A new surrogate measure for resilient approach to construction scheduling

Abstract Complex construction projects are prone to inherent uncertainty which stems from internal and external project factors. As a response to prevailing uncertainty, a new resource-constrained surrogate measure that considers appropriate time distribution of floats through the structure of a schedule is suggested. The proposed surrogate measure considers both the precedence and resource relations while maximising the resilience of baseline schedules for construction projects. Moreover, as the time dimension of uncertainty propagation through the project time is considered, floats distribution is properly adjusted to absorb perturbations in a schedule. This way, resource allocation is considered along with the scheduling phase, making the resilient construction planning more comprehensive. A bi-objective optimisation model is proposed in the form of Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) to enhance the resilience of a project schedule by maximising the surrogate measure through one of the objective functions, while the other objective function strives to minimise project duration. As the resilience in the context of project scheduling refers to maximised absorption of project perturbations, a schedule with improved resilience capacity is expected to be more stable when it comes to the project execution phase.