Journal Name:
- Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management
Author Name | University of Author |
---|---|
Abstract (2. Language):
for project crashing through
deterministic simulation
Ashok Mohanty1, Jibitesh Mishra1 , Biswajit Satpathy2
1 College of Engineering and Technology Bhubaneswar, 2Sambalpur University (INDIA)
amohanty01 @yahoo.com; mishrajibitesh@gmail.com; satpathybulu@gmail.com
Received July 2010
Accepted November 2011
Abstract:
Purpose: The time-cost trade-off problem addressed by CPM-based analytical
approaches, assume unlimited resources and the existence of a continuous timecost
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 and 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.
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