Differential buffer monitoring for critical chain projects based on comprehensive activity reliability

Abstract

One critique of classic buffer monitoring methods is that activity reliability is not considered. However, the complexity of the external environment and the particularity of each activity in the actual project lead to a difference in activity reliability, which increases the difficulty of buffer management of the whole project. To improve the efficiency of buffer monitoring, we propose a new dynamic buffer monitoring method that considers the differences in the comprehensive activity reliability in terms of duration, cost, and quality. First, the buffer is allocated and decentralized according to the comprehensive activity reliability regarding duration, cost, and quality. Second, we take into account the priorities of activity duration, cost, and quality based on the allocated buffer and set the floating buffer appropriately. Moreover, the locations of the buffer monitoring trigger points and dynamic monitoring strategy are determined. Finally, the buffer monitoring model is simulated and validated with the research target of comprehensive optimization of the overall project performance. The Monte Carlo simulation results indicate that, as opposed to the classic buffer monitoring methods, the proposed buffer monitoring method can achieve the overall optimization and profoundly improve the comprehensive performance of buffer monitoring.