Activity modes selection for project crashing through deterministic simulation
Abstract: Purpose: The
time-cost trade-off problem addressed by CPM-based analytical approaches,
assume unlimited resources and the existence of a continuous time-cost
function. However, given the discrete nature of most resources, the activities
can often be crashed only stepwise. Activity crashing for discrete time-cost
function is also known as the activity modes selection problem in the project
management. This problem is known to be NP-hard. Sophisticated optimization
techniques such as Dynamic Programming, Integer Programming, Genetic Algorithm,
Ant Colony Optimization have been used for finding efficient solution to
activity modes selection problem. The paper presents a simple method that can
provide efficient solution to activity modes selection problem for project
crashing.
Design/methodology/approach: Simulation based method implemented on
electronic spreadsheet to determine activity modes for project crashing. The
method is illustrated with the help of an example.
Findings: The paper shows that a simple approach based on simple
heuristic and deterministic simulation can give good result comparable to
sophisticated optimization techniques.
Research limitations/implications: The simulation based crashing method
presented in this paper is developed to return satisfactory solutions but not
necessarily an optimal solution.
Practical implications: The use of spreadsheets for solving the
Management Science and Operations Research problems make the techniques more
accessible to practitioners. Spreadsheets provide a natural interface for model
building, are easy to use in terms of inputs, solutions and report generation,
and allow users to perform what-if analysis.
Originality/value: The paper presents the application of simulation
implemented on a spreadsheet to determine efficient solution to discrete time
cost tradeoff problem.
Author: Ashok Mohanty,
Jibitesh Mishra, Biswajit Satpathy
Journal Code: jptindustrigg110011
