Date of Award

1972

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Industrial Engineering (MSIE)

Department

Industrial Engineering

First Advisor

David M. Shao

Abstract

A heuristic scheduling routine was developed in this study for scheduling the activities of a project-network. The objectives of the scheduling process are to minimize the daily allocation of resources, satisfy constraints on the availability of resources, and achieve total completion of the project within a given due date.

Since this type of a problem is a large combinatorial one, an analytical solution is almost impossible, and always impractical, even for small project-networks.

The scheduling procedure developed in this study consists of a series of computations and heuristic decisions based on functional properties of the networks and assembled into a logical sequence of steps designed to originate successive schedules that converge toward the optimal or near-optimal solution.

The heuristic scheduling routine was tested with several artificially prepared project-networks for which the optimal solutions were already known. Either the originally prepared optimal schedules or resource equivalent ones were obtained.

The solution of this problem will find real-life applications in the maintenance functions of varying industrial organizations, and in the construction industry among others.

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