الإشراف على رسائل الماجستير
Multi-project scheduling with limited resources management in construction industry
تاريخ مجلس الدراسات العليا
2017-09-05
اسم الطالب
ماهر فاروق يوسف اللبان
ملخص الرسالة
The scheduling of the multi-project consists of two or more projects, and the
project is defined as a collection of activities that consume resources or a set of events.
Therefore, the scheduling of a project is the assignment of a start and finish time for each
activity so that the precedence and resource requirements are satisfied. This becomes a
difficult problem in multi-project environments with limited resource.
Three choices for scheduling the projects are usually considered. The first is when
the project is very large-scale. Therefore, the project should be divided into several large
to medium-scale project so that each project can be easily scheduled. The second choice
is when there are several small projects, which have nearly converged completion time,
then the treating them separately may lead to lose in efforts, time and to inefficient
management and improper control. Therefore, the solution is scheduling these projects in
multi-project management environments. The third one is the dealing of several mediumscaled
projects, which can be managed separately with easy scheduling and high
flexibility.
In this thesis, the second choice is considered by taking five different construction
projects in terms of their resources quantity and of the almost equal number of activities
from a real construction company. However, their completion times are un-similar.
Several approaches of scheduling these projects as a single multi-project will be
presented and discussed. A genetic algorithm is used to develop a program that assists to
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solve the optimization scheduling process. Two different alternatives of scheduling will
be proposed. The first alternative is merging the separate projects in one project by
considered seven different merging configurations. The second alternative is re-planning
activities of these projects in a single multi-project. For selecting the optimum trade-off
between these scheduling alternatives, a multi-criterion is properly used.
At first place, the thesis provides a general approach to scheduling several
projects in the multi-project environments, and shows how to choose the best alternative
of scheduling. Considering the case study, a general finding is although one optimal
scheduling alternative (optimal merging) is found; however, this may not be the best
scheduling or best merging for another case study. Consequently, managers have to
determine their own multi-criterion for the case at his or her hands.
The found optimal scheduling alternative (optimal merging) offers the best
resource improvement coefficient RIC, maximum resource rate RR, and minimum
resource maximal use MR, and the risk considerations. Furthermore, the alternative of
seven merged configurations is compared to the alternative of re-planning the activities of
all projects in a single multi-project. It is found that, besides the need of manager
experiences and skills to reduction the number of total activities for an alternative of replanning
the activities of all projects in a single multi-project; the results are either
similar or less optimal.