Project scheduling and buffer management: A comprehensive review and future directions

Shakib Zohrehvandi,Roya Soltani

doi:10.5267/j.jpm.2021.9.002

Abstract

In the project management, buffers are considered to handle uncertainties that lead to changes in project scheduling which in turn causes project delivery delay. The purpose of this survey is to discuss the state of the art on models and methods for project buffer management and time optimization of construction projects and manufacturing industries. There are not literally any surveys which review the literature of project buffer management and time optimization. This research adds to the previous literature surveys and focuses mainly on papers after 2014 but with a quick review on previous works. This research investigates the literature from project buffer sizing, project buffer consumption monitoring and project time/resource optimization perspectives.

Highlights

There are not literally any surveys which review the literature of project buffer management and time optimization
Most traditional methods of buffer sizing such as root square error method (RSEM), cut and paste method (C&PM), adaptive procedure with resource tightness (APRT), and adaptive procedure with density (APD) do not yield realistic buffer estimations under resource constraints (Vanhoucke, 2016)
Project buffer management is investigated from the following perspectives: project buffer sizing, project buffer consumption monitoring, project buffer sizing with buffer consumption monitoring simultaneously and project time/resource optimization

Summary

Introduction

One of the biggest problems that companies, and organizations are faced with is that their projects take longer than the scheduled duration. Critical chain project management (CCPM) technique improves the accuracy of project plans by addressing variations by considering buffers in the project schedule. Project buffers and feeding buffers aggregate the protection (by removing safety from the individual tasks) that a project needs to meet its due date and allow focus on project duration (Leach, 2005) .To deliver a project within the shortest possible time, several project planning and scheduling techniques such as CCPM can typically be used in project implementation (Li et al, 2019). Most traditional methods of buffer sizing such as root square error method (RSEM), cut and paste method (C&PM), adaptive procedure with resource tightness (APRT), and adaptive procedure with density (APD) do not yield realistic buffer estimations under resource constraints (Vanhoucke, 2016) To improve this problem, it's better to hybrid these methods with other scheduling methods or design a new project buffer management algorithm/model.

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Conclusion