspects of the organizational unit [16] or even project
business. A project organization, unlike the traditional ones, involves the owner
and the contractors temporarily to create a cooperative system based on shared
objectives [17]. While a project business refers to multiple projects and multiple
organizations [18] as a specific risk-averse and reactive business [19, 20] that
is time-limited, and often disposable. It includes hostile relationships between
actors, separation of design and production, competitive bidding, high uncertainty,
and limited possibilities for standardization [21–23]. Accordingly, Söderlund [24]
combines projects and organizations as the two dimensions to categorize different
lines of project management research as shown in Fig. 1.1.
More specifically, mono-project management is known as a well-researched
area. Several project management standard documents provide an overview of what
mono-project management includes in its application area [2, 25–27]. While the
main focus of mono-project management is on the network of activities/tasks and
their characteristics, in a multi-project organization, successful projects are the
only prerequisite for business success [28]. However, simultaneously managing the
throughput times, resource allocations, and cost controlling of projects to obtain
a good balance between the multiple participants’ interests is a more challenging
issue [15, 29–32]. Therefore, some researchers have introduced frameworks of
managing multi-project organizations aiming at investigating the control issues to
design holistic frameworks of control mechanisms [33]. For instance, using the
concept of backlogging incoming projects, introduced in [34], Anavi-Isakow and
Golany [35] have introduced project control mechanisms to limit the number of
active projects in multi-project environments.
While the main focus of multi-project management is on balancing the projects’
needs and achievements, what is crucial in the project network management
is how multi-stakeholder interests are synchronized due to the high level of
interdependence between them [36]. In this regard, Cleland [37] and Gudienė,
1 Overview of Project Management 3
According to the literature, there are several ways to categorize projects [53].
Projects can be considered separately from the organizations or treated as a subset
or branch of them [54]. The former may use the classical contingency theory
to distinguish different projects [55, 56], while the latter recognizes projects as
project-based [57] or temporary organizations [58, 59]. From Fig. 1.2 and Table 1.1,
temporary organizing can be viewed along the participation dimension [60, 61]. It is
because the nature of a temporary organization is that they last for a short but well-
known from the beginning period, i.e., it is temporary in nature, and the teams that
participate in the specific activities/tasks, or some aspects of them, are temporary
[62]. In a temporary organization, participants usually have another “home” before,
during, and after participating. The team, which is temporarily organized by clients
[63, 64] in the case of project organizing, depends on other organized areas, which
can be permanent or temporary, in addition to the current temporary organization
[58].
Limited aspects of temporary organizations have yet been explained and under-
stood theoretically. This may be due to the fact that the difference between per-
manent and temporary organizations is not clear because permanent organizations
usually require temporary elements [65]. And, these organizations may resemble
each other in many ways [66], but with different logics [67, 68]. Nonetheless,
Söderlund [61] has highlighted the differences that exist between temporary and
permanent organizations, declared in Fig. 1.2. Permanent organizations are defined
by goals (rather than tasks), durability (rather than time), functional organizations
(rather than teams), and production processes as well as continual development
(rather than transition) [58]. More specifically, unlike permanent organizations,
temporary organizations naturally last for a short time and have temporary partici-
pating teams [62] depicted to cope with time-limited tasks of high complexity in an
uncertain environment [61]. By this means, the project as a temporary organization
can be defined as an agency to manage the resources, which are assigned by the
permanent organization [14], change in functional organizations, and uncertainty
[69]. The permanent organization has then become responsible for describing the
project’s level of authority and responsibility as well as defining its scope, thus
giving it an embryo of identity [70, 71]. Besides, as a complex organized collective
practice aimed at extracting a nonroutine process and/or producing a nonroutine
product, a temporary organization has a predefined lifetime and its specific kind of
performance measure [72]. In this sense, the theory of temporary organization can
be summarized to be built on four aforementioned building blocks as the task, time,
team, and transition/transformation [58] to create and manage a project.
Despite the aforementioned descriptions, some researchers such as Sedita [73]
have explained how a temporary organization can be embedded in a permanent
organizational environment with interpersonal and interorganizational networks
to provide more flexibility claimed by Bechky [74]. Van Donk and Molloy [54]
have shown the relevance of contingency theory and organization design theory
for categorizing projects in five basic organizational configurations inspired by
Mintzberg [75]. However, different types of projects should be managed and
organized in different ways [54, 55]. So, emphasizing the need to define project
typology definition in the process of project organizing and management, Andersen
[14] and Doty and Glick [76] have evaluated some factors such as regulation and
sophistication, stability, complexity, market diversity, hostility, external control,
internal power, industrial sector, contract types, size, etc., as important factors
in this way. Accordingly, out of the five defined configurations, i.e., (1) simple
project, (2) machine bureaucratic project, (3) divisionalized project, (4) professional
project, and (5) adhocracy, the second configuration can be evaluated as the most
suitable environment for construction projects. Because the bureaucratic project
management aims to ensure the organization’s use of resources in ways consistent
with the disparate goals and objectives. Now it is time to look at why, basically
with permanent organizations, there is a reason to define projects within temporary
organizations within them.
strategic and others are tactical/operational, need to be balanced [86] with a carefully
reinforced emphasis on managerial decision-making. Although there is no accepted
methodology to provide such a balance [87], it is generally accepted that achieving
the goals requires structuring the activities in the framework of projects with specific
goals that must be adopted under the main/strategic goals of the organization [5].
The project is then created to go through tasks, operations, and works into a
single, unique, and cohesive entity that contains novel and complex activities to
be managed.
Managing the projects requires some more efficient methods and faster decision-
making approaches than traditional management [88]. Therefore, it is hard to
integrate project management in traditional management disciplines [89]. Notwith-
standing, the use of project management began with the scientific management of
Frederick Taylor who integrated mathematics with management science [90], and
since then many definitions have been developed from different points of view.
From an organizational viewpoint, it is the process of controlling the achievement
of project objectives by leveraging the aforementioned organizational structures
and resources as well as a set of tools, techniques, and knowledge without
disturbing the day-to-day operation of the company [91, 92]. More tactically,
it involves defining the project requirements, allocating the resources, planning
for the implementation and monitoring the progress of the work, and adjusting
for deviations from the plan [93]. By this means, it is the art of leading and
synchronizing human resources and materials during project lifetime with modem
management techniques to effectively achieve predetermined objectives of scope,
cost, time, quality, participants satisfaction [94], etc., according to their specific
mission and nature [5]. And the project manager is the single point of responsibility
for achieving these [95], while as a human activity, it is subject to change and in this
regard requires not only project planning, but also change management [96]. The
change may occur in the project’s main goal or objectives, its predetermined scope
[97], or even its organization [98]. Thus, in the viewpoint of change management,
project management is a way to manage organizational change [2] to the extent that
some researchers believe that the nature of project management is “change” [98,
99]. Effective project management should then involve creating a mechanism for
permanent evaluation of each project under its pre-implementation strategy [100]
so that success in project implementation is guaranteed.
According to the above definitions, the main goal of project management efforts
is to meet the project requirements, which implies the realization of the project
value, while managing the organizational change. In this sense, the value of
project management can be defined through two main dimensions: (1) efficiently
turning resources into the project outputs and (2) enhancing the sum of earned
values for all of the stakeholders, including cost-saving, performance improvement,
1 Overview of Project Management 7
and other interests [86]. Since there are different stakeholders with different and
sometimes conflicting views and interests in a project [101], it is hard to define
the actual value resulting from investment in project management [102]. Among
the researchers in this field, Ibbs and Kwak [80] have determined the positive
financial and organizational impacts of project management as its core values.
While some researchers like Zhai, et al. [86] believe that the value creation of
project management depends on its size and level of complexity, Jugdev and Müller
[103] generally subdivide the value of project management into two categories:
(1) strategic value and (2) tactical/operational value. They claim that focusing only
on variables of time, cost, and scope as tactical objectives may result in neglecting
the links to product/service value as the strategic goals and negatively affect the
project success. While project success, based on a set of principles or standards, is
the most important goal of project management [104–107].
training, as the other projects Critical Success Factors (CSFs). And Akinsola, et
al. [121] have also defined client characteristics, project organization, and project
characteristics, in addition to the environmental factors as the project CSFs.
Due to the importance of the environment as one of the main project CSFs,
some other researchers have also evaluated the CSFs in different countries and
geographical areas by emphasizing the differences in the project environment. For
instance, based on some successful projects in Vietnam, Thi and Swierczek [122]
have defined cost, time, technical performance, and customer satisfaction as the
projects’ CSFs. Swedish construction clients’ views on projects’ CSFs are studied
in [123]. Reviewing CSFs used to assess successful building information modeling,
Antwi-Afari, et al. [124] have declared that such countries as the USA, UK, and
South Korea have clearly developed their CSFs while defining some universal
factors as (1) collaboration in design, engineering, and construction stakeholders,
(2) earlier and accurate 3D visualization of design, (3) coordination and planning
of construction work, (4) enhancing the exchange of information and knowledge
management, and (5) improved site layout planning and site safety. Famakin, et al.
[125] have studied the factors affecting the performance of partners in joint venture
construction projects in Nigeria. Murphy and Ledwith [126] have investigated
project management practices in Irish small and medium high-tech and service
enterprises. With an emphasis on Indian projects, Jha [127] has assessed the
criticality of the 20 success/failure factors (including 11 success factors and nine
failure ones) in terms of their impact on the project Iron Triangle.
While some researchers have tried to promote the project Iron Triangle as the
project success factor [110, 128], Baccarini [118] has categorized it only as of the
hard factor that is relatively easy to gauge and to reach some degree of consensus.
While such soft criteria as job satisfaction, enhanced reputation, and attention to
detail are classified to be subjective, subtle, and more difficult to evaluate. Despite
reporting the same classification including 12 success factors by Cooke-Davies
[109], Jugdev and Müller [103] and Al-Tmeemy et al. [111] have also laid stress
on the same classification but as the short- and long-run success factors. Lim and
Mohamed [104] have also subdivided the construction project success factors into
two levels as (1) the macro-level mainly concerned with clients and user of the
project as the strategic level, and (2) micro-level concerned with contractors and
consultants as operational level. Micro- and macro-technical CSFs are also well
categorized in [129], while Sauser, et al. [130] have emphasized that the main cause
of many failures in projects is not technical, but managerial. In this regard, Belassi
and Tukel [101], Morris and Hough [131], Munns and Bjeirmi [88], and Pinto and
Slevin [132] have denoted the management support, projects’ mission, planning,
control, and feedback, in addition to the technical tasks as the projects’ CSFs. In
line with the significance of the projects’ mission in their success, it is reported that
the misalignment between large projects and the business strategy leads to 30% of
all projects failing [133, 134]. In this regard, the literature denotes some internal
factors, such as effective communication, executive support, involving the project
manager in the business strategy development, and the project manager leadership
competence, that can make the relationship between the project management and the
1 Overview of Project Management 9
this sense, as shown in Fig. 1.4, if the enterprise takes the differentiation strategy,
the project management should lay stress on time and schedule. Because pursuing
a differentiation strategy creates a distinct identity for the organization to satisfy
the desires of the customers. And what can meet the customer’s need, hence leads
to premium price, can usually be fast time-to-market while considering superior
quality and service, and innovative features. This is while the cost leadership
strategy leads to cost-driven project management that is based on the priority of
the cost instead of time. Because the organizations that are pursuing such a strategy
seek to gain a competitive advantage and increase their market share as a producer
with a lower production cost in the industry. Finally, if the best-cost becomes a
business strategy, the focus of the project manager should be on both the project
performance and cost [133, 138, 141].
After aligning the project management with the business strategy, it is time
to recognize the project management phases and their corresponding tools based
on effective parameters, i.e., size, family, and type shown in Fig. 1.3 and further
discussed in Table 1.2. The size of the projects is subdivided into categories,
small, medium, and large, usually based on comparing the project budget and
the company capitalization [142], so that the project is small, medium, or large
when the project budget is on the order of 1/100, 1/10, or 1/1 of the company
capitalization [143]. Lockyer and Gordon [81] have also categorized the projects
into revenue projects and capital projects. Revenue projects are those that are
carried out within the normal organizational structure and normally within a single
accounting period, whereas capital projects are those that are not carried out within
the normal organizational structure and may extend over a number of accounting
periods.
From the viewpoint of the project family, a project is called “Derivative” if it
falls in the range that is from cost-reduced versions of existing products to add-
ons or enhancements for an existing production process [144, 145]. The project
scope does not exceed the organization’s current capability in this family of
projects. This is while in the “Platform” projects, such as benchmarking ones,
the scope of the organization may/may not exceed the organization’s current
capability, while the existing processes meet/lack the desired controllability. On
the contrary, the “Breakthrough” projects, such as Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) projects, require the most amount of change to the existing system, hence
the existing processes lack controllability due to the large scope deviations [146].
Table 1.2 Project management process details
Size of project Project family (Novelty)
Project management phases and tools Small Medium Large Derivative Platform Breakthrough
Initiation
Project charter
Project team
Financial scoring
1 Overview of Project Management
Skill inventory
Stakeholder strategy and matrix (map)
Planning
Scope statement
Breakdown Structure Work (WBS)
Program Work (PWBS)
Responsibility matrix
Requirements baseline
Milestone chart
Cost estimate
Gantt chart and Critical Path Method (CPM)
Risk plan
Time-scaled arrow diagram
Probability-impact matrix
(continued)
11
12
According to the type and family of the project, at the last step of the project
management, the project organizational structure is improved on two basic teams
as the implementation team and the improvement team. The implementation team
is like a core around which the plan for continuous improvement revolves. This is
while the improvement team is created to develop the improvement plan in each
area [147]. Then critical characteristics are defined and a problem-solving method,
e.g., the Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify (DMADV) or the Define,
Measure, Explore, Develop, and Implement (DMEDI) or the Define, Measure,
Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) methodologies, is selected to further
following the project through the last step [148–150].
Such general project management steps are further defined specifically for the
construction projects in Table 1.2. At the first stage (initiation), a new project is
recognized and authorized, high-level requirements are determined, and relevant
stakeholders are identified. The planning phase involves defining the scope of the
project and determining how to do it. The executing and monitoring phase includes
performing the work at hand and controlling it to be executed as planned. And
the closing phase, which is devoted to delivering deliverables, includes finalizing
contracts, official acceptance by a customer, a final review, written documentation
of lessons learned, archiving all important documents, and settling procurements
[151].
As shown in Table 1.2, some tools are the same for any size or family of projects,
while some are corresponding only to a specific size or family of projects. It is
noteworthy that since project customization by its type is fully related to both the
size and family of the project, the last rows of the table are devoted to defining
the types of projects based on these two dimensions. So, one can simply relate the
requirements and tools related to each type of project based on the categorization
done in the table. For instance, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) should
satisfy their strategic objectives to minimize their high inherent risk, while they have
poor project management practices [152], containing simple planning and control,
and informal evaluation and reporting systems [153]. And according to the type of
projects, the table shows that, for instance, derivative projects due to their lower
uncertainty, have a lower level of risk assessment [145].
Regarding the information provided in Table 1.2 and the state of the art application
of the project management, it can be considered as an essential part of knowledge
for various fields of engineering (e.g., electrical engineering, mechanics, civil
engineering, industrial engineering, or software engineering, etc.) [93]. In the
meantime, it is a discipline traditionally linked to normative approaches for planning
and controlling projects, developed by consultants and industrial engineers.
14 H. Golpîra
Due to such different fields and its multidisciplinary nature, there is no explicit
theory of project management at all [154], while having its owned associations,
e.g., Project Management Institution (PMI) and International Project Management
Association (IPMA), its owned journals, e.g., Project Management Journal and
International Journal of Project Management, and conferences. And with the
increasing rate of change in businesses [137], it has been used in various fields and
projects from the public and government sectors to private sectors [155–157].
The use of the project management concepts and tools goes back to the manu-
facturing sector by Frederick Taylor, and later by Henry Gantt through introducing
the Gantt chart, James Kelley by establishing Critical Path Method (CPM) [158],
and Willard Frazar by developing Program Evaluation and Review Technique
(PERT) [90]. Then, the use of its principles is seen in transportation, engineering,
construction, telecommunication, technology, power and energy, libraries, defense,
aerospace, shipbuilding, etc.
The application of project management by the US Navy in the Polaris program
in the late 1950s followed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) in the Apollo program attracted considerable attention. Winston and
Hoffman [90] have studied the importance of project management in libraries
especially to support graduate programs. Alsudiri, et al. [135] have defined it as
a good managerial approach in telecommunication projects if the nexus between
business strategies and project management is well defined. Light, et al. [159]
have estimated that 75% of large IT projects managed with project Management
Information System (MIS) will succeed, while 75% of projects without such
support will fail. Following this research, Schwalbe [160] has studied the concept
of IT project management. Levin, et al. [161] have used project management
principles to enhance client–agency relationship quality in the advertising industry.
Wu, et al. [162] have introduced a new energy project management system based
on project portfolio management technology. Goh, et al. [163] have studied the
nexus of project planning and development of a wind energy project in Malaysia.
Through a qualitative research, Jung and Wang [164] have outlined that there is a
strong relationship between “soft” Total Quality Management (TQM) components
and continuous improvement of international project management. Golpîra and
Tirkolaee [165] have successfully combined project management principles into
the concept of preventive maintenance. Boehm and Ross [166] have developed a
software project management theory. Vachan [167] has demonstrated the application
of project management principles when designing, running, and completing a
research project. The application of project management in health and community
services has been studied in [168]. And Rew, et al. [169] have demonstrated the
usefulness of project management principles in facilitating nursing research. Despite
all the above research, the application of project management techniques in various
areas of business is still expanding in today’s competitive, changing, and uncertain
world. However, the focus of the book, of which the present study forms its first
chapter, is only on the construction project management area of research and
application.
1 Overview of Project Management 15
1.9 Conclusion
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Chapter 2
Optimization Models and Solution
Techniques
Sönke Hartmann
2.1 Introduction
S. Hartmann ()
HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration, Hamburg, Germany
e-mail: soenke.hartmann@hsba.de
www.hsba.de/hartmann
schedules within reasonable computation times, and researchers have proposed and
analyzed various types of algorithms.
In the last two decades, several survey papers in the field of project scheduling
have been published. Hartmann and Briskorn [39] summarize a large number of
papers with regard to alternative problem settings but do not discuss solution
methods. Other survey papers focus on solution techniques, but only for the standard
RCPSP. This includes Kolisch and Hartmann [54] who compare heuristics as well
as Pellerin et al. [70] who provide a more recent comparison with a focus on hybrid
metaheuristics. Finally, some survey papers are devoted to a specific class of project
scheduling problems. Wȩglarz et al. [98] provide an overview of papers dealing with
project scheduling problems in which the activities have multiple modes. Afshar-
Nadjafi [2] reviews scheduling approaches that consider multi-skilled resources,
the majority being project scheduling approaches. Herroelen and Leus [41] give
an overview of project scheduling under uncertainty.
This contribution takes a broader perspective than the survey papers listed above.
It gives an overview of the main developments in project scheduling and summarizes
the most important models and solution methods (naturally, due to the vast number
of publications, it is impossible to provide a comprehensive survey). This way, a
condensed summary of the broad field of project scheduling is provided, especially
for those readers who are not fully familiar with the diversity of the field. Beyond
giving an overview, some current trends in project scheduling research are discussed
as well.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2.2 outlines the well-known resource-
constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) along with its most important
variants and extensions. Next, we take a look at exact and heuristic algorithms in
Sect. 2.3. Section 2.4 analyzes trends in project scheduling. Conclusions are drawn
in Sect. 2.5.
j
p j r j1
1 3 5
2 3 4 2 2 1
0 7
0 0 0 0
2 4 6
1 1 5 3 4 3
T
Minimize t · xJ +1,t (2.1)
t=0
subject to
T
xj t = 1 j = 0, . . . , J + 1 (2.2)
t=0
T
T
t · xit ≤ (t − pj ) · xj t j = 0, . . . , J + 1, i ∈ Pj (2.3)
t=0 t=0
J t+pj −1
rj k · xj q ≤ Rk k = 1, . . . , K, t = 1, . . . , T (2.4)
j =1 q=t
xj t ∈ {0, 1} j = 0, . . . , J + 1, t = 0, . . . , T (2.5)
Objective (2.1) minimizes the finish time of the dummy sink activity and,
therefore, the project’s makespan. Constraints (2.2) make sure that each activity
is carried out exactly once, while constraints (2.3) take care of the precedence
relations. Constraints (2.4) take the resource restrictions into account. Finally,
constraints (2.5) declare the binary decision variables. The start times of the
activities can be derived from the decision variables by
T
sj = t · xj t − pj .
t=0
Multiple modes allow for more flexibility when defining an activity. An activity j
can be carried out in one of several possible modes m = 1, . . . , Mj . Each mode m
is associated with a processing time pj m and resource requests rj mk . This allows to
incorporate the choice between alternative resources (resource-resource tradeoff),
and it allows to shorten an activity’s duration by allocating more resources to it
(time-resource tradeoff).
The concept of multiple modes can be traced back to Elmaghraby [28]. To
capture this approach formally, the following decision variables are introduced:
1, if activity j is processed in mode m and finishes at time t
xj mt =
0, otherwise.
2 Optimization models and Solution Techniques 29
Following Talbot [86], a model for the multi-mode RCPSP (or MRCPSP) can
now be given as follows. The model simply extends the single-mode RCPSP by
incorporating the mode into the objective and constraints:
T
Minimize t · xJ +1,1,t (2.6)
t=0
subject to
Mj T
xj mt = 1 j = 0, . . . , J + 1 (2.7)
m=1 t=0
Mj T
Mi
T
t · ximt ≤ (t − pj m ) · xj mt j = 1, . . . , J + 1; i ∈ Pj (2.8)
m=1 t=0 m=1 t=0
Mj t+pj m −1
J
rj mk xj mq ≤ Rk k = 1, . . . , K; t = 1, . . . , T
j =1 m=1 q=t
(2.9)
xj mt ∈ {0, 1} j = 0, . . . , J + 1; m = 1, . . . , Mj ;
(2.10)
t = 0, . . . , T
Before an activity can be started, a setup time may be required. Mika et al. [64]
consider different types of setup times. Two of the most important types are as
follows. Sequence-independent setup times depend only on the activity and the
resource the activity will be performed on. Sequence-dependent setup times also
depend on the sequence of the activities, that is, the previous activity executed on
the same resource is relevant as well.
Transfer times are closely related to setup times. A transfer time T Tij k must
be taken into account if a resource k has to be transported from the location of
activity i to that of activity j . Resource k is unavailable during transportation.
Recent publications considering transfer times include those of Kadri and Boctor
[46] and Poppenborg and Knust [72]. Transfer times are of particular relevance
for construction projects if a resource such as a crane must be moved from one
construction site to another.
Finally, while the classical RCPSP does not allow to interrupt an activity once
it is started, there are several models that allow for preemption. Allowing activities
to be interrupted generally increases the degrees of freedom for scheduling. Many
different assumptions concerning preemption have been discussed in the literature.
Moukrim et al. [66] allow activities to be interrupted without any restriction. In Zhu
et al. [100] the number of interruptions of an activity is limited to M. Quintanilla
et al. [75] suggest a more detailed approach in which the maximum number of
interruptions depends on the activity and a minimum duration of each part of an
activity is given. Vanhoucke and Coelho [95] permit multiple interruptions, and they
take setup times into account when resuming interrupted activities. Kreter et al. [56]
incorporate a calendar, and some activities may be interrupted due to weekends or
holidays.
In the standard RCPSP, an activity is not allowed to start before its predecessor is
finished. This can be extended by introducing minimal time lags between the finish
time of activity i and the start time of successor activity j . This indicates that at
least dij periods have to pass after the completion of i before j can start.
In addition to these finish-to-start time lags, also start-to-start, start-to-finish,
and finish-to-finish time lags can be defined. However, Bartusch et al. [11] have
shown that any type of time lag can be transformed into a finish-to-start time lag
if the processing times are fixed, so the additional types do not further increase the
expressive power of minimal time lags.
Moreover, maximal time lags can be added, indicating that no more than d̄ij
periods have to pass between the completion of activity i and the start of activity
j . Both minimal and maximal time lags are important in construction projects.
2 Optimization models and Solution Techniques 31
Consider for example concrete which may have to dry before certain other activities
may start, indicating a minimal time lag. It may also be that a successor activity
must start before the concrete has hardened, which implies a maximum time lag.
Minimal and maximal time lags can be included in the RCPSP by replacing
Constraints (2.3) with:
T
T
t · xit + dij ≤ (t − pj ) · xj t j = 0, . . . , J + 1, i ∈ Pj (2.12)
t=0 t=0
T
T
t · xit + d̄ij ≥ (t − pj ) · xj t j = 0, . . . , J + 1, i ∈ Pj (2.13)
t=0 t=0
The RCPSP with minimal and maximal time lags (RCPSP/max for short) has
become a popular model as well. Some rather recent publications include Ballestín
et al. [9], Bianco and Caramia [15], and Schutt et al. [81]. Minimal and maximal
time lags have also been incorporated into the multi-mode RCPSP (which led to the
MRCPSP/max), see, e.g., Barrios et al. [10] and Schnell and Hartl [80].
Another important extension of the RCPSP is obtained from adding a release
date ρj and a deadline δj for some activities j . Obviously, an activity cannot
start before its release date, and it cannot finish later than its deadline. While
release dates indicate the time at which the preparation of a construction site is
completed, deadlines can be part of contracts and must therefore be considered
when scheduling. Release dates and deadlines are of particular importance if several
construction projects are scheduled within one model (see Sect. 2.2.8).
The set of activities with a release date is denoted as Vρ . Analogously, Vδ is the
set of activities with a deadline. Now release dates and deadlines can be integrated
into the RCPSP using the following constraints:
T
t · xj t − pj ≥ ρj j ∈ Vρ (2.14)
t=0
T
t · xj t ≤ δj j ∈ Vδ (2.15)
t=0
The RCPSP with release dates and deadlines has been considered by Demeule-
meester and Herroelen [26] and Klein [49]. Deadlines are used in models in which
the project duration is limited while the objective optimizes the resource capacities,
the costs, or the net present value of the project (see Sect. 2.2.6). It should also be
mentioned that a release date corresponds to a minimal time lag between the dummy
start and the actual activity while a deadline corresponds to a maximal time lag.
32 S. Hartmann
The standard RCPSP assumes that both the resource capacity Rk as well as the
resource request rj k are constant over time. The former can be generalized by
considering time-depending capacities Rkt which allow capturing variations due to
vacations of employees or planned maintenance of equipment [49]. The latter can
be made more flexible by introducing time-dependent requests rj kt , indicating that
activity j needs rj kt units of resource k in the t-th period of its processing time [38].
Both extensions can be included into the RCPSP by replacing Constraints (2.4) with
the following constraints, which leads to the RCPSP with time-dependent resource
parameters (RCPSP/t):
J t+pj −1
rj,k,t+pj −q · xj q ≤ Rkt k = 1, . . . , K; t = 1, . . . , T (2.16)
j =1 q=t
Mj
J
T
rjNmk xj mt ≤ RkN k = 1, . . . , K N (2.17)
j =1 m=1 t=0
2 Optimization models and Solution Techniques 33
Finally, two more complex resource categories are summarized that can capture
more detailed requirements. The first one is partially renewable resources [4, 18].
A partially renewable resource is associated with sets of periods called period
subsets. For each period subset, a total capacity is given. This concept can help
to model working time regulations. Consider an employee who may work on every
day but not on both Saturday and Sunday. A partially renewable resource can now
be defined as follows: each day from Monday through Friday corresponds to a
separate period subset with a related availability of 1. Another period subset contains
Saturday and Sunday and is related to a capacity of 1. Also note that a partially
renewable resource is very general because it includes renewable and nonrenewable
resources as well as time-dependent resource capacities as special cases.
The second category is resources with multiple skills [3, 65]. A set of skills is
given, and for each resource it is known which of these skills it masters. Moreover,
each activity requires resources with certain skills. When scheduling a project, not
only a start time but also resources with appropriate skills have to be determined
for each activity. Myszkowski et al. [67] present an extended multi-skill problem in
which resources master skills at different levels. Activities require resources that are
at or above a given skill level. Very recently, Afshar-Nadjafi [2] provided a survey
of project scheduling approaches with multi-skilled resources.
earliness of activity j . Now the objective that minimizes weighted earliness and
tardiness can be stated [6]:
Minimize wje · (max{0, Dj − fj }) + wjt · (max{0, fj − Dj }) (2.19)
j ∈VD
The latter objective is particularly useful when rescheduling a project, see Van de
Vonder et al. [91]. Assume that a project is carried out, and due to unforeseen events,
delays have occurred, and the schedule is no longer valid. Then a new schedule must
be determined. In order to minimize the differences between the start and finish
times in the previous and the new schedule, respectively, the previous finish times
can be used as due dates in objective (2.19). Of course, start times of activities that
have already been started (or even finished) cannot be changed when rescheduling
the project [91].
The last type of time-based objective to be considered here is to maximize the
robustness of a schedule. It may be beneficial to determine a schedule that has a
high chance of remaining valid even when some kind of change like a delay of an
activity or breakdown of a resource occurs. This can be achieved by buffers for the
activities. Chtourou and Haouari [22] examine the objective to maximize the total
free slack of the activities in the schedule (as well as several variants and extensions
of this concept).
When planning a construction project, the availabilities of the resources such as
manpower, cranes, and further equipment have to be determined. This leads to the
second category, resource-based objectives. In such a situation, usually a deadline
for the project is given. One of the most studied objectives is the resource investment
objective that minimizes the costs for the (constant) resource capacities. The per-
period capacities Rk now become variables. Denoting the unit cost of resource k as
ck , the objective is
K
Minimize ck · Rk (2.20)
k=1
The RCPSP with this objective and a deadline constraint is often referred to as
resource investment problem (RIP) or resource availability cost problem (RACP).
Recent publications include Rodrigues and Yamashita [78], Van Peteghem and
Vanhoucke [92] and Zhu et al. [101].
Resource leveling objectives aim at finding a schedule in which the total resource
requirements vary as little as possible from period to period (again, a deadline is
taken into account to limit the overall project duration). Now the capacity Rkt of
resource k required in period t is a variable, and ck is a given weight associated
with resource k. Several objectives to achieve a smooth resource profile have been
proposed. Some of them consider the changes of the total resource requirements
from period to period. Both the weighted absolute changes [71, 77] and the weighted
squared changes [74] can be minimized:
2 Optimization models and Solution Techniques 35
K −1
T
Minimize ck |Rk,t+1 − Rkt | (2.21)
k=1 t=1
K −1
T
Minimize ck (Rk,t+1 − Rkt )2 (2.22)
k=1 t=1
Moreover, the total overload cost can be minimized, that is, the costs for resource
requests that exceed a given target capacity R̄k [5, 77]:
K
T
Minimize ck max{0, Rkt − R̄k } (2.23)
k=1 t=1
The third major category of objectives includes net present value based objec-
tives. Carrying out an activity can be associated with cash outflows (caused by the
usage of resources) or cash inflows (due to payments when specified parts of the
project are completed). Discount rates are usually taken into account as well; let α
be the discount rate. While cash flows can occur at any time during an activity’s
processing time, they can easily be compounded to a single cash flow cj at the end
of activity j which can be positive, negative, or zero. The objective to maximize the
net present value can be given as follows e. g. [Kimms 47]:
+1
J T
cj
Maximize · xj t (2.24)
(1 + α)t
j =0 t=0
In some situations, more than one objective needs to be taken into account.
Two ways to deal with multiple objectives have received substantial attention by
researchers. The first one is to combine these objectives in a weighted objective
function. Let us have a brief look at two examples of this approach. Van Peteghem
and Vanhoucke [94] minimize resource investment as well as tardiness with regard
36 S. Hartmann
to a project due date (the weights reflect the respective costs). Zamani [99]
minimizes the weighted sum of costs and makespan within a multi-mode RCPSP.
The second way to consider multiple objectives is to determine the set of Pareto-
efficient solutions. In fact, this approach has become very popular in recent years.
While providing a survey is beyond the scope of this contribution, the reader is
referred to Ballestín and Blanco [8] who present an in-depth discussion of the
calculation of non-dominated schedules. Their study makes use of twelve objec-
tive functions including the makespan, weighted tardiness, resource investment,
resource leveling, and net present value objectives.
Often, several projects that are carried out simultaneously require the same
resources. In this case, it makes sense to integrate the projects into one model
such that an overall schedule can be determined. A straightforward approach is to
include all project networks into an overall “super network” as illustrated in Fig. 2.2.
A project index is added but otherwise the resulting model essentially corresponds
to the single-project RCPSP, see Pritsker et al. [73].
Of course, the extensions summarized above can be added if needed. Release
dates, deadlines, and due dates are of particular relevance when scheduling multiple
construction projects, and if different construction sites have to be considered,
transfer times for resources such as cranes and other equipment can be taken into
account. Important objectives for multi-project scheduling include the minimization
of weighted tardiness with regard to the due dates of the projects [58], resource
investment and resource leveling [29], and maximization of the net present value
including tardiness payments [21].
2 4 6
1 8
3 5 7
0 16
Project 2
10 12
9 15
11 13 14
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